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Resolute of Thames - Well that was Cape Verdes



Yep you guessed it we did arrive too late for the welcome function and yes our corrected time allowed us to attend in mind and spirit, if not in person! Our time in Cape Verdes was some 48 hours shorter than the top half of the fleet but even so we feel we got to know Sao Vicente well and certainly our one day excursion to Santo Antao gave us a real feel for the place. The beauty is that neither Island does mass tourism. We could have stayed in Mindelo another fortnight and would have loved to have cruised the whole Cape Verdes archipelago.

From a Rally perspective the WCC team could not have done more. Just having somebody to talk you into unfamiliar marina, onto a berth and fix your bow line is worth a lot - especially in the pitch dark and with 20-25knts of wind. The marina staff, local authorities, shop owners, restaurants, etc could also not have done more for us. We really appreciated the tour guides who all had a genuine pride in their nation and its democratic governance. There is however a but! The weather conditions throughout our visit saw 20-30knts of wind with considerable surge through the marina. At times this made life on board almost untenable - the answer in many was to be off the boat - however, whilst the long term berth holders had gone to considerable lengths to secure their boats robustly the same can't be said for all of the visitors and damage was inevitable. The marina staff were constantly checking and repairing the pontoons - the same can't be said of many skippers who just seemed content to lie to a bow slip (not even with a carbineer) and un-snubbered stern lines. The response to the stern banging on the pontoon was to shorten the slip and drag the bow buoys ever closer to their boats without any comprehension of the effect of allowing a slip to chafe on an old rusty ring or the inability of a vertical chain (however tight) to stop horizontal movement.

All of this is a long way of saying that we did not leave Cape Verdes with our batteries re-charged and yesterday produced a day at sea that required more than 2 aging half flat batteries. We have however now had a better night's sleep (even if it comes in 4 hour bursts) than we did on any night in Cape Verdes! Fortunately the winds have now settled and we are on a comfortable course (OK not completely heading in the right direction) so we intend to take life easy until the remaining 1950 nautical miles seem less intimidating and more of a challenge.

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