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Lydia - Day 7 - Green & Pleasant Land Ho!



The crowd are on the pitch. They think its all over. It is now! The lights of São Vincente & Santo Antão were visible before the dawn and at 0844 and 10 secs UTC (that's UK time but 0744 local time) Lydia stormed across the finishing line off Mindelo. Sao Vincente still flying her twin headsails. Getting them down was marginally easier than putting them up and with the wind being accelerated between the islands and reaching about 20kts the foredeck crew were only slightly offered in the process.


We were greeted by yellow shirted ARC+ helpers and are now moored up amidst the other early arrivals (mostly colossal catamarans and larger superyachts) and were soon swapping salty stories. Mindelo Marina is right in the heart of the town and is splendidly modern. It even has a floating bar that enables you to drink whilst maintaining your sea legs! Tonight we were led ashore to the short reception by a wonderful local samba band and, several hours later, we are now back on board - fat & happy - after the organized crew supper; sharing a table with the Italian yacht OCEAN BIRD who carry a semi professional chef who upset the crew of Lydia by telling us how they prepared all the fish that they had caught.

We have an early start tomorrow and some more sea time, but this time in a ferry, for our tour of the neighboring island of Santo Antão. Stunning views and a tour of a 'grogue' (local rum variant) distillery are on the menu. Well, we need our rest and recreation after such a tough time at sea!


With contact with the outside world restored the next blog post is likely to be on Wednesday 19th after we have set off on the second, longer leg to St. Lucia. Henry Wood will have jumped ship (he flies home on Monday and will be sadly missed) and we will just be four. 



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