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Lydia - Leg 2 Day 1 - Farewell to Cape Verde



We're off again. Starting in mid fleet and sporting Solent rig (just the
yankee) the cracking wind quickly began to die and within an hour or so we
were ghosting along while many other boats opted to acrue some early engine
hours. We eventually joined them and motored for 50 minutes before the wind
picked up and Lydia is now bowling along on a fast reach at about 7.5
kts. Based on current progress the electronic gizmo tells us that we will
arrive in St Lucia early on 2 Dec. But there's a lot that could change that
in the coming days.

With it now confirmed at last night's prize-giving ceremony for Leg 1 that
Lydia was the winner of her class (Cruising Division Class B) with a
corrected time of 5 days14 hrs 58 minutes and 43 seconds, being the only
boat to incur zero engine hour penalties, we say a very fond farewell to Sao
Vicente and the Cape Verdes.

We've had a great stay but we're also very pleased to get back to sea. What
we have seen of Sao Vicente and its neighbouring island Santo Antao, has
amazed and charmed us. On Santo Antao, which we toured on Sunday, we were
blown away by the contrasts - from the moonscape-like dryness of the eastern
side, where only acacia trees and the occasional goat can survive, to the
lush and fertile sugar cane and maize terraces clinging (like the very
precarious road!) to the steep slopes on the western side.We've retained our
eyesight despite sampling the local industrial alcohol called 'grogue' and
its derivitives, 'pontche', which is grogue mixed with molasses, and also
fruit flavoured caipirinha. If the alcohol didn't scramble our brains the
roads nearly did, since most of them are surfaced with cobbles made from
volcanic rock and, after many miles of shake-ratle-and-roll we all loudly
applaud the European and Chinese infrastructure projects that have deliverd
some stretches of blissfully smooth (sleep inducing) tarmac.

Our half day tour of Sao Vicente on Monday revealed a much dryer island.
The rain that should come in the Aug/Sep rainy season didn't this year.
Another death defying trip up to the highest point in a fleet of ancient
coaches gave us stunning views over the island, including down onto Mindelo.
And a slightly sureal beach barbeque with arab-like tents and a local creole
band set up for us in the middle of nowhere concluded the tour.

Lydia is topped up once again with water, fuel and an obscene amount of
food - most of which has been facilited by Matthew's new best mate, Umberto,
a Mindelo local. A dab hand at knowing where to get what, he is less good
with directions to the post office ...... as Matthew discovered when he
arrived at the telephone exchange in order to post his postcards! We will
definately not starve. The quest for hardware continues and we've enjoyed
continuing our game, first started in Portugal and continued through the
Canaries, of 'Ferrateria Charades' by visiting the very numerous Chinese*
shops in Mindelo (* They don't pay tax. A kick back for building a few roads
perhaps?). Miming what is wanted and engaging as many
shop employees and fellow customers in attempting to guess what we're after
is hugely entertaining for all - but generally unsuccessful !

The skipper is now the proud owner of a new fishing rod and has a glint in
his eye that says the fishing is going to be taken even more seriously on
this leg. Hopefully we will be more successful than OUT-RAGEOUS who managed
to 'catch' a fellow catamaran, INTREPID ELK soon after the start.


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