Hi all
Thursday: Back on the road again. The Cape Verde islands are truly beautiful, but it is good to get going once more. Over the last couple of days in the marina, you could feel the tension slowly rising, with people rushing round trying to fix the things they didn't know they needed, had broken, and now needed repairing and endless queues at the fuel dock to replace burnt supplies. Crew members could be found sitting on the pontoons frantically scrubbing soil covered vegetables bought at the local outside market prior to neatly stowing them on board in string baskets hung off the stern solar panel gantries.
Once the vegetable/ fruit packing was completed the overall effect was very attractive and looked like a cross between Carmen Miranda and a harvest festival.
This state of heightened tension was also palpable in the gents showers, where rather portly pale complexion males could be found standing patiently in rows, clutching their wash bags and water credit card, completely naked and oblivious to how bizarre this spectacle was, waiting patiently to access one of the four occupied showers cubicles to have their last scrub before departure.
What was all the more unreal, was when the local cleaning lady joined the fray and entered the wash room with mop and bucket in hand, walked straight past the line of naked men, said "good morning", and carried on with her chores. Must happen often.
The first day out was pretty tiresome with little or no wind, which meant that for the first time since leaving Las Palmas, we motored for 10 hours south to find the wind, which eventually filled in around 15.00 today. Now we are doing a steady 6-7 knots roughly in the right direction with cruising chute and main. We have now just about completed the going south bit and have now to keep going west until we hit something hard, hopefully St. Lucia.
Most of the other yachts seemed to have taken a more direct route along the rhumb line which means they are right or we are. Time will tell.
At 14.00 we were visited by two relatively small fin whales which passed about half a mile away, blew large quantities of spray into the air and then disappeared into the depths, tails in the air just like an Attenborough documentary, but quick enough so that nobody could get their cameras out in time to record the event. We could be making it up.
We are now on a three on / six off watch pattern which means that in theory we should be getting more sleep, but the temperatures are now rising which makes the boat rather stuffy at night, particularly in the forpeak which is like a sauna. I know..... no sympathy.
Now we have Tom and Lucy on board the main topic of conversation centres around what we are going to eat or drink next, who is preparing it and when will it be ready. If they manage to eat their way through the food mountain that has been stuffed under the saloon table and in the freezer before we get to St Lucia it will be a miracle, but at least the boat will be lighter. Chicken Tikka tonight with naan bread and coconut rice.
Just dropped the cruising chute and put up the zero in readiness for the night watches which are quite long - 12 hours day and 12 hours night. But the stars put on an amazing display and at the moment we have a full moon and phosphoresence in the water, so the three hours on watch go quite quickly.
The wind freshens a bit on Friday to 20-25 knots which may be interesting, but all good. Will tell all in due course.
Friday: Well the wind has arrived in buckets 24-28 knots and big seas. One rogue wave managed to result in us being hoved to in 25 knots at 22.00 which was one of those experienced never to be forgotten. We then dropped
everything and sailed the rest of the night with only the Genoa up with
one reef doing 8-9 knots. Had to hand steer for the rest of the night in three hour shifts split between Mark and I. Bit tied this morning. Seas have calmed down a bit so roger is back on again.
All the best
Derek and Anita.