Hejira - Mindelo at last


16 53.214N 024 59.487W

Sunday 15th November 2015

Quite an interesting arrival in the Cape Verde Islands with none of the charted navigational lights working and the island inside which we had to finish at 11.31pm showing as nothing more than a menacing  presence. The stowing of the sails and preparation for berthing was surprisingly slick given that the wind chose to pipe up just as we crossed the line. We took our berth alongside Lea who preceded us in and we managed to down a few beers in the floating bar before they closed. It seems that few yachts managed the passage without using the engine so it will be interesting to see how the organisers arrange the positions after the deadline for finishing at 5pm tonight.

We all slept very well, assisted no doubt by our celebratory intake.

 

Stephen writes:-

Having been roused at dawn by the Skipper to hoist the Parasailor,  as we moved onto the foredeck the wind strengthened and the plan was changed and we stuck to the twin poled out Yankees (good grief I am getting to know some sailing terms!).The fishing was another wipe-out despite some bites, including on the patent crisp packet lure but bowling along at 7 knots makes it difficult to land them (another excuse for the locker). The arrival at Cape Verde was ‘interesting’  to say the least but once moored up we had the obligatory ‘dirty’ beer and then to bed. As you can guess by the brief entries we all need our rest before the next leg.

 

Bob writes:-

Euphoric state prevails if not slightly dampened by alcoholic intake! Great to have made it and the boat behaved impeccably, if only that could be said of the crew! Definitely betty swollocks during the night, with quite overcast and breezy weather this morning.

 

Barry is yet to emerge.

Nick