Two nice days of laziness with lots of strolling around in this beautiful town. The people are very charming and helpful. Fine welcome party from the ARC with beautiful dancers and, almost not believable, the secretary of state of Cabo Verde to welcome us. The next days were full of activities: clearing the boat, relaxing in the floating bar, laundry, provisioning update and lots of talking with friends from other boats. And of course a trip round Sao Vicente organised by the ARC, which was very impressive. Well and the problems always occur at last minute. The day before the departure to the Caribbean a diver found the anode of our propeller apart (just half a year old), a new one could not be found. When doing the final engine check we detected that the impeller housing was leaking. A bolt was broken and unfortunately remained inside. The friendly mechanic of Mindelo Marina chandlery promised to fix this. But now it was unclear whether we would be ready for the start. But l like the motto of Cabo Verde: No Stress. The mechanic came through in the end and fixed the housing with calm and great professionalism. In the end we got underway just 8,25min after start time; not too bad. Thanks to Mindelo and its Marina. We had a great time.
(AR)