Day 1
We left Santa Cruz finally at
about mid day, after final packing of food stuff, filling with water and
sorting out our exit papers at the Port Authority.
We have a LOT
of food on board and about 500Ltrs of water, enough to last us all the way to
the Caribbean as we are unsure what is/isnt available in Cape Verde.
After clearing the port and
setting sail the wind began to build from the NE and soon we were bowling along
at 6-7 knts.
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| Leaving Santa Cruz |
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| Sailing away from a cloudy Santa Cruz |
Towards
evening we the SE corner of Tenerife and the
wind started to drop, we had just enough wind to keep moving until the small
hours of Friday when the wind disappeared completely. We spent the next 11
hours becalmed and drifting on the current.
We had a visit
by a pop of very inquisitive dolphins who were attracted to our sonar depth
finder and they spent quite a while swimming under the sender and setting off
our shallow water alarm ! They then retreated a few meters and had a chat on
the surface whilst eyeing Amanda in the cockpit .
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Not the best photo but always a challenge, see the 2 fins heading towards the boat but also look under the water & you
can see the outline of a dolphin under the water |
The wind
finally returned at 1900 so we pointed Magnum south and had dinner (mushroom
and leek risotto..Mmmm)
The night was
pitch black with no moon at all, but the stars were amazing, even putting on a
show of shooting stars just for us.
Distance for
the first 24hrs was a very disappointing 86NM
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| The sunsets on a long night ahead |
Day 2
Hoping for a
better day today, the night was again black and cold. We were past by 2 ships
just about visible on the horizon, but other than that we haven't seen a soul.
The NE trade
winds have kicked in and we are now rolling downwind at 6-7 knts in a 20knt
breeze. The sea state is a little confused as the wind is pushing a small swell
, but this is colliding with the huge ocean swell rolling in from the NW, with
poor little Magnum bobbing like a cork in the middle.
The only
wildlife today has been a couple of swallows who have obviously been blown of
the coast of Africa and are now lost, Amanda (being the bird lady!) has tried
to offer them a comfy birth onboard but they are having none of it.
Days run of
96NM is a bit better than yesterday but we are still making up for the period
where we were becalmed
Day 3
Daily run of
120NM not too bad under the circumstances.
Yesterday
evening and into the night the wind just kept on increasing up to over 30knts.
Which was a bit unnerving as the weather files that we had downloaded suggested
it would have dropped.
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| Being chased down by the waves |
Still Magnum
did her usual job of looking after us whist surfing the massive walls of water
that roared out of the dark from behind us. I have heard it said that it is a
brave man that looks backwards in these conditions as the waves tower above the
boat lifting us up, passing underneath and then throwing our 10ton boat down
the front at surfing speeds. Luckily for us it was dark so I didnt have to
prove my bravery!
The nights are
very very dark and long this time of year, moon has barely showed above the
horizon most nights, the stars are “amazing” (copy right Brian Cox)
Interesting
phenomenon last night we I could see lights under the water about 200m from us,
I thought I had imagined it but then we passed some more closer to us. Turns
out they are Jellies about 35cm diameter that light themselves from within,
very odd as they looked just like uplighters in a posh swimming pool
Time is
passing pretty slowly on-board, but all is good. We have watched a few DVD,s
and read some books, I an currently reading Mysterious Island by Jules Vern, a
very clever chap who had many ideas ahead of his time, Amanda has finished The
Legacy and is now onto The Kills.
I have always
been a “reader” so its great to have some guilt free down time to catch up on
my reading. We read so much between us that we should probably offered our
services as proof readers or book critics before we left home.
Day 5
Life in the
tumble dryer, pretty much sums up life below on Magnum for the last 24hrs. We
have had big seas driven in from a depression hundreds of miles north of us and
a smaller wind driven swell travelling at 90 deg to this. Somewhere in the
middle is us and Magnum being tossed around like a cork.
Still, we have
had some good winds and covered 132NM today.
Had veggie
fajita wraps for dinner, its odd how we both look forward to a cooked evening
meal even though as we head further south the temperature has been rising.
Comfort food I guess.
We have
settled into a pretty good routine now and although we are both tired, we have
had some good sleep. I have discovered that I am pretty good at cat napping and
can function pretty well taking my sleep in 15min “bursts?” and then being
woken by an egg timer, quick check on horizon, course, wind strength and
direction, then back for another 15.
Oh and we saw
another yacht today, our first since the Canaries. Odd all that open space and
they set a course straight at us. It was a bit unnerving at first having
someone so close (probably 1/2 mile at closest) anyway we waved and they
continued west into the Atlantic.
Day 6
We crossed the
Tropic of Cancer at some point in the last 24hrs, a first for both of us!
The
temperature has become noticeably warmer, I am typing this at 04.59 and I am in
a tee shirt !
Highlights of
the day ? We saw another
yacht which we caught and passed, it was nail biting stuff like watching two
snails jockeying for position at a speed barely noticeable to the naked eye !
Still it meant our entertainment was stretched over most of the day and Magnum
did the honourable thing and left them in our wake.
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| Always a challenge to take a picture over the swell |
We also passed
the time doing a general knowledge quiz, from a book called “so you thing you
know everything” (thanks Michelle X) I’m sure you will all be as surprised as I
was to find out that, apparently, neither of us do know everything.
Had delicious
veggie and lentil soup this evening followed by 6 hours solid sleep for Mark,
thanks Amanda :-)
Winds are
forecast to be lighter for the next couple of days, not sure what that will
mean to out arrival time at Mindelo, but we want to avoid arriving in the dark
so may have to slow our approach.
Day 7
122NM covered
and a good days sail wind was F4/5 pretty much all day and it has been sunny
and hot.
We are pretty
close to arriving now so will have to do some sums of speed vs distance to
ensure that we will arrive in daylight hours.
Entry into
Mindelo on Sao Vicente
doesn't look particularly difficult but neither our paper or electronic chart
shows any useful detail such as hazards or depths !
Day 8
Disappointingly
we had to deliberately slow our progress to ensure a daylight arrival which
meant an extra night at sea – another 2 Episodes of The Mentalist for Amanda
plus 1 Spartacus - we are so glad to
have something to get us through the long nights, reading is not always
possible when all you want to do is shut your eyes and fall asleep J
Sods law
kicked in and the wind kept strengthening and making us go faster, to combat
this Mark was forced to keep reducing our sail area.
The other
consequence of rising wind and limited sail was that the sea state got bigger
and Magnum got rollier making sleep pretty difficult. All in all not our best
night at sea, but our only option really as the islands aren't lit at night and
from what we have read the charted position of the islands can be up to a mile
astray on most electronic charts ! The thought of hitting one at night was
terrifying!
Dawn broke
around 0700 and we could see the islands either side of us Sao Vincent to port
and Santo Antao to starboard. At this point the wind dropped and we motored the
last hour into Mindelo harbour shattered but excited.
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| Sunrise on day 8 approaching Cape Verde |
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| Santa Antao looking hazy |
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| Small island to navigate around in entrance to Mindelo |
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| Approaching Mindelo harbour |
We are tied up
in the new marina and the people are extremely helpful and friendly.
We have
checked in with immigration and the police and it seems we now stuck here for
Christmas as we have to do a reverse paper trail to leave and all the offices
are shut until the 27th.
If you have
been following our route on the other blog you will have already seen our
progress, we have added a couple of photos but to be honest there was not much
to see apart from sea!
