Guadeloupe - In the jungle the mighty jungle

Part of the reason we decided that we would spend some time in Pointe A Pitre marina in Guadeloupe was so that we could hire a car and see some more of the island.  Guadeloupe looks like a butterfly, is separated by a river and the 2 distinct areas have very diverse landscapes.

We visited the west side Basse Terre on the first day with a car and ventured into the Parc National De la Guadeloupe which is a huge expanse of rainforest.  Our first stop was Cascade aux Ecrevisses – “Cascade” refers to the waterfall, which was only a short distance of the main road and although this looks like we were the only people there, it was busy with other tourists but it was still very pretty.

Exploring the river

 Cascade aux Ecrevisse - Pretty

Our next stop was Bras David which was around an hours walk through the forest and after the first 5 minutes we never saw anyone else, great.  Was a shock to the legs walking even for an hour after the lack of activity in the last 3 weeks! The vegetation in the rainforest was really impressive, the trees were huge and I was particularly impressed by the size of the leaves as you can see below.

Wow big leave!

So green and trees!

Disappearing in the undergrowth

Wow big tree!

We also managed to see few birds along the way including a Lesser Antillean Bullfinch, Green throated Carib and Brown Trembler – we are not really bird watchers but it is still quite interesting when you see pretty much the same birds in Europe as the UK.

Antillean Bullfinch

Brown Trembler

We drove across to the west side of the island and to Pigeon Island which is supposed to be really good for diving and snorkelling, it is part of Reserve Cousteau which is an area which Jacque Cousteau bought which includes the island, now a marine reserve, unfortunately no time for diving or snorkelling for us.  The beach is relatively small and was quite packed with tourist so we didn't stay long but Mark was a big fan of Jacque Cousteau as a child so we had to visit.

Pigeon Island

We drove north to a much quieter and prettier beach for the days lunch stop - Plage de Petite Anse, there were only a few other locals having picnic and a quite a few friendly chickens, they seem to be all over the place in Guadeloupe and they will eat anything your give them! We had a fantastic view of Montserrat in the distance.

Clouds in the distance are on the mountains of Montserrat

Our friendly chicken - tucking into breadsticks

Our road trip then arrived in Deshais, a small village which we may find we anchor in later in our trip.  There were some really quaint traditional design houses.

We continued north and arrived at  another fantastic beach Plage de L’Anse Rillet on the north west point of the island, great view of Montserrat and almost deserted.

Deserted :)

Montserrat in distance

Look how empty

What has happened to my hair - it does not like the humidity!

Final stop for the day the small harbour at Sainte Rose.

Our Atlantic Crossing

Day 1

Distance to go 2200NM

Position – 16:38.62N 26:48.02W

Daily run 124 NM

We left Mindelo at about 1000, along with many smiles waves and good luck wishes from people we had met since arriving here.

Straight into a NE gale that was being accelerated between the two island, the wind was steady 30 knts with gusts much higher, and the seas were huge. The latest weather forecast didn't show strong winds so it was obviously a local anomaly, but one we could have done without for the first day of our longest passage to date.

Well healed with waves rushing past and Cape Verde in the background - sun shining but wind howling!

The big swells were breaking in patches so Mark had to hand steer for the first 6 hours or so just to keep us safe as neither the windvane or the electronic autopilot could be trusted in potentially boat breaking conditions. After about 7 hours the wind dropped leaving us flopping around in a big swell with little forward motion.

Poor Mark hand steering for hours!

The wind eventually filled in and we were off for our first night at sea.

There were a few other boats that left the same time as us, so it was odd to see other lights around us pretty much all night, comforting though.

So not a pleasant start to our journey as it was pretty scary and uncomfortable, but we are off and things can only get better.

At least it is cosy down below

See video below of us speeding along

Day 2

Position 16:41.99N 29:01.35W

Daily run – 146NM

Air temp – 23c, water 26c

Rough rough rough, that’s the only way to describe the sea state over the past 24hrs, the wind has been between 20 and 30knts and is driving a large swell.

Magnums motion is pretty uncomfortable, but she is happily heading westwards with our windvane steering and little user input required. Speeds have been good which is always good for moral.

Oh and Amanda made some delicious rock cakes with cranberries and white choc chips, even better for moral

The weather files show a strong patch of wind today (sunday) the easing overnight into monday when they will hopefully follow the same script I working with and moderate slightly!

All is good on board, had a visits from a flying fish last night which landed in the cockpit, only about 8 inches long and dead as a dead thing by the time we found it. Burial at sea was a sombre moment.

Our new dead friends

Look how tiny!

Smile for the camera

Day 3

Position 16:37.16N 31:11.35W

Days run 136NM

No blue sky today just wall to wall white cloud. no boats spotted in the last 24hrs and the only living things we have seen are flying fish.

Time is drifting by, boat speed is pretty good, but the weather isnt following the same script as us and the prolonged strong breeze is pushing up a large swell causing a stomach churning roll. The latest weather info shows a slight easing tomorrow, but we will believe it when we see it.

All ok on board, we still have fresh fruit and veg so are eating well even if food pre does require us to be wedged in a tight corner and one handed chopping !

Still a long way to go !  

Day 4 - Happy New Year

Position 16:37.16N 31:11.35W

Daily run – 139NM

Is it really only day 4? Feels like we have been out here a lifetime.

2 days since we spotted another boat and wildlife has been pretty scarce.

We have been filling our time with books, dvd’s and resting. The weather has been a mixed blessing good because we are making pretty good progress despite sailing conservatively but bad because the continued strong winds have stirred up the sea making life on-board very tiring.

Day 5

Position 16:30.62N 33:19.30W

Daily run – 145NM

Overcast with white cloud all day today, still 22deg but we didnt see the sun until it set at about 1800.

Between us we managed to juggle moving pots, pans and vegetables to make a delicious lentil soup for dinner, a mammoth task as nothing can be put down for fear of it escaping onto the floor.

Otherwise an uneventful day, but 145 miles west made good.

Got hit by a squall last night, why do these things always happen in the small hours when making your mind and body do anything is a struggle ? We were ploughing along minding our own business when we got hit by rain and strong winds. Being hit is just what it is like, in the dark you don't see it coming but all of a sudden Magnum is roaring along at 10 knots there is white water everywhere and the noise is incredible, anyway a brief “all hands on deck” moment and we reduced sail and rode out the worst of it. Half hour at most but then Amanda was tucked up in her bed again. 

Waves chasing us!

Day 6

Position – 16:44.81N 37:33.19W

Daily run – 138Nm

Another day of strong winds and big seas. We are making good mileage westward towards the halfway point, but there is still a long way to go.

Squalls on the horizon

Our fresh fruit and veg are now much depleted and what’s left looks a bit worse for wear. We are currently eating out way through a banana feast as all our green ones have ripened at the same time. We still have some potato's, onions and carrots left, so will make sure these get eaten first before we start on the tinned and packet foods. Stuff has lasted pretty well though as some of it was from Tenerife, which seems a lifetime ago now.

All Amanda’s cakes have now been devoured and we were hoping to make some banana muffins, but the sea has been to rough to contemplate a full on baking session.

Still not much sign of life out here, we have seen flying fish and some petrels. 

Day 7

Position – 16:48.66N 39:37.84W

Daily run – 136Nm

Before we left Cape Verde we had many weather discussions with people about to the same as us, the common consensus was that it looked good to go but that we should be prepared for a slow crossing as the winds were forecast to be light for most of the journey.

What a load of rubbish !!! So far not a day has passed when the “high wind alarm” hasn't been screeching its head off at some point of the day or night.

The alarm is generally set at the wind speeds we reef at, so if we have full sail up I set the alarm to 20knts, 1 reef in I change the alarm to 25 knts at which point I put the second reef in and so on.

On this trip it has been set at 30knts all the way and everyday it goes off.....unbelievable.

It should be helping us make some long distances each day, but because it is so strong the sea state is rough and we are having to sail slower than we would like rather than risk breaking something.

Still its warm, we have hazy sunshine and the sea scape surrounding us is amazing.

Day 8

Position – 16:58.42N 41:57.07W

Daily run – 142Nm

Today we crossed an imaginary half way point, good news, and somehow upset King Neptune, bad news.

As you may have gathered , our crossing so far has been rough and windy, but last night it went to a whole new level.

The night started with the wind constantly in the high 20’s (force 7) so we set minimum sail before dark and settled down hoping for a reasonably quite night. Although the wind was strong it was manageable and Mark got some good sleep, we changed watch at 0300 and pretty soon we got hit by a squall. The sky darkened and the wind increased to 38 Knts (force 8) the sea state deteriorated very quickly and soon Mark was hand steering to ensure we didn't get thrown sideways onto a wave, then the rain came.

Mark hand steering in one particularly bad squall 

It lasted about 30 mins and then subsided back to a ‘normal’ force 7. This procedure was then repeated every hour or so for the rest of the night and into the morning.

All very exciting stuff, but Amanda and I have used all our “brave” pills now so would welcome a bit of a respite.

We apologise unreservedly to King Neptune for any past, present or future slight we may have caused.

Day 9

Position – 16:51.95N 44:05.10W

Daily run 136

Strong winds and squalls all day today, but sunny and warm. Daytime temperature is in the low 20’s and the water temp is rising the further west we go, currently 27deg. I guess the warmer water is what is fuelling the showers and squalls.

During the season, this particular bit of the Atlantic is where the hurricanes spawn, there’s a scary thought!

Amazing how the human mind and body can adjust and accept situations, we have had winds over 30 knts and house sized walls of water roaring up behind us for days now, it now seems the norm. Yesterday evening the wind dropped to 24/25knts and the sun shone so we had dinner in the cockpit and both commented how peaceful it seemed! Obviously it wasn't peaceful at all but compared to our new “reality” it seemed like a flat calm !

We cracked the 1000 miles to go barrier today so hopefully it will be good for moral seeing that number fall.

We are both tired now as even normal tasks seem to require superhuman effort, but we are in good sprits and are able to swing around the boat from, handhold to handhold like a pair of gibbons.

Haven't seen another boat for days now and the nearest land is 1000 miles away. we are both very aware of that fact and are taking all measures to keep ourselves and Magnum safe.

Day 10

Position – 16:47.19N 46:16.38W

Days run 138Nm

Another day of strong winds, today they are accompanied by grey skys and ominous black thunderhead clouds.

Less than 900 miles to go.

Click on the video clip below to see us speeding along!

Day 11

Position – 16:46.02N 48:27.10W

Days run – 131Nm

Today we are both shattered, worn down by lack of sleep, the motion of the boat and the howling of the wind. We both needed to get some rest, so in an attempt to change the motion I took down all sail and rigged a tiny storm sail.

Magnums tiny storm sail

This reduced our sail area from a max. of 80m squared to about 7m squared. It had a dramatic effect, Magnum only slowed slightly but is now riding the waves with a much gentler motion and we are no longer taking waves onboard. Blissfully we both managed to get some proper food and a few hours sleep.

Last night was a blowy one with squall after squall hitting us, along with heavy rain and a night as dark as a cave. All rope handling was done by feel alone and great care was taken to ensure our harnesses were clipped to something solid. Despite the unpleasant night, with our new tiny sail pulling hard everything seemed safer and more undercontrol, Magnum was no longer surging forwards like a wounded elephant everytime a wave overtook us she just gently lifted and allowed the walls of water to pass underneath us.

We still have a few days out here so hopefully wind and swell will abate at some time, but for now we are comfortable and moving in the right direction.

Day 12

Position – 16:45.16N 50:45.74W

Days run 140Nm

At last !

The wind moderated, the sun came out and we had a whole afternoon barrelling downwind with barely any rolling, why couldn’t we have had conditions like this all the way ?

Wow the sun is shining

It only lasted for a few hours and then night fell along with the usual succession of squalls, it was good for moral while it lasted though.

We treated ourselves to vanilla angel delight for pud as well just as the sun set....yum!

Day 13

position 16:22.89N 52:54.82W

Days run – 139Nm

Usual day wind F6/7 all day with accompanying swell, so good progress during daylight hours. Then as darkness fell the wind gathered strength and we suffered a bit of a nasty one, very glad to see sunrise.

The nights are so long at this time of year, we have little moon at the moment and mostly cloudy nights, which makes it pitch black and a bit disorientating on deck. We have come to loath sunsets and live for sunrise, its amazing how the rising sun can restore our flagging moral.

Noticed that our batteries were running a bit low in the small hours, which is unusual as we tow a generator behind the boat which puts out a lot of current all the time we are moving. A quick check showed that the generator shaft was no longer turning, we had got some abandoned fishing net wrapped around the prop, simple fix 2 mins with a dive knife and all was good to go.

Under 500 to go now.............................   

Day 14

Position – 16:20.36N 55:00.27W

Daily run – 136Nm

Air temp = 25.8 Sea temp 27.8

Hectic day filled with sail changes due to squalls.

Just to brighten our day though we had visits from 2 different groups of dolphins, they didn’t care about the weather they just wanted to play in our bow wave. According to our book they were Atlantic spotted dolphins, imaginative name for dolphins found the the Atlantic that have spots!

Lentil stew for dinner, Watched the last episode of Gavin and Stacy, nothing else to report........

Day 15

Position – 16:20.58N 57:11.94W

Day run – 140Nm

At last a whole day of steady F5 easterly “trade winds”, these are the conditions that were forecast and that we should expect this time of year. Lovely sailing, no sail changes, moderate following sea and sunshine.

  

Racing along, shame no photos of the dolphins

Lets hope they hold for the next few days. About 200 miles to go so thoughts turning towards making landfall now.

Sods law that after all this time we might reach Guadeloupe in the small hours, very little moon at the moment so we will have to monitor our progress and decide weather to approach in the dark or slow our approach so that we arrive in daylight.

Horrible decision to make because we both just want to get there now!

Day 16

Position – 16:16.19N 59:23.83W

Days run – 126Nm

Sun, light wind and calm seas.......wooooosh are we there yet ?

Day 17 and 18

Position – 16:13.26N 61:31.77W

Days run – Don’t care

As always the law of sod meant that the last 48hrs were as hard as the first.

1st the wind changed direction, so instead of blowing from directly behind it swung so that we were sailing hard into it, not quite having to tack but it meant Magnum was healed over at an uncomfortable angle and the motion of bashing into the waves sent spray flying. It was pretty demoralising when the realisation hit that we had another 100+ miles to cover like that.

It also meant that we were sailing slower so our expected time of arrival moved to after dark. We were so desperate to get there that we did consider a night pilotage exercise amongst the coral reefs, but common sense soon dictated that we reduce sail, slow down and deal with another night at sea. Massive disappointment.

You cant imagine the frustration of being able to see your destination but not being able to go there. We spent about 8 hours drifting along waiting for sun rise and ensuring we kept enough sea room from anything dangerous.

Anyway none of that matters as we DID IT !! After years of planning and preparing Magnum we finally crossed an ocean on our own in our little boat.......amazing.

Guadeloupe is not far now!

Yep we look weather beaten and pretty awful but we have done it!

The volcano and rainforests of Guadeloupe are there in the distance

Note: For those of you who have been following us on our Mail a Sail blog which we have used on passage this is the same text but with added photos/videos which we are not able to do at sea, now we hope to have wifi we will use this our original blog but will continue to plot our position on the Mail a Sail and use when we are at sea for longer durations - http://blog.mailasail.com/svmagnum

Christmas in Mindelo

The local town seemed to continue as normal on Christmas Eve as we popped out to the market to get some fresh veggies and a stack of bananas – there are bananas being sold in vast quantities on every street corner so you feel the need to buy some of every trip off the boat!

African supermarket

A few of the other northern European boats celebrated Christmas in the evening and it was nice to have Swiss and French kids on the boats next to us excitedly running up and down the pontoon.

We were relieved not to have any banging music disturbing the marina on Christmas Eve and were looking forward to a peaceful night, it was a bit disappointing that we had a howling gale in the marina, must have been up to 30 knots of wind which made for an uncomfortable night but I was pleased that we were in the marina and not dancing around the anchorage!

Look what Santa brought us !

Christmas morning was sunny (whilst it was raining in the UK J) but still super windy.  We started the morning with Michael Buble’s Christmas album much to Mark’s delight and then whilst we sat having our breakfast and opening presents we moved onto Mary Poppins! Not that we would be watching at home but we were both feeling a bit homesick and it was nice to have some Christmas traditions.

Before leaving the UK we had thought it was odd returning with so many Christmas gifts but it actually was very very nice to have such lovely presents to open and to be thinking of home.

We ventured out of the marina with the hope of using the local wifi to Skype family, but various other tourists had the same thought so there was no chance of that! So we hurried back to the boat for a few quick (expensive) calls from the Sat Phone.

Away in a manger.....

Later in the day we went back out to the local park and it was really nice to see all the locals out and enjoying themselves, the kids all dressed up in their best clothes and showing off their new toys – scooters, skates. It seemed important for the local community to come together at Christmas

Cape Verde Christmas Day

We then return to our lovely cosy boat, the wind was still howling, to sit down to our Christmas dinner, yes we did have a roast dinner, it was only a chicken/nut style roast which we brought with us, but it was delicious. We finished it off with a mint tea and some lovely biscuits which our very kind neighbours had given to us J oh and a small piece of Green and Blacks chocolate - thanks mum for the Christmas chocolate J

Yum !

The chilled out town of Mindelo

I am not sure what we were expecting of Cape Verde, we had seen one of the tourist resorts on a property abroad programme in the past but now we are here the TV was not really a true reflection of the real Cape Verdes.

Sao Vincent is one of 14 islands and the capital is Mindelo and has a population of around 70,000 with over 90% of the islands population living in the capital.  The islands were once Portuguese although they lie just over 300 miles west of the coast of Africa and were given independence status in 1975. Many islanders still seem to speak Portuguese although it seems to sound more Spanish than the Portuguese we encountered in Portugal (I know this may sound odd but it is more about how the language is pronounced), due to the African influence many speak Crioula and then to add to the confusion some locals speak French, oh plus the fact that often the younger generation can speak English!

The islands have their own currency which you are only able to obtain when you are actually in Cape Verde but the supermarkets will also accept Euros.

The centre of the town which is close to the marina is quite colonial and relatively well maintain, with brightly coloured building in every colour imaginable.

One of Mindelo's government buildings

Even the Club Nautico (Sailing club) has it own distinct look, shade by the palm trees.

Colonial Club Nautico

The people are also quite colourful and most local shopping is through the woman sat at the side of the road selling the fruit and veg, this is the local market and a hive of activity in the morning – even on boxing day when in the UK people would be rushing to the sales to pick up a bargain!

In Mindelo there us a University so there are quite a few students around although not to the same extent as a University town in Europe but it was interesting to see the local library (full of students) with a range of English language academic publications e.g. The Economist.

There is little begging on the streets although you are often approached by friendly entrepreneurs trying to sell t-shirts, necklaces and other local produce.  As you approach the outskirts of the Mindelo as you would expect it does become slightly more run down and on a Sunday walk it was interesting to see that locals market selling clothes, household goods, etc also funny that there is a booming trade in the barbers on a Sunday morning J.  The very outskirts of the town turn almost to a shanty town with small breeze block buildings covered with tin roofs, obviously no electric or water in sight but lots of smiley happy children :) 

Tin shacks on the edge of town

Our walk took us out the back of Mindelo through the dried river bed following the elusive “mules track”, we basically scrabbled of rocks looking for any sort of track just knowing we had to head up!  The views back over Mindelo were quite impressive.

Amanda scrabbling over rocks to get to the top

Mark relived to be at the top

View over Mindelo

 Over the hill we headed for the village of Salamensa and were hoping for a dip in the sea.  The beach looked idyllic in the distance.

Idyllic beach in distance

Idyllic wife in foreground

As we neared the village we were slightly shocked about how rural/poor it was as we walked along the road scattered with pigs, chickens, dogs, small children and rubbish plus the smells that go along with that environment.

Ah the smells of Africa...........

 The beach the other side of the village was stunning and deserted, the sea was beautifully clear and was welcomed by our hot walking feet.

Beautiful beach looking north

Not so pretty looking south

We were not looking back to the hot and dirty walk back and after no walking for a week we were shattered and looking forward to a cup of tea on our return to the boat – we are such Brits!