LIFE: Part 2

Current Location: Furna, Brava Island, Cape Verde Islands
Current Position: 14 53.27 N 024 40.75 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 68 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

We left Praia very early, like 3:30 am, on Thursday to sail to Brava. The winds started as very light, as in zero at one point in the wind shadow behind the mountain, but then progressed during the day reaching a good force 7 gusting gale force 8 by the time we rounded Fogo island. It then moderated a bit to just 25 knots (force 6). So in one day we had everything, starting off with full sail, and ending up on a fast run with just half the genoa out – and still doing 8 knots, with some long surfing down the 2 meter waves.

Roger is settling in well. He had a good baptism today – a couple of reefs in and out, a bit of sunburn on his face, a scrape on his leg when he slipped on the deck, and a good dousing when a wave broke right over him. Good to get all that out of the way before the big crossing.

Anchoring in the little harbour of Furna was interesting, and took us right back to our Croatia days. A very helpful local man, Berto, swam out to take our long line, while we set our first anchor. We had read about him in the cruising guide. We backed up to the rocks, and laid out a second long line, and then a second bow anchor. And we were all set. A bit of swell, but well protected from that force 6 that was still blowing outside. Berto continued to be very helpful, putting chafe protection on the lines, and helping us with getting the dinghy back and forth between the boat and the shore. Not so easy with the swell coming in.

 

 

Today we took a pick up aluguer up to the town of Nova Sintra, named after Sintra in Portugal. It is a cute little town, very nicely kept up, very peaceful, and very non-touristy. So much so, in fact, that they wouldn’t even accept euros in the mini market! It is perched right up at the top of the mountain with fantastic views across to Fogo and the islands just above Brava. Our lunch for three people was 1200 escudos, about  11 euros, that included a nice fish stew 2 beers,  3 glasses of house wine and a thermos of coffee. Try and beat that!

Well, today is the big day. We will set off in just a few hours. The GRIB files are predicting a very straightforward passage with steady force 5 to force 4 blowing us downwind for 2,000 miles to Barbados. We are expecting a passage of about 14 days. Of course, that is all subject to change, so we will just have to deal with whatever Neptune decides to hand out to us. Outside the harbour right now are plenty of white horses playing on the waves (you can see them in the photo above), so it will be like yesterday – a fast jib-only reach to the bottom of the island, a gybe around the bottom, and then 14 days on starboard tack. Hoping to catch some fish along the way!

This, therefore, is our last long blog post. After this we will just do the occasional Satellite update, and we won’t be receiving any comments or other messages until we sort out internet at the other end. So no point replying with any comments to this or the following posts, but we to want to thank you for your kind words of encouragement on our previous post.

Oh, and yes, Phil, the fish tasted good. Hoping to catch much more on the trip.

See ya later, Alligator.