LIFE: Part 2

Current Location: Mid-Ocean
Current Position: 14 28.25 N 044 24.46 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 133 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

Auto pilo failed. Didn’t want to hand steer for 900 miles, so we heaved to for two hours while we installed the spare. Weather still good but winds lighter.

(Sent by InReach satellite connection)

Current Location: Mid-Ocean
Current Position: 14 34.78 N 042 7.42 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 131 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

Half way to destination..yey! All is going well.

(Sent by InReach satellite connection)

Current Location: Mid-Ocean
Current Position: 14 40.61 N 039 52.08 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 176 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

Caught 4 fish today, all at the same time but 2 got away. Good size mahi mahi. Total chaos. Blood eveywhere. Ceu serving up sashimi now. Taking orders now.

(Sent by InReach satellite connection)

Current Location: Mid-Ocean
Current Position: 14 45.97 N 036 50.39 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 141 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

Bigger waves today, up to 2 m, good surfing. Winds the same force 4 to 5 ENE. Spinnaker up again. Speed 8 Kts. Fresh bread. Caught barracuda. Too small.

(Sent by InReach satellite connection)

Current Location: Mid-Ocean
Current Position: 14 49.45 N 034 24.72 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 144 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

Spinnaker up. Blue sky. Caught tasty mahi mahi yesterday. Smooth sea. Not another boat or ship in sight. Saw dolphins. All is good.

(Sent by InReach satellite connection)

Current Location: Mid-Ocean
Current Position: 14 50.85 N 031 55.51 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 159 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

Slower today, big discussion about sail plan. Cloudy. Four fish got away with the lures, grrrr. Everyone is just chilling. Playing games. SEND MORE WIND 🙂

(Sent by InReach satellite connection)

Current Location: Mid-Ocean
Current Position: 14 49.48 N 029 10.62 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 155 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

Second day out. A bit tired today, as it is a bit of an adjustment getting used to the sleep schedule with the night watches. In a few days we will all be fine

(Sent by InReach satellite connection)

Current Location: Mid-Ocean
Current Position: 14 46.62 N 026 30.2 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 106 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

Fresh bread just out of the oven, melted butter dripping…yummy. Sailing fast – 8 knots, one reef, bright sun. No fish yet. Life is tough 😉

(Sent by InReach satellite connection)

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.

Current Location: Praia, Santiago, Cape Verde Islands
Current Position: 14 54.83 N 023 30.23 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 117 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

The message we sent yesterday was sent by our inReach satellite SMS device as we wanted to test it out. As you can see, it worked well – we were able to send a message from the middle of the ocean and have it picked up and posted on our blog, along with our position being displayed on the map.

So that is good.

And, yes, we caught two tuna at the same time. And we saw a shark. So was the shark there because the fish were there? Or did we catch the fish because they were escaping from the shark? We were just hoping that we wouldn’t catch the shark itself. Not something that we would like to deal with.

We arrived in Santiago this morning and were hoping to anchor in a nice little bay next to Cidade Velha (Old City) a World Heritage town that used to be Santiago’s capital. But the wind was strong, and it wasn’t very sheltered, so we moved on to Praia (the current capital) where we have found a nice anchorage. We then took a quick bus trip back to Cidade Velha.

Tomorrow we will do a long day sail to Brava, the most westerly island, where we will spend one day.

Then, after that we embark on the big crossing. And we will keep you posted by means of our nice inReach device. So do follow us on the map! Remember, if you haven’t done so already, you can sign up to receive automatic updates whenever we post something on the blog by going here.