This week has been all about chores and checking. Bear has been a good boy and done his chaffe check, built my perch, serviced the Duo-gen, put extra screws in the cupboard in our room (cos it squeaked like fury in rough seas), sorted diesel pipe leak from filler end, tightened outboard bracket and much more. The wind started the day after we arrived and we have have had it solid like at Camarinas with up to 40.3 knots, you don't see many yachties wandering around on the pontoons in that. I have cleaned and hoovered through, washing up-to-date with purchased water - via meter, sorted office, cleaned fridge and a variety of other  chores. I operated on my gum again with the support of much vodka, removing a piece the size of half a small finger nail, very jagged, that had been rubbing on a nerve causing all my woes. Woke Bear up at 02:00 to show him, he was more concerned that the bathroom looked like The Texas Chain-Saw Massacre. I said despite the claret, it felt way better.

A typical ex-colonial house, typically run down. The main square, Cape Verdeans love bright colours, many buildings are bright blue, yellow and orange. The banks are all posh with plenty of marble. We braved the wind a couple of times to go explore the "city" on foot. Compared to most cities we have visited this is tiny with few shops. Mindelo (Mindel’ in Cape Verdean Creole), is a port town in the northern part of the island of Sao Vicente. Mindelo is also the seat of the parish of Nossa Senhora da Luz, and this island's municipality. It has a population of about 70,000 inhabitants (50,000 in the mid-1990s) and is the second largest city in Cape Verde after Praia. The town is home to 96% of the entire island's population.

As we enterred we saw this fortress perched on the hillside, high up above the storage tanks and a closer look at the fortress.

History

There was a coal station in Mindelo during the times of steam navigation built by the British, the city was and remains a cosmopolitan city. The Randall coal company was established for the shipping routes of Europe, Africa, South Africa, India, Australia and South America. At the beginning of 1875, the firm, Cory Brothers plummeted coal prices to increase the number of ships to 669 per year by 1879. When more ports were built in Dakar, Senegal and in the Canary Islands, the number of ships declined initially, but increased to serve about 2,000 ships per year in the 20th century. In 1952, the coal camps were eliminated as boats switched to diesel.

In 1885, Mindelo was the switching station for the first Trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. In 1912, Mindelo became an important global cable station and became the cultural capital of the Portuguese-speaking country/state along with the Lusophone capital in 2003. The city is also considered as the cultural capital of Cape Verde.

The Bob Marley influence is out and about as we near the Caribbean proper, the live 'langoustines' as the locals call them are caught and brought round the marina to buy out of carrier bags. They are so laid back they don't bother to have claws. This chap weighed a kilo and a half and cost £8.00. Huge steak from his back and the finished dish ready to serve with local salad bought from the supermarket, cost nearly as much as the lobby.

A happy chore was to decorate Beez Neez, her windows all have Christmas stickers, lights all round the ceiling. We have an Advent Calendar each, and the 'lucky bamboo' has been lametta-ered. Christmas tree baubled, Christmas candles set up, even our chandelier has been hung with chocolate balls. No comment - I know when now to keep it tightly zipped, even my spectacles have stickers on.

This is Camboio Street, a typical residential road.

The town is surrounded by mountains. A tan-coloured deforested mountain lies to the east, and the smaller Vigia mountain defines the west edge of the town. To the south lies a range of brown deforested mountains Monte Cara, and the Morro Branco peak lies to the northwest. The town is crossed by a river named Ribeira Juliao. A little lower is another urban sprawl named Lazareto which is much smaller and touches the lower parts of the Monta Cara.