On this, our second visit, we have had a similar problem, this time swinging to and fro across the bow of a French yacht behind and close to a German yacht on out starboard side. My intended response was to deploy the stern anchor again but our friendly local sage suggested a second bow anchor at 45 degrees to the main anchor. This is standard practice to reduce swinging but at 45 degrees would have placed the second anchor right in front of the German yacht on our starboard side. On reflection this may not have been a bad thing (unless the main anchor dragged) but I opted for a narrower angle. Net result still swinging the same but at least we feel more secure in the strong wind! An anchor sail hanked to the backstay is back on the agenda and a top priority to have made up in Antigua.

On the sail back to Sal from Sau Nicolau we were close hauled to the north easterly wind during the night. In the lighter wind both the auto helm and hydrovane failed to prevent the boat tacking when we lost way in the lulls. Hand steering addressed the problem but nevertheless the boat did not seem to be pulling as well as she should. And then I had the notion to move the genoa cars aft (the pulleys on the side of the boat that are on a rail and can be moved fore and aft to control the angle at which the sheet pulls the sail). Most of our sailing has been downwind and for this the genoa cars need to be forward in order for the sheet to pull down on the leach (back edge) of the sail to move the centre of effort forward and prevent the sail twisting forward higher up. It hadn’t occurred to me what a difference sliding the cars aft would make when going to windward where a flatter sail is required with the centre of effort further aft. It made a huge difference and we immediately picked up over a knot of speed and were able to sail under autopilot again. It brought back one of those moments when sailing as a young boy when I would try out different sail settings to find out which was best under different conditions. I would get a thrill when the set up I had worked out proved to be recommended practice in one of my sailing books! 

Annie and I have had a couple of unexpected days in Palmeira waiting for Steve who needed to put his flight back a couple of days. This has given much needed time to clean out the interior of Vega and to have a load of towels and sheets washed by the wife of the general factotum (he is actually called Jai). Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the exterior of the boat. In the Gambia we were able to wash off a lot of the Saharan dust of which we had a thick accumulation and I thought Vega was looking pretty smart when we left. It now looks like we will be transporting a considerable amount of Sal down to Vincente - we are absolutely caked in brown dust again!

In fact time has moved on and we are now in Mindelo having had a wonderful overnight sail from Palmeira. We set two reefs in main for the overnight bit and started off with a full genoa. In the 15 to 23 knots of wind and bright moonlight we were rocketing along at over 8 knots at times and averaged 7 knots in one four hour period! The frantic pace meant a bit of surging and rolling so we put a couple of reefs in the genoa and this calmed things down, even though we were still sailing at 6.5 knots. Is it too much to hope that the Atlantic crossing will be like this all the way?!!

There is live music at the marina this evening so Annie, Steve and I plan to go into town for supper and to join in the New Year celebrations before heading back to the marina and hoping we can all stay awake long enough to reach midnight.

Very best wishes to you all for 2016.