Heading West
Lochmarin
Tue 29 Jan 2013 13:29
| Well, today's the day; we're heading off this afternoon. We haven't just been listening to music and dancing, although a pre-carnival festival celebrating the slave heritage of the Island encouraged that. The people got blacked up and wore grass skirts - strange for us to see black men painting themselves blacker! As that was combined with Cape Verde getting through to the next level of the Africa Cup you can perhaps imagine the celebrations and dancing that went on. Everybody in the streets, shouting, drumming and hooting car horns. Ecstatic chaos! We have actually been getting a few jobs done too. Not least of which was checking one of our spinnaker poles for damage. We've been using the poles to hold out the twin headsails, as we have a downwind passage, and last time we dropped one we heard a nasty noise... so investigated once we were in port. The socket that the pole clicks into on the track on the mast had broken. Fortunately we had a spare on board to replace it with. The last two days we've been focusing on re-provisioning. Our 'garden' is coming on wonderfully, and hopefully will provide some welcome crunchy green in a sandwich during the passage but is perhaps not enough to ensure the four of us don't get scurvy during this two week crossing! It was great fun wondering amongst the little stalls set out by the local growers and picking out what we wanted. We're not quite sure what some of the root vegetables are, nor the fruit, but we decided to give it a go anyway. Spike came out with us to check out the supplies and made friends with some of the local vendors. He's been pretty impressed by the Cape Verdes, but rather concerned by an occupant of the next door boat on the pontoon. You can see why he always sits head to wind.... Tim managed to get a shot of the bouncing boys on the buoy in the sand that I told you about They personify the Island for me: full of grace and energy, enjoying life and being creative with what is around them. |