Day 7 The Cape Verdes

Mariposa Blog
Robert Newman
Tue 30 Nov 2010 18:03
N16 53.1 W024 59.0 
 
Sunday Morning - Occasional use of the cloth as opposed to the iron sail managed to delay our arrival in Mindelo, Sao Vincente to around 12.30pm much to Spillers frustration.  On arrival we joined the queue of yachts at the diesel dock hoping to fill tanks. After some aimless milling we tied up in the marina  and Rob and Spiller dived into the scrum on the Diesel pontoon, emerging an hour or so later with 11 second hand veg oil cans full of Diesel and Robs wallet considerably lighter
 
Much talk on the pontoon of the mythical trade winds, we are reliably informed that they do exist, but as they say seeing is believing. The general consensus is North for a pasting and yet further south for the trades...
 
An excellent Belgium beer in the Marina bar and a local band nearby provided the evenings entertainment before early to bed and early to rise. Just how early Spiller got us from our beds only became apparent after much head scratching outside of the local Supermarket. Rather inconveniently the Cape Verdes don't run on GMT. Also rather inconveniently not a place that has a ready supply of Cafe Cremes, luckily after a little investigation Frosty and Rob were shown to the house of a local man who had a drawer full of Cubans, a deal was done. CVI an excellent place to stop off and a good morale booster for the crew.  
 
A late morning departure from the Mindelo marina (laden with fuel) and there was even some sailing to be done......at least until we were out of the islands acceleration zone...then back to the iron sail. After initially setting a direct course for St Lucia (WOW) we are heading South West making use of any wind we can find and hoping to meet the Trades. Rob is taking the opportunity to get some sleep in, very much in line with Nic's normal approach to sailing!
 
 
Carry on (Motor) Sailing