Position: 14:39.93N 017:25.68W
Date:
18 November
2009
The first four, long paragraphs of this blog had been
going into minute detail about the repair of my water-maker. I then remembered
the sage advice of my daughter, Selina – that nobody was in the slightest bit
interested in my problems and it would be relief to everyone if I spared the
details – so here goes: the water maker now works. Let’s move on.
But whilst all the work was being carried out, Colin was
on deck doing some fishing. “Don’t waste your time” I said. “Everyone thinks
they can catch fish off the boat, and they all fail. You will as well”. When
Arona (who was fixing the water maker) finally emerged from the engine room
ready to return to his wife and family, Colin gave him a large plastic bag full
of fish. I was incredulous but at the same time selfishly practical “That’s a
bit generous” I whispered to Colin, “What about some for us?” “Don’t worry”
Colin replied “I’ve given him less than half the catch”.
And he had. Colin had developed a foolproof fish-catching
technique. You attach a string of very small mackerel lures to a fishing line,
drop it over the side, give it a couple of jerks - and here’s the clever bit -
you then pull it back in. Every time he did this he pulled a minimum of two –
sometimes four – fish off the hooks. In 40 minutes he had caught over 60 fish.
Most of them were small – a bit bigger than whitebait, a couple were large, and
one was a whopper. Last night we ate like kings. The best meal I had had since
I’d been in
Senegal.
Last night, Neil arrived at 0200. Rather than being
ripped of, he found a courtesy bus for the hotel (which I had not arranged) and
hopped in. Got here for nothing. There’s probably some furious hotel guest still
waiting at the airport wondering where his courtesy bus is.
We set sail this afternoon for Mindelo which is on the
island of Sao
Vicente in the Cape
Verde Islands, 450
miles on a course of 288 degrees. We should arrive sometime on Saturday
depending on our speed, but I hope to keep you in touch en route. Lots to do, so
will sign off now.
Meanwhile here are some photos of our time in
Senegal, in no
particular order and with no titles I’m afraid as I have run out of
time:
