Safe arrival in Dakar, Senegal

S/Y Pelerin
Colin Speedie & Louise Johnson
Mon 26 Nov 2012 19:51
We’re in.....

But we’re all in, if you see what I mean.

The final night at sail before arrival at a new destination is always a long
one; a mixture of exhaustion, anticipation for the new, and nerves at the
thought of mixing it up with society once more. Entry to a new country, to a
new coastline and harbour – and in this case poorly marked fishing nets and
‘rogue pirogues’, the local fishing boats which are long, low in the water
and, as a result, almost impossible to see (even at close range). It took
hours to get through all of this malarkey across the final 30nm of shelf
sea, but we finally dropped anchor off the splendid Cercle de la voile de
Dakar (CVD) around lunchtime.

All in all a great sail – apart from the 36 hours motoring in a calm south
of the Canaries, we sailed all of the way, maximum wind speed we saw was 28
knots off Cap Blanc (Mauritania), and our boat Pèlerin ate it all up. We
slept well, worked well as a team (and generally got along!), saw a mass of
marine wildlife, and both feel we did a great job in getting here. Total
mileage was 1066nm and which took us around eight days – good going for a
pair of rusty ancients (Lou, editor, notes at this point, the author speaks
for himself, as she feels she is neither rusty nor ancient). We had a few
technical issues along the way, and a couple that we have to sort out before
the next leg, but – insh’Allah – it will all work out.

And this place is unmistakeably Africa – the smell of the fish market
ashore, the drums (yes, really!) and the periodic muezzin calls all brought
it back to us immediately. You either love it or hate it – but this place is
very much us. Now, after a large bottle each of excellent Senegalese beer at
the CVD, and a slap-up supper aboard we’re both now ready to hit the hay. So
please excuse this miserably short missive – we’ll tell you more later.

Love to you all
Colin & Lou