Safe arrival in Dakar, Senegal

S/Y Pelerin
Colin Speedie & Louise Johnson
Mon 26 Nov 2012 19:58
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
28knots off Cap Blanc (Mauritania), and our boat Pèlerin ate it all up. We
slept well (albeit in 3 hour bursts), 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!) on the beach 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