Dakar departure
S/Y Pelerin
Colin Speedie & Louise Johnson
Thu 6 Dec 2012 14:31
We leave this afternoon for the Cape Verdes. We would have loved to explore the coast a little more, and ventured up the rivers a bit. But high winds, high swell (too high to enter the very shallow river-mouths), and lack of time all coalesced against these plans happening. Nevertheless, we’ve enjoyed our time in Dakar and environs, and met some superb people – what a diverse bunch of open-minded, well-travelled, interesting people have washed up here at the Cercle de la Voile de Dakar!! We tend to avoid cities usually, and have avoided the built-up downtown area here. The suburbs and surrounds are more interesting to us, as it’s where the real Dakar people live - we’ve happily haggled, strolled and bare-knuckle taxi-rided our way around for the last 9 days, but have only scratched the surface.
We would thoroughly recommend any sailor friends considering a venture south to Senegal, and Dakar specifically, to get a move on and come here pronto! Times are hard for the guys offering a welcome bolthole to passing sailors, and during our stay we were the only UK boat here, plus one Belgian boat, and the rest French. This needs to change.
So, we wave Dakar goodbye and look out to sea again, this time west-north-west to head towards the isolated Cabo Verde islands. The area is renowned for its marine wildlife so we’re really looking forward to this passage, and hope we gets lots of company. At a distance of about 345 nautical miles, we reckon it should be roughly a 3 day/night passage.
Look out for us on the AIS website (http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/ ) and search for our little boat Pelerin. So, wish us fair winds and bon voyage again, and we’ll try to post any interesting snippets whilst on passage.
best wishes
Lou & Colin