Position 24:28.22N 17:31.33W

PASSEPARTOUT
Christopher & Nirit Slaney
Sun 12 Dec 2010 17:54
Position 24:28.22N 17:31.33W
 
Enemy coast ahead!
 
We have been reaching all day in ten knots of north westerly breeze which has brought the temperature down by a couple of degrees. Our destination is the island of Sal in the Cape Verdes. Sailors I have met are firmly split into two camps regarding the Cape Verdes. Those in favour are generally people who have visited there previously and talk enthusiastically about the friendly Cape Verdeans, the music of Cesara Evoria and superb anchorages on the smaller islands. Those against have heard or read that the archipelago is unwelcoming, unsafe, ridden with tropical diseases, expensive and a place where uniformed officials who speak not a word of English demand compliance with arcane entry requirements for visiting yachts. So we're definitely going.
 
A lot of the ambivalence has to do with the westward transatlantic route. Yachts leaving the Canaries or Morocco can expect to pass close by the Cape Verdes as they seek the north east trade winds which will get them to the Caribbean in time for Christmas, but they do not want to delay themselves by calling in there. I think some of them feel it's defeatist to break the journey less than one thousands miles after the start. Let's say they're following in the wake of Columbus.
 
French sailors seem to favour a stop in the Cape Verde harbour at Sal or the larger island of Sao Vicente. These same French yachts also enjoy stopovers in Dakar, Senegal and The Gambia and in general they are more adventurous and less inclined to sail in a flotilla along the well worn Las Palmas to Saint Lucia route.
 
One of the southern most islands in the group is Santiago and it boasts a wide, sheltered bay called Baia do Tarrafal. Seventy years ago this was used as a rendezvous for German U-Boats in between patrols of the Atlantic shipping lanes. They would meet in Tarrafal to refuel from larger fuel-carrying submarines called 'Milk Cows', exchange crew, re-arm and make minor repairs. The Cape Verdes were neutral Portuguese territory and it's not clear whether or not the government in Lisbon sanctioned these activities. The Allies knew about the importance of Tarrafal and during 1940-1941 when shipping losses to U-Boats were threatening Britain's survival there were plans to raid the bay in the hope of trapping and destroying a couple of submarines.
 
The main problem with this was that the British knew when to expect U-Boats at Tarrafal because they were reading German naval code; a trick which was too useful to risk giving away should the Germans put two and two together following a successful raid.  In the end a raid was mounted in the hope of capturing a U-Boat. its crew, the latest version of the 'Enigma' cipher machine and a set of the all important code books. The mission failed but German naval intelligence was so confident that their codes were unbreakable that they put the fact that the Allies were there exactly when one of their subs was  in the bay down to a coincidence or lucky break.   
       
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