Ilha De Santa Luzia

Sarah Grace goes to sea
Chris Yerbury and Sophy White
Mon 5 Dec 2005 09:26
December 5th Ilha De Santa Luzia, Cape Verdes
We are all at anchor in a little bay tucked into the southwest side of this special Island.   It looks like a desert, but when you walk around, you see flocks of little sparrows, and lots of beautiful flowers and plants.  It's hard to describe what it feels like to see two ospreys hunting over the beach and boat, catching fish, and calling to each other.   At night the sea is full of needle fish all leaping out of the water in a heap.   We ate a groupa (given to us by the next door boat, he catches them, but she is a vegetarian!!) barbecued on driftwood on the beach.  
Getting on and off the beach through the surf in the dinghy has been rather exciting too, timing is all, and we have had a couple of soakings and one man over board so far.  Mimi hates it and yells, usually very appropriately, as the dinghy gets engulfed by a breaking wave.   Doing it in the dark after the barbecue was even worse, as it is harder to time when to row like mad to avoid the breaking waves.
On the minus side, we have no fruit or veg left apart from one cabbage, all our clothes are manky with salt,  we do not have enough water to wash them, and the boat is covered with sand and salt.
Today we are leaving our beautiful island and heading off to the metropolis of Mindelho on Ilha Sao Vincente, twenty miles away.   We will have 24 hours off manic provisioning before pushing off over the abyss...
 
Otti says: ' It's nice here but I have not seen any of the goats and donkeys which are supposed to be around.  There are lots of ancient shells on the beach and the kid next door on the catamaran has trampolines onboard.'
 
Mimi says: 'It was really really scary when we wave surfed.  In the first load Dad, Otti and Mum went.  In the second load were me and Steve and Dad.  Dad went twice because he had to row.  There are lots of really nice shells on the beach, but the waves are reallly really big.'
 
Steve says:  'I will be sorry to leave the Cape Verdes, but am looking forward to the crossing.'
 
Soph says:  'I will be sorry to leave the Cape Verdes, and am not looking forward to doing the crossing.'
 
Chris says:  'I will be sorry to leave the Cape Verdes, but just want to get the crossing over.' 

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