Thursday  3rd  November  Praia, Ihla Santiago - 14 54.7N  23 30.3W

William’s baggage having, much to our surprise, arrived as promised on Wednesday night, we spent Thursday making final preparations for departure. As it turned out most things were available in Praia but not necessarily all at once. A new delivery of garlic was greeted by a frenzied group of women each wanting to be sure they got their share; we found celeriac and melon one day and not the next,  and fish depended upon what had been caught last night. Anyway, first up was the provisioning in an eclectic blend of African markets and a couple of basic European super markets (in which at last we found butter!).

This was the spice shop:

And this the Herb shop.

Typical of any African market the meat and fish lay outside covered in flies – no matter how much cheaper than the supermarket it may have been,  we could not bring ourselves to buy it!

We also took the opportunity to do a little sightseeing. Islands with few natural resources have to rely on alternative sources – there are solitary wind turbines all over these islands – but in Praia they had supplemented this with rather racy futuristic lamp posts:

Eric and Ernie also visited more traditional tourist spots:

Here we are overlooking the harbour from where the garrison used to be stationed.  This was a secure anchorage with good holding in which there were only two other yachts. . As a place to visit, though, Praia was hard.  The ever present security threat led us always to have someone on the boat – day and night  – and that meant we couldn’t eat ashore as a crew – the local economy suffers as a consequence.

While the shore party was provisioning, Bob and David had the pleasure of refuelling and then “clearing out” of the Cape Verdes – both Immigration and also the Harbour authorities.  Refuelling required the attendant to call the police to oversee then process because we were buying fuel tax free (at 70 pence per litre).  So we had to wait ages for the police to arrive and then, once completed, I swear we met the same police officer at immigration! (They all looked alike, as if they were from the same family each with a thin pencil moustache!).  

Then final, on return to the dockside we met Dominique and Juliette – our new found French friends.

Dominque was rueing having a recent experience of having asked for help with their dinghy during which he lost his money (a few Euros) and diving goggles to his willing, but nonetheless  light fingered, assistants.  

Cant say we were sorry to leave Praia - around midnight – bound for our last stop in the Cape Verdes on the westernmost Island -  Brava!