16:53.208N 24:59.480W

The big off                                                                                                                                          25^th November 2014

A bit of Atlantic swell on the way over from Sal

            So today is the day and we are all ready to set of for the Atlantic crossing. We spent a day on maintenance yesterday and have fixed many of the niggling little things that have sprung up over the weeks. Tony has replaced the blown  mini bulbs in the engine instrument panel with LEDs and Peter and Steve fixed the loose bow roller for the main anchor. Norma and myself managed to track down a couple of extra fuel containers, so that will be 100 litres we carry on deck and 1000 below decks. All of that means a trip to the fuel pump is due before we head off, 83 cents per litre here by the way. We also did the customs arrival and departure in one sitting which if unusual was at least an easy process. Why are customs officers all so serious looking, is their a school of stern looks out there somewhere that they all attend?

Mindelo town beach

 Peter and Steve rough it at the marina

Tony, Peter and Steve had a day out on the beach and at the old military fort on the headland on Saturday and took a few really good photos (see below). They also met up with one of the crew from the 94ft yacht Konstance, yes the same one that passed us on the way down from Tenerife. He remembered passing us in the night and the fact that they had a discussion on their bridge about our red over green masthead lights and what size of yacht we might be, small world. While this was happening I was nursing a sick Norma who had relapsed. On the bright side she has bounced back again and is now back in the land of the living and enjoying large pints of lager in the local hostelries, while we of course drink water.

View from the fort on the hill above the harbour entrance

Looking across towards Ilha de Santo Antao and Porto Nova

We have also managed to fill our last two blue gas bottles which have been empty since Spain, the marinas only advice was, “this will be difficult” and so we went into town and asked around, “no problem, no stress” was the response from the lady at the petrol station and 4 hours later they were returned all filled up and for less than half the UK price. I am still awaiting a verdict on our secondary battery charger from the marina electrician but we have sourced a simple car battery charger that will work if needed just in case they don’t come through.

  Last night all five of us went out in the team T shirts for the last meal ashore and a good one it was too. I am sending this from the café with internet across the street from the marinas as the free marina WiFi is still not working. As I have said before 14-21 days for the crossing and then Barbados. I will try to update every couple of days or so but pictures will be few and far between due to a lack of bandwidth on my satellite phone.

Until next time ……………………….

Email:

Spectra {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com

No attachment or pics please as this is a very low bandwidth satellite link and costs a small fortune per minute for downloads and they block up my weather reports.

If you want to send normal email pics attachment etc.

Paul {DOT} russell732 {CHANGE TO AT} hotmail {DOT} co {DOT} uk and I will pick it up when I am on WiFi