At Last!

Stargazer
Andy & Jo
Fri 27 Jan 2023 11:30

At Last!

 

We nearly can’t believe it ourselves, but grib after grib (weather file) has given us a slot to leave Lanzarote and head for Cabo Verde, Africa. Well, pending any last minute hitches with up to date weather information of course. All that said, the Canarian Government recently issued a strong wind warning, but that was for yesterday and today at least and not, thankfully, for our planned departure date, phew…

 

We have been expecting ‘normal’ settled conditions since late November, however, none have been forthcoming. Yes, we could have left before now, but it would have been in less than ideal conditions with some ‘gamble’ on the weather. Added to that is that the marina here offers discounts for block bookings which we have taken as best we can, adding complications to leaving dates as without these discounts it would have been a pretty expensive time in terms of marina berthing. So don’t let anyone tell you cruising in Spain is cheap – it isn’t!

 

Back to our passage: We intend to leave after breakfast on Sunday 29th November. Our passage is 947NM in total and our destination is Mindelo on São Vicente. We’re expecting the trip to take us about 7 to 8 days, although it could be longer by a day or so. The weather is offering us reasonable swell heights, reasonable wave heights with 17Kts of wind at the start, easing a little mid-way and then building again as we approach Cabo Verde.

We’ll see J

 

Whilst I do final boat prep, the mate has volunteered to make the first night’s dinner in advance – this means that we’ll be having a tuna pasta bake (I know the mate too well)… The mate has also bought a lot of fishing gear and expects to catch decent amounts of fish en route. In fact, she claims to be a fishing expert. Me? I know nothing at all about fishing, so it’ll be easy for her to pull the wool over my eyes. Personally, I’d have stocked up with a few more tins of sardines or similar, but I am assured that I can look forward to fresh Mahi Mahi. The main problem that I can see is that the best way to dispatch a fish is pour neat gin into its gills.

Sounds like a good way to go to me, but the issue will be, no matter what the mate says, that she will have to use some her personal gin stocks to do this. I will stand clear, due to the upset this may cause J

 

Whilst we are offshore, we will have very limited comms, but we will do our best to upload a position, with maybe a sentence or two about how things are going via satellite phone on this blog - we’ll try and do this most days.

The positions should appear on the chart at the top; anyone interested may have to zoom in a bit.

 

The mate has just told me that she wants to say her piece. Here she is:

 

I also can’t believe we are actually going to leave, and neither can our marina neighbour or the girls in the marina office who now chuckle every time we go in to further extend our stay! There are far worse places to be waiting for weather (Great Yarmouth springs to mind!) so it hasn’t been too much of a hardship. I am very much looking forward to moving on and exploring seas and pastures new. Sadly this means we will miss the second visit of one of my second cousins!  Maybe see you in the Caribbean?!

 

I haven’t actually claimed to be a fishing expert as it has been about 15 years since I last fished, but I’m hoping it will all come flooding back.

I’m sure nothing can resist the tasty looking lures I bought the other day, although Doubting Skip isn’t so sure! I also think sharing gin with the fishy is an acceptable trade for providing dinner. Will keep you posted on success, or otherwise…

 

Our extended stay has meant that I’ve been able to do almost all of this year’s 30 Days of Yoga (and I’ll only have a few to catch up on when we reach Cabo Verde – unless it is very calm en route and I can roll out my yoga towel!) and our extended period of preparing to leave has meant that we’ve had so many ‘school nights’ (alcohol free) that Skip has really developed a taste for 0% beer!! (No I haven’t, Skip). We do have a little tipple chilling in the fridge for when we cross the Tropic of Cancer, and I’m sure the Strela (Cabo Verde beer) is going to taste really good when we get there J

 

Hoping to ‘see’ you en route and we’ll report in fully from Cabo Verde, of course.

 

Cheers,

 

Andy & Jo