I see no ships...

W2N 'Where to Next?'
Rob 'Bee' Clark
Tue 18 Nov 2008 16:01

26:30.4N 19:18.9W

Canasta and I are making great progress following the trade winds and tides down to the Cape Verde Islands. It's more downwind sailing which I'm getting pretty bored of but looking ahead to the African coast beyond the Verdes where I'll have headwinds and foul currents, I think I should make the most of it while I can! Actually, it's not so bad. The wind veered a little this afternoon so I'm broad-reaching now but for the dead-running, I've found it useful to goosewing with the the genoa poled-out using the spinnaker pole and I've been making a steady seven knots fairly comfortably like that.

Still another 650Nm to go though so assuming this wind holds, I should be arriving on Saturday afternoon. Not on Sao Nicolau as the dice had demanded but in Mindelo on Sao Vincente as I can't avoid having to clear customs there first. It's the second largest town in the group so I might spend a day or two there first where I'm hoping there will be a ship's chandler. I'll then move on east as soon as possible to Sao Nicolau which is one of the smaller islands where, as it's lacking a marina, I'll be anchoring. That's where the dice said to go and from the information I've got, it sounds beautiful.

So, for now, I'm well out of the traffic. I've not even seen any fishing boats ir ships since leaving La Palma nor do I expect to. As such, I'm risking one hour naps at night. I just missed the Vendee Globe fleet passing the Canaries by a few days. I had a quick look online in Santa Cruz and it's not looking so good for the Brits but there were a couple of stragglers just passing the islands when I left and although I'm in their wake, I'm not expecting to catch them up!

Well, that's it from me for now. I hope you're all well.

Back to my Sudoku...!