The occasional really, really big wave, amongst the 3.3 metre ordinary ones, persisted yesterday and through the night. Having carefully prepared and plated up the Greek salad for luncheon yesterday, Bob then spent the next half hour collecting tomato and lettuce from around the saloon and under the chart table where all four plates had been frisbied off the worktop, despite the sticky matting.  We decided to have supper in bowls that could be clutched close to ones chest.

We arrived in Ilha de Sao Vicente at 10am local time.  It was not the most elegant of dockings (a slight misunderstanding on the helmsman’s part regarding which way to push the bow thruster when in reverse) but was achieved all in one piece and more importantly adjacent boats unharmed. 

The Cape Verde islands are angularly volcanic and very brown.  It is very windy and there is a great deal of movement but its insignificant after the last few day and it is warm, indeed hot, and we are stripped to shorts and t-shirts at last.  The local people are very friendly, all very reminiscent of the un-americanised bits of the Caribbean.  As Bob and I made our way to the Immigration Office several people gave us a cheery good morning although they may have been intrigued by what we were doing walking along the harbour front with a rucksack spattered in tomato and lettuce and using a boat hook as a walking stick.  (Unfortunately my “flying fish under the chart table” trick yesterday resulted in a somewhat painfully sprained ankle).  Of course, once we eventually found the open all hours Immigration Office (carefully labelled with absolutely nothing at all to identify it) it was closed for a two hour lunch break.

We are now awaiting the electrician to ascertain what is wrong with the generator.  The question is, in this Caribbean cultured island, will anyone actually turn up as promised?