Breakfast in Mindello
Rik
Mon 13 Nov 2023 08:36
Thursday Afternoon provided some fabulous sailing, the wind eased and became less gusty and the sea state calmed a little. We were soon able to shake out the 2nd reef and by late afternoon we had the full mainsail up for the first time.
Before dinner we put the first reef back in, just to be a little safer in case there were any rouge gusts in the night, and then gybed south. Rumcat stayed on the westerly gybe and soon disappeared off the AIS display which only works for about 15 miles. In the morning Rumcat reappeared on AIS some distance behind us, just shows how important it is to be on the right gybe at the right time. That was how it stayed to the finish line, we beat her by 2 hours, a little victory for Moose!
We saw sever pods of pilot whales swim past, again too quick for photos.
Just after sunset we were all sitting on the flybridge when we noticed a very strong fishy smell, followed shortly by a strange flapping noise. It turns out a flying fish had landed in one of the rope lockers. Nick went into flap mode so Kath stepped up and removed the little fella, then spent the next 20 minutes washing the fishy smell off her hands, boy do those things stink. It was one hell of a flight as our flybridge is probably four metres above the water.
But the big event yesterday was arriving in Mindello. With 10 miles to go we could see many boats around us on AIS, it was reasonably clear which boats would beat us and which we would beat, apart from one, “Pelican”. We were slowly gaining on her, it would be tight, as we approached the finish we were very close and still slowly gaining on her. As we crossed the line she was unfortunately just a nose in front, but a great end to an 880 mile race, (it’s not a race it’s a rally)
Pelecan
Once in the port we were soon tied up and the beers we had put back in the fridge earlier were swiftly poured, but better still we could smell the full English breakfast that Caroline had started in the galley.
A tough passage, but a great one, which everyone enjoyed and we all felt a great sense of achievement getting Moose to Cape Verde. Well done everyone and well done Moose, you were a very good girl.
