Saturday 10th THE START
Spirit of Isis
On Deck /Colin
Sat 10 Nov 2007 15:54
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16:50.ON 25:4.0W
Friday
After the short hop from Sal to Sao Vincente
Mindelo it was off to find the boat, which in fact was only 10minutes from
the airport and a long hike down the dock!
First impressions of this place were still of an
arid landscape but mountainous, very similar to Oman around Muscat. But with a
great wind blowing.
After dumping our gear on the boat and grabbing
what we thought were to be out bunks , it was a quick briefing with the skipper
and then told we had nothing to do the rest of the day . Great wind blowing I
thought we would have gone for a workup sail and get used to the boat, the odd
tack gybe etc - not to be ! So it was off to the beach in some local taxis,
actually sitting in the back of a pick up truck, lunch, beer and a swim in
the pool and the sea.
Back to the boat to find the food was arriving -
including tons of potatoes! Next couple of hours were spent loading the
provisions water etc before heading back ashore for our last supper! This turned
into quite a session in the local bar at the end of the pier, a good night but
lots to drink!
Saturday - after a very sweaty night on the plastic
mattress in +30 degrees and vast amount of snoring - I guess 11 guys tend
to snore having consumed vast quantities of wine, caeperinias beer etc etc. Up
early to get some cool air and a final stretch of the legs.
Will not shame those that headed off to town to
load up with nicotine and thoughtfully a few bottles of the local
vino.
Bacon for breakfast and then we let go and
headed out about 0930-1000, where we could see the wind was not blowing as
hard as the previous day but still a good Force 4.
Once out in the bay sails went up only to find that
we had a problem with the sheave at the top of the main - by this time there was
only 20 mins to the start , however Travis was winched up aloft and managed to
make some repairs, although we did practice dropping the main during this time
!!
All set and we're off with a great start with 3
boats going North and Juno heading South - what does he know ?
After only an hour or so we had edged into the lead
of the three boats and were ripping along at 12+ knots and looking forward to a
lively sail when suddenly the wind reversed and we fell into a weird wind
pattern with the wind all over the place - but the other two boats seem to have
managed to get out of this - may be we should not have mentioned it on the radio
?
Oh well we're off in great weather and everybody is
looking forward to the trip.
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