Sunday 28^th, Mon 29^th & Tuesday 30^th Nov

Well pretty much as promised the forces of hell were unleashed, but it was a curious build up. We had seen the synoptic charts showing big winds from the south and were braced for the wind and some possible surge from the southerly seas, but on the Sunday there was no wind at all, but the marina became close to untenable as an extraordinary surge and swell developed causing all the boats to roll and pitch violently. The pontoons became roller coasters and I just wish I had  had a video camera to record them as they snaked up and down their full lengths.  As you walked alongside the quay you were sometimes above the ground at waist height and then plunged to a foot below the ground!

We had put out extra ropes to secure Serafina and to try to hold her away from the short pontoon finger that was on our downwind side and in the main this worked well but since she was now not firmly attached to the finger, it allowed her to roll dramatically. Somehow this seemed preferable to fixing her tightly to the finger which like all the rest of the structures was rising and falling several metres with every surge.

The noise became very unpleasant as the pontoons all grated against their securing piles and all the boats strained violently against their ropes. As night drew in and the tide rose it all became even more unpleasant and everyone was prepared for very little sleep and still the wind had not started!

We were not wrong as we endured a long sleepless night although the wind when it came never got above 45 knots. Monday was a long day where working on deck was pretty much out of the question but the good news was that the forecast wind and rain was nothing like as bad as forecast. (All the schools were closed for the day and most shops chose to only open for a few hours as a precaution.) Sarah has drawn up menus, a detailed shopping list and a careful plan for how we hope to pack all this food into the available space. All of which is fine but we also have two crew joining us on Thursday (Robert and Joyce Forsdike) for the crossing and they may want to have somewhere to sleep!

The surging and  rolling continued all day and by the early evening as it came to the top of the tide it seemed as bad as Sunday night again. Several boats had had to move during the day because their pontoon had begun to break up but the good news was that during the night as the wind came round to the north the conditions began to ease and we did at least get a reasonable amount of sleep.

On Tuesday morning the surge had reduced significantly but the wind kept up and we now had torrential rain to cheer us up. We had to collect the car that we have hired with Chris and Steve from the ferry port and this involved a walk in the driving rain which was quite a novelty. Once we had the car we all went up to the huge Carrefour Hypermarket so that Sarah and Chris could start their provisioning (non perishables). This should have been simple enough but the traffic system here is nothing short of a complete mystery to us all. Not helped by the fact, that yet again in our travels we have arrived at a port where they are rebuilding the front – and there are no signs to the one and only entry road that eventually leads to the marina, which Sarah eventually discovered after circumnavigating the city for an hour last Thursday.  Wonderful roads but the entire city is one way and there is little to guide or help the visitor. Steve and I set off back to the marina with the first load of water, milk and some drink but firstly tried to locate a gas depot that would refill Steve’s Calor bottle. We had directions but they turned out to be a work of fiction and after endless stops for further advice and endless laps of the ‘Buenos Aires ‘ district of Santa Cruz we finally located the unit, only for them to turn us away saying that they could not (or would not) fill the bottle. We eventually got back to the marina just in time for me to turn round and return to Carrefour to fetch Sarah and Chris and all their shopping.

The sun came out in the afternoon and there were some very impressive rainbows and by the evening everything had pretty much settled down at last.

Just for the record, the plan as it stands is for us to head south to the Cape Verde islands leaving here on Wednesday 8^th December. That is a trip of around 860 miles and should take 6 days or so. We intend to stop there for a couple of days before heading west to Barbados arriving there around New Years day or perhaps a little later. Of course this is not like catching a bus and we will have to keep a careful eye on the weather systems before we commit to leaving!