Monday 24th October 2011  16 53.27N  24 59.48W

Bob and David hoisted the downwind rig while at anchor  and then had a very enjoyable and uneventful sail overnight from Sal.  We made good progress and had to repeatedly reduce sail so that we arrived off the north west coast of the sun-kissed isle Sao Vicente in daylight:  

This is another Island where it rains only once a year.

We approached the only marina in the Cape Verdes Islands dutifully calling the Harbour authorities  on the VHF - as was the Spanish warship Lagos – each to no avail.

It was quite windy and as we approached the marina itself the dock hands motioned us to moor stern to a pontoon and put a line through a  buoy from our bow. Well, even if I had a crew of 10 able men that was quite an ask in a 20 knot cross wind but for just the two of us that was laughable (indeed onlookers were soon to do so).  We begged forgiveness and asked for a lesser sentence but they were firm in their decision.

We made a couple of  amateurish attempts at it but, with our freeboard, attaching the bow to the buoy wasn’t not going to happen. A Charlie Chaplin-esque scene ensued. Eventually, one of the dockhands took his shirt off and swam out to the buoy to take our line and we were finally secure. Well, sort of.  There is quite a swell in the harbour and we have since been bouncing around and snatching against our lines.  Not ideal and after 48 hours we found we had dragged the buoy about 12 feet and so asked, this time successfully,  to move to a different berth. This one is better for many reasons but mostly because it is an alongside berth which is easier for provisioning (it is here that we need to stock up for the Atlantic crossing) and for receiving our new crew.

That said, our experience of the marina itself has so far been good – even if it is the most expensive berth Serendipity has used – with etewatering WIFI at Euro 9.50 for 128Mb!! …. but it DOES work!  The marina is run by a couple of Germans. Kai Brossmann is the “front of house” and is quite personable – he professes to be the only person in Cape Verdes who can fix a broken yacht.  Well, that may be true, but he doesn’t fix ALL broken yachts because he was unable to fix mine! (I have some SSB issues to sort out – like it is bust!). Taciturn is a word that was made for his partner tho.

Mindelo

Mindelo is really the only natural harbour in the Cape Verdes. It became a coaling station for steamships bound to South Africa and beyond – at one stage it was re bunkering four or more ships each day. It thus had a vibrant economy until oil  replaced coal and that is evident in the architecture today.

This is a much better place than Palmeira.  There are restaurants and shops within a few minutes walk of the marina. However, it is clearly a town that has been in decline and much of the architecture is in decline

Once you get off the main streets  the Portuguese theme is maintained. It is a quaint place.

But it is also clearly dominated by a West  African heritage and parts of the town are reminiscent of your worst  unsanitary experiences in Africa and India.  

There are very few tourists here (mainly hill walkers – there are hills aplenty!) and few visiting yachtsmen. That said although the language is predominately Portuguese there is a preponderance of French and German speakers, with a few who speak English…… of a sort:

We haven’t had the courage yet.

It absolutely bucketed down last night – about an inch of rain. Must be Mindelo’s turn for its annual rainfall.

BTW – it appears that our happy boarder in Palmeira did not get away empty handed. We seem to be a fender short – and have are missing a tool kit for the outboard. Ho hum! Hope he finds them useful.

We await the arrival of our next victims….