Barely a few days out of Las  Palmas, our engine wouldn’t start for it’s daily one hour charging routine.  After many attempts to bleed it by Robert and I, we finally  stopped and went into major power frugal behavior.  Really relying only on wind and solar for electricity, and using only flashlights at night and drastically reducing water pump usage.  The effort to bleed and bleed was only draining the battery by trying to turn the engine over.   So the decision was made to head to Cape Verde for help.

The next few days were actually quite nice in spite of the pending issue. Good winds, some light some big, dolphins, starry nights and whales!   We  went through the whole fuel system and determined it was the pump not pumping fuel into the injectors.  Our next step was to e mail a friend back home to help maybe look up some info about Cape Verde, but what we had in our cruising guide turned out to all be good.  We sent an e mail to  Kai Brossmann, the owner of the only marina in Mindelo on the island of Sao Vincente, and  a very experienced German engineer.   By the time we arrived in the port, the marina staff was expecting us.  After some tricky sailing in between some hundred anchored boats, we were safely in a slip and  working on the engine, while at the same time exploring the city of Mindelo.

It turned out that we had a lot of water and sludge in our tank. This was horrible and surprising being as how Robert and I are such sticklers at changing filters and watching the pressure gauge.  And then it turned out that we were one of many boats that took on really bad fuel in Las Palmas!!  Also the water in the fuel caused the shaft in the pump to actually break. At first we were really scared this would mean having to order a “part” which instantly translates to 4 to 6 weeks of waiting for the “part” and this would mean we would lose our crew.  A horrible possibility. BUT between Kai and his German engineering background, and the very cool island mentality of the workers, “if it’s made by a man, we can fix it”, they went around the island and found a shaft off another diesel fuel pump, and it worked.   I won’t ask what the guy is saying who owns that diesel engine that now has no shaft however.

So after  a total of six days spent in Mindelo, 2  due to holiday schedule (New Years) the rest due to actual working time,  we were once again off, only with a new country to be added to our adventure!  In spite of some not so good things, like a wallet stolen by a local thief who the police know by name (Patrick Ramano),  and a $2000 bill for engine, fuel and marina expenses, we really liked our Cape Verde detour!  It was the closest this boat ever got to Africa!    Well, we were actually only 50 miles away from Mauritania,  just North of Senegal, and we seriously considered stopping there, but we had no charts of that area, and we  knew  there was a marina and good help in Mindelo so we didn’t stop.                                              

  So now it’s classic Trade Wind sailing and only 1581 miles to go!!         !