Day 6 arrive at the Cape Verdes

Well we have arrived in the Cape Verdes with the last 30 miles being really
good sailing, we dropped anchor at about 19:15 in the port of Palmeira and
prepared our evening meal with a few well earned refreshments.

The anchorage is quite full with other cruising boats of all nationalities,
but mainly French, we had a visit from one of the locals, Zidane, who runs a
boat service for the cruisers. He presented us with a folder, which had all
the services with prices he offered, excellent!

We are both looking forward to a good nights sleep.

Total distance run = 810NM

Our position on anchor - Lat 16 45.152N Long 22 58.806W

Day 5 to the Cape Verdes

The wind was kind to us last night and a really good night was had by all,
the sailing was the best on this run so far. Last night was the invasion of
the flying fish with one actually hitting my hand and loads of others
hitting the boat and bouncing back off into the water, fish scales
everywhere, all we need is for the bigger cousins to act in the same manor
with the fishing gear, not tried the whisky trick Bill as we don't drink on
passage.

We are now only just a few hours away from our destination and we are both
scanning the horizon for that first sight of land, Ilha do Sal will never
look better.

Distance run from noon to noon - 141NM

Total distance run = 778NM

Distance to run = 31NM
Our position at noon - Lat 17 13.219N Long 22 42.508W

Day 4 to the Cape Verdes

The wind came back last night with an intention to make up for the previous
night, the boat was rolling along in the big Atlantic rollers, both of us
got little sleep, but this morning it had eased and we are now catching up.

Last night we had visitors by way of flying fish, Jo had one land right
beside her, so she picked it up and threw it back from whence it came, the
boat had fish scales all over it, which dry off in the day light and blow
overboard. We have never seen so many flying fish. More lightening in the
distance.

We are now only just over a day away from our destination and we are both
looking forward to hot a shower and some rest.

Distance run from noon to noon - 177NM

Total distance run = 637NM

Distance to run = 153NM
Our position at noon - Lat 19 13.944N Long 21 25.497W

Day 3 to the Cape Verdes

The wind died down last night and this morning as predicted we both have had
a better night's sleep, but the boat speed decreased, but hey you can't have
it all ways.

Last night we watched from a distance a massive lightening storm, which
fortunately was way behind us, so far we could not hear the thunder. It was
a very dark night, which added to the effects from the lightning.

We are now over half way to our destination, plus we are now officially in
the tropics!

Distance run from noon to noon - 153NM

Total distance run = 460NM

Distance to run = 340NM
Our position at noon - Lat 21 47.239N Long 19 48.432W

Day two to the Cape Verdes

We had a better run than the previous day. We have passed a couple of large
commercial ships during the night, which are just floating around and don't
seem to be making way?

Just downloaded the latest forecast and the weather looks to be slightly
better for the next couple of days.

All well boat and crew enjoying the trip, so far so good, fingers crossed.

Distance run from noon to noon - 162NM

Total distance run = 308NM

Distance to run = 500NM
Our position at noon - Lat 24 00.558N Long 18 33.957W

Day one to the Cape Verdes

We had a slow start out of Las Palmas, but as we cleared the island the
trade winds kicked in, which were stronger than forecasted. The boat and
crew are going well.

We have see Dolphins, Pilot Whales and had a small bird hitch a ride with us
through the night.

Distance run from noon to noon - 146NM

Our position at noon - Lat 26 10.595N Long 16 55.171W

Kevin's Birthday, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Happy Birthday to Kevin!

We headed out last night for a meal at the Chinese restaurant at the Sotavento centre at the marina to celebrate Kevin’s birthday a little early hoping to get away on 1st Oct. It was a nice relaxed night and we got an early night ready to set off the next day.
We then started early again this morning with the last minute preparations and picked up our fresh provisions ready. We then picked up the last pieces from the chandleries all around drinking water as there is some questions around the quality in Cape Verdes and we will therefore need to be fairly self sufficient until the Atlantic. We picked up our replacement water filter for our Seagull filter which we use for fresh drinking water onboard, filtered from the tanks, which arrived into Rolnautic today after being order in early July. As we were at the counter they sold another two, they hadn’t previously stocked them despite display marketing all over the shop for Seagull filters, I suggested we should be on commission now they were selling so well, but they didn’t seem convinced.

Next job was some additional water purification tablets which we use routinely as an extra precaution to our tank water, this is then filtered out by the Seagull filter leaving water that tastes as good as any bottled water. We are really pleased with the filter, the filters last a year and flow slows to a stop when they need replacing so you won’t be able to run it with exhausted filters. As we routinely have a 20 minute walk to the supermarket, it has been a godsend not to have to carry bottled water back every trip. We also have 2 x 20 litre water jerry cans and 2 x 5 litre bottles of pre-filtered water stored separately for emergencies. We also last night decided that due to the questionable quality of water in Cape Verdes we would buy 2 more 20 litre containers which we will carry empty to the Cape Verdes (as weight on a catamaran is quite critical and we are heavily laden currently with food, fuel & water). Then before we top up the tanks in Mindelo we will fill the additional water tanks and use these for drinking water primarily, using the tank water for washing etc.

We had hoped to set off this afternoon but a localised low pressure system has come into Las Palmas with heavy rain and after walking several miles this morning collecting our last supplies we are quite tired. Therefore, being shorthanded we have opted to get a good night’s sleep and head off tomorrow in better weather. The forecast is looking good for the crossing, with reasonable wind strengths so it should be some good sailing. So Kevin does get to have a beer on his birthday after all, albeit only a couple!