I first should start with some geography. What and where is Cape Verde? The Europeans all know, it’s on the way from Europe to the Caribbean if you’re sailing that way. It’s also a nice quick flight from many cities in Europe to a beautiful warm climate in the winter. Where we are right now is at the marina in a town named Mindelo, on the island on Sao Vicente, in the country of Cape Verde. There are ten volcanic islands, 320-460 miles into the Atlantic west of Cap Vert, which is the westernmost point in Africa. This was formerly a Portugese colony, so that is the national language and Catholocism is the primary religion.
When you sail to a new country, you never know how easy or difficult the check in process is going to be. Sometimes you tie to a dock where all the officials come to you. Sometimes you wander around town to one or more offices. Worst case we ever had was taking a taxi in Ecuador for two hours to another town, only to find the president was in town that day and all the official offices were closed. So we had to repeat the next day (and again when we checked out).
Here in Mindelo it was super simple, that is once we figured out where the customs office was. We knew it was somewhere near the ferry terminal, and found it relatively easily. They sent us to the police, who took the ships registration papers to hold until we checked out. Then back to the marina office. Usually there is a Port Captain involved in the process somewhere, but not here.
We arrived on Friday, and knew from Jim & Barbara’s friends who had been here the week before that there would be music in town. What we didn’t know was that some of the music was on a dock next to the marina, and played until 5:30 am. There were stages set up in a few spots in town, but it wasn’t particularly interesting music. And it was mixed with political speeches, since election day was coming later in the weekend.
There was a venue called Jazzy Bird in town that we wanted to check out, so we wandered up there thinking the music would start at 9:00. Actually it started at 10:00, but all the musicians finally arrived by 10:30 so then the music was really happening. We didn’t understand a word, and I believe it was all Portugese, but could easily have been Martian and we wouldn’t have known better. But it was beautiful.
Marina Mindelo is full of Europeans heading for the Caribbean, and I think a required stop for all French boats (jk). We’ve seen one other US flag and a few Canadian and Australian, but mostly Europeans. It’s super rolly and noisy in here and I am more than ready to go. This is an interesting contrast of boats – a huge old steel boat tough as nails next to a racing sled. Given my choice I would go with the heavy old slow girl across an ocean.
We took a car tour around the island one day with a local driver. He promised a snorkel with turtles, shower after, and restaurant for lunch. But when we got there at 9am we saw the restaurant and shower were closed that day. Not wanting to be salty all day we opted to hike to the lighthouse instead of snorkeling with turtles. This is the world’s third largest nesting place for loggerhead turtles and it might have been fun, but wasn’t worth it with no facilities to clean up.
We’ve finished all the ready to go preparations – laundry, fuel, water and a trip aloft to inspect the rig. We need to top off our freshies and get some more food, and when the weather looks settled enough we’ll be on our way (hopefully Saturday at the latest). It’s a 15 or 16 day trip if the tradewinds stay put and we have good breezes all the way there. I have an AirBnB booked and can’t wait to see Rob when we get to the other side.
I’ve been trying to upload pix all week, but that’s just not going to happen on any of the wifi here. Hopefully the wifi in Barbados is a bit speedier.
