Richard Hewson

We arrived in Mindelo Cp Verde on Monday 21st November and spent the first day chilling in the boat and cleaning up.

On Tuesday morning we set off in the Walker bay to clear customs and walk about the town.

Our mobile phones did not receive calls or internet in Mindelo so we went to the marina bar to download weather and emails.

We then went for a walk and explored the local markets. Whilst the Cp Verde islands are money poor, we found the locals to be very friendly and the fresh produce to be excellent.

We were thankful that Mindelo Harbour provides excellent anchor holding as we experienced average winds of 26kts during our stay, with gusts up to 36kts. It was so windy we ended up hanging washing down below to dry.

A tour of the adjacent island Santo Antao was reported to be excellent, but anchorages limited on the island. There is a ferry service to Sanyo Antao and 4WD tours of the island, however we did not want to leave the boat in the anchorage with strong winds and so many other boats moving around the Harbour.

Yesterday I took a walk along the Long Beach to look for a deck cushion that had blown overboard. I was sad not to find the cushion, but even more concerned about the amount of plastic and trash washed up on this island beach in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Fishing is the main occupation in Mindelo and there are many small boats working the Harbour and 20m boats catching tuna further out to sea. It was upsetting to see the size of some of the huge 80+m international fishing boats coming into Harbour to fuel up and offload their massive catch.

At midday today we depart Mindelo to sail over 2000 nm across the Atlantic to Bequia island in the Caribbean. The passage should take between two and three weeks. We have good wind forecasted for the voyage, sailing down wind in 15-20 kts of wind.