We arrived in the Cap Verdes Islands on Tuesday evening on April 28, having covered 3800 miles since leaving Cape Town. We had very good wind and a fast passage initially in strong southerlies. The trades were a bit light and died to less than 10 kts approaching St Helena and we had to motor for a bit but we had a fast passage of less than ten days.
There were plenty of moorings available but still many cruising boats were there on their way to the Caribbean. We arrived on a calm day so we launched the dinghy and crossed the mooring field to the dinghy landing. Very difficult to do, due to the dozens of local boats.
There was little swell at the landing and we got ashore without problem. Clearing in was easy and convenient. I must say, the island was quite delightful and is well worth the visit. Jamestown has one of the last remaining examples of original Georgian architecture and has a fascinating history. The people are extremely friendly and have a most peculiar accent and way of speaking.
We did all the touristy things. We climbed Jacob's ladder and went on a tour of the island with Robert Peters in his rickety VW van. He is strongly recommended if you visit the island. We saw Napoleon's house and his tomb, the Governor's house and his giant tortoises. It was a very long day.
We got some laundry done and some fresh vegetables and fruit and some excellent yellowfin tuna. Fueling was also simple and efficient but quite expensive at about $1.75 /liter.
We left on Monday, April 13 in what was forecast to be strong trades but were in fact quite light. We proceeded under our double headed rig as we could not burn fuel until much later in the leg.
We had some very nice easy sailing even into the doldrums, the weather getting hotter every day. We did eventually have to motor in the calms, interspersed with line squalls and thunder showers. We had a problem with the watermaker. The high pressure pump would not start up intermittently and I suspect that the start capacitors are failing. On shutting the watermaker down the rinse cycle went on but then would not shut off. I serious problem as the watermaker was then dumping our freshly made water out through the sea water side of the watermaker. We took the solenoid that controls the rinse cycle apart and it was stuck in the open position. Some careful cleaning remedied the problem but spares are on their way to the Azores.
We got into a brief thunderstorm in the doldrums which lasted about 3 hours with winds in the 40 kt. range. A steel bolt on the mainsail traveler gave way and needed repair with some bits and pieces I had on board. Bad things usually happen in threes and the third thing happened soon after. The main sail out haul drive started to make a very bad noise and would only turn though one revolution and then stop. We suspect that there is a broken tooth in the gearbox that turns the mechanism. We are now in the process of taking the drive apart but it will probably require replacement.
Fortunately, we are able to unfurl the sail manually.
After the doldrums we got into the NE trades and as these were quite light, we were able to motor sail quite effectively for some of the time. Mostly though, it was motoring slowly into light headwinds and adverse current.
We got into Praia with 300 liters to spare.
This leg took just over 2 weeks and was quite tedious. In retrospect, it might have been better to swing out well west of the cap verdes and go straight on to the Azores but hindsight is always 20/20
Praia is much as expected. A desperately poor, third world country without much infrastructure.
We have the obligatory boat boy facilitator and even though I am paying him too much he has been helpful in getting the clear in process done and getting us 600 liters of fuel at a very good price. 70 cents a liter delivered by truck to the dock!. The process took all day and required a fair amount of trust. He took me by cab to a shell gas station where the posted price for diesel was $1/ liter and I paid cash for 600 liters ( about $420) and they told me the tanker truck would arrive at 1500 hours.
The boat boy, whose name is George by the way, said there might be a problem bringing the boat into the harbor as the dockmaster needed to do paperwork and charges would be involved. A $20 bribe made that go away. I'm not sure who the bribe went to or if I got shaken down again by George but we did tie up along side and the tanker truck did show up at about 1800H which is 1500H on local island time. Anyway the fueling got done with only minimal spillage and we were anchored up again as it was getting dark. The watermaker is again working well.
Taking the outhaul drive is proving a bit difficult but I am sure that Ron will prevail.
We are carefully looking at the weather around the Azores and note the low pressure systems marching eastward at regular intervals. With a bit of luck and planning we should be able to slide in between them.
Photos to follow.
