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Sunday, November 23rd, Mindelo, São Vicente,
Cape Verde
It
is 2am as I write. It is my last night watch on
this six day, 860 mile passage. We are about
75 miles away from São Vicente and should arrive around
noon. The water temperature is a balmy 82° and
I've got a few less layers covering me up tonight than I
did on my previous night watches. Joe and I have
established a good routine of five hour watches between
8pm and 6am. After that, our schedule fluctuates
depending on whose need for a nap is more urgent.
I go back to sleep until 10 or so, but sometimes find
myself furling sails or helping with fishing lines
earlier than that. It usually takes us a day
or two to get in the groove of a passage but once our
bodies get used to the rhythm, it's a piece of cake!
What in the world do we do for six straight days on a
boat in the middle of the ocean?
School. Cassie and Juliana both completed nine
lessons on passage. The girls are really, truly
amazing. It isn't always easy, but they always get
it done right in the end. Cassie's sixth grade
material is much denser than previous years and it
sometimes takes six or seven hours to get through two
lessons in a day, but we take breaks when we need to
and, besides, "What else am I going to do?"
Meals. With lots of time and a well stocked boat,
we eat very well on passage. The menu this trip
included Risotto with Pancetta and Peas, Seared Tuna,
Steak, Lamb Curry, Sautéed Mahi Mahi, and Turkey Corn
Chowder. We often have leftovers for lunch but
sometimes we make that our main meal and have breakfast
for dinner. Tonight we had breakfast burritos to
die for with beans, cheese, bacon, red chili, hash
browns, and eggs. Joe and I topped ours off with
an extra dose of green chili on top. We could
barely wrap the tortilla around it all! It sure
was good though.
Reading. The girls absolutely love their new
Kindles. Did I mention that we got a couple of
them shipped out along with the school books and boat
parts we had delivered in Barcelona? I've
downloaded fifteen books since then and the girls have
read every one of them. Throw in the copy of
Brisingr Cassie got for her birthday and that makes
sixteen books in a month. My tally isn't nearly as
impressive, but I have learned something about the
Republic of Cape Verde, which I'll share with you a
little later.
Games. Juliana is killing Cassie in Monopoly.
Alas, she feels so guilty about having all the money
that she keeps giving it away. We obviously need
to work on the business instincts in that girl!
They also have been building all sorts of contraptions
with their Geomag set. It consists of magnetic
cylinders and balls that you can stick together and
manipulate into any shape your imagination can devise.
Socializing. Believe it or not, there is a network
of boats traveling between the Canaries and Cape Verde.
We have regular check ins on the SSB radio at 8am, and
7:30pm. We met "Vagabond Heart" in Las Palmas and
they told us about it. They have a ten year old
girl and two boys (ages don't really matter, they are
boys). They too are crossing the Atlantic from
Cape Verde. Fellow kid boats always like to keep
in touch! We also set up some regular SSB check in
times with Following Tides after we lost sight of each
other the first day out. So five times a day we
are chatting on the radio. We also are able to
send and receive short emails using our SSB radio.
It is wonderful to be in touch with friends and family,
even in the middle of the ocean!
Fishing. We've had more escapees than success this
trip, but it is always fun to try. We had
something really big on the line the first day.
Joe cranked the drag all the way up to the maximum
tension and it was still taking line easily. We
furled the headsail to slow the boat down and see if
that made a difference but before we had finished, the
line broke. What a relief! I'm not sure I
want to reel in anything that big! Our efforts
finally paid off yesterday morning and we pulled in a
small Dorado which made for a delicious lunch for the
four of us, with one nice filet left over for another
meal. We also wound up catching one poor fish
without even trying.
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Observing. We routinely scare up schools of flying
fish that burst out of the water in front of us.
They propel themselves into the air with lashing
movements of the tail and skim the surface of the water,
renewing their propelling power with another flick of
the tail. Their elongated pectoral fins provide
lift once out of the water, until they crash back
into a wave. We also spotted some whales spouting about
a quarter of a mile from the boat. Unfortunately,
they didn't get any closer but we were able to catch
sight of a tail coming out of the water. We had a
wonderful party with a big pod of Atlantic spotted
dolphin who came and played in our bow wake for about
half an hour. We first saw them leaping out of the
water in the distance. The longer we looked, the
more little splashes we saw all around us. "Look,
they're coming our way!" We position ourselves on
the bow and watch as these beautiful, playful creatures
come eagerly bounding towards us.
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Before long, we have two dozen swimming beneath us.
If only I could stretch my foot down a little bit
farther, I could touch them.
Sailing. Of course, we have to tend to the boat
the entire time we are on passage. Between
changing and trimming sails, adjusting our course, and
keeping a look out for other boats, we spend a fair
amount of time actively sailing. The amount of
effort required can vary tremendously depending on the
conditions. This passage has been pretty easy.
We had some choppy seas on our first day. The more
wind, the rougher the seas. As the wind mellowed
out the second day, so did the seas and we found
ourselves sailing well west of the rhumb line hoping to
stay in the breeze. Although it added significant
distance to our course, we wound up avoiding the worst
of the light air and motoring for only four and a half
hours. Since then, the wind has been pretty
consistent and we've been able to sail more or less
directly towards our destination.
Although quite happy on passage, it is always nice to
arrive. We are all anxious to discover a few of
the remote islands of the Cape Verde Archipelago.
Aside from being the perfect jump-off point for an
Atlantic crossing, the islands have an interesting
history, culture, and geography that we look forward to
sharing with you in our next blog.
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Next Entry
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Many thanks to our friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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