Land!

The rest of our passage went well and we averaged around 6.5 knots all the way which was great. We saw surprisingly few boats but as we approached the Cape Verde islands we picked up a number of boats calling up as they approached the finish line. This was quite annoying as we were still around 4 hours away but I felt like I just wanted to be there!

It was quite exciting to sight land after 6 days at sea so I can only imagine what it will be like approaching Saint Lucia after over 2 weeks at sea! Although we could see a faint outline, the visibility was very bad because of a lot of dust coming over from Africa due to strong winds on the African coast so there was a lot of cloud and haze around. It was also quite challenging to pick out which island was Sao Vicente, the island we were aiming for, as the chart plotter did not have any data! Despite this we made it and crossed the finish line at around 1500 local time. We then had to face the difficulties of mooring with strong winds, especially with their pontoon system, which is very different from our own system. We finally got tied up at around 1545, which was nice although there was a lot of snatching on the ropes. The boy who had been helping us to tie up turned around to find his boat floating away as he had not secured it properly. He then proceeded to strip off his clothes and jumped in after the boat which was highly entertaining and amusing!!

From what we have seen of Mindelo it has a lively atmosphere with brightly painted buildings and stunning mountains in the background. In the evening we went to the ARC welcome drinks where there was traditional music, very similar to that of Las Palmas with lots of banging on the drums. This was entertaining for a while but it made it very difficult to talk to anyone! We wandered around the streets to find a restaurant and there was a band setting up in the street so there was music everywhere. We had an interesting meal at a restaurant in a big Portuguese house, which was nice, and then we returned to the boat to get a full night's sleep, which was amazing!

There is a severe shortage of water, particularly on Sao Vicente, as it is all created from desalination so we have 100 litres per person and then we have to pay. In order to have a shower you have to scan a card and it deducts the amount, however they are all cold and sometimes the water cuts out which is tricky, but it's better than nothing! I look forward to exploring the islands more before we leave on Wednesday and also catching up on sleep and showers!