6 days at sea Our arrival in Cape Verde
Why we become the mother ship of germs, how to stop on the high seas, what "Buzio" is and how we bathe in a volcanic crater.
Adios, Canarias!
After we lose sight of the last Canary Island, we are presented with a sight that will hardly change over the next week: the sea is blue, the sky is blue 😎 However, the first night is not entirely unspectacular: on the one hand, there are Ale and Zoe, the sailing chicks of our crew. They don't feel very well, the seasickness takes over despite the patches behind their ears. At some point they feel well enough to lie in their cabin and sleep. That's still the best cure for everything.
So we, Wulfi, Marti, Thierry & me, share the night shifts. Super relaxed with so many people. And now comes highlight 2 of this night, because it's Marti's birthday! 🥳🎉 Unfortunately, Marti is not in a 100% party mood, as some nasty disease has crept onto the Cervino in Tenerife and has already caught Ale, Zoe and Thierry. They have all recovered to some extent, and now it's the birthday girl's turn ☹ After a day in her bunk, she still has a bit of energy in the evening and we raise our glasses together. There's also a feast, because earlier in the afternoon a nice mahi mahi has bitten. So first we have two types of cevice for an aperitif and then mahi mahi steak with mashed potato salad (damn those potatoes, I never know when they're cooked).
3 days Oxley
After the first few days with the genoa and mainsail unfurled, the wind drops noticeably. Perfect conditions for the Oxley! With 15 knots of true wind we make a crisp 6 knots of speed. That's great fun! The waves are flat and long and so we glide through the blue with minimal boat movement. This is the kind of sailing we all want. Or at least I do 😂 We even leave the Oxley overnight. At some point, the wind drops so much that even this light cloth falls from the sky and we motor for a few hours. We don't miss out on the fun of taking a quick dip in the 4000 metre deep Atlantic. Refreshing, but also a bit scary 😅 At the end of the day, both fishing rods buzz: two bonitos! We lose one while reeling it in, luckily, because at 6kg the second one is also big enough for all of us. Unfortunately, our rod breaks when we lift in the fish ☹ Everything has its price.
All in all, we were quicker than expected, so our estimated arrival time in Sal is sometime at night. That's rather uncool, because sailing into a new place with no visibility is pretty sketchy. So we try to slow down a bit on the last day and only sail with the genoa reefed. As the wind has picked up, we're still making around 5 knots of speed, although we'd need more like 3.8 knots. Damn this speed if you want to be slow! After a lot of back and forth, we decide to take a short break in the evening and wait a few hours before continuing. The manoeuvre is called heaving to. We've never done this since our sailing test and, as always with new situations, I'm a bit scared. The manoeuvre works quite well, and so we stay for about 2 hours, cook and have dinner. We tackle the night with the main reefed. The wave is super uncomfortable, everything shakes and none of us sleeps really well. We are all happy when we reach the cover of Sal Island at around 7am. The sun is slowly rising and the outline of land slowly shimmers through the Sahara sand in the sky. Perfect timing! We sail into the bay and drop anchor. Hello Cape Verde!
Cape Verde, no stress!
We hear this saying practically everywhere we go. The people here are super friendly and we feel right at home. Palmeira is the name of the place we are moored in front of. A small fishing village with a few shops and small restaurants. To see something else of the island, we want to take the shared taxi to a few tourist spots. We get in at Palmeira and our taxi driver Ivandro offers to take us anywhere we want to go throughout the day. Great, let's do it! The first stop is Shark Bay, a long lagoon where the water is thigh-high at low tide. A few baby sharks hang around here as they can be protected from predators. 🦈 After the shark spectacle, we have a juice, Ivandro explains the locals' favourite game to Zoe and then we're off again.
There is a salt mine on the island. Unlike other salt mines we have seen so far, this one is not located in a lagoon near the coast, but in a volcanic crater. The water somehow rises through the rock inside the volcano and collects in the centre. You can swim in one of the pools, and of course we do! It's great fun 😂 After a quick shower and a siesta on the deckchairs, we drive back to Palmeira, where we invite Ivandro for dinner. We have feijoada with rice and fries in a small restaurant. In the evening there is a barbecue and disco in Palmeira, Marti & Wulfi take a break as Marti is still not quite fit. The rest of us pop in, eat two skewers and listen to some bad music 😂 Not quite the dance party we had hoped for.
Now we want to move on and take a look at the next island. Before we set off, however, there is an important crew meeting. We review the last week and everyone can share their thoughts. We all agree that we had a great time and that the atmosphere on board was very relaxed, fun and uncomplicated. Unfortunately, Zoe never really felt at ease, there was always a sinking feeling in her stomach and she couldn't do much other than sit outside or sleep inside. Ale also had short bouts of nausea from time to time. This somewhat dampened the joy of the upcoming crossing for both of them and they therefore decided to get off the boat in Palmeira. Our journey will therefore continue with just the four of us. Of course, it's a pity that our two friends won't be accompanying us any longer, but this decision was important and the right one for them, and the four of us are still in a great position for whatever comes next.
So on our last evening, we treat ourselves to a meal at the town's most famous fish restaurant. We have amberjack, red snapper, shrimps and the local speciality: buzio. Ivandro's favourite dish. Basically a type of mussel, cooked in a spicy sauce. As always, it is served with rice, potatoes, manioc and fries. We drink wine from Fogo, the volcanic island of the archipelago, and enjoy a last evening (for now) with the six of us. Thank you so much for this unforgettable time, dear Zoe and Ale. We wish you all the best for your future adventures, and who knows where we'll see you again. For us, we are now travelling on to Boa Vista.
