Cape Verdes 5 – Change of Plans

We (Quartermoon & I) have decided to wait a little longer before setting off across the pond. Mainly due to the fact we (I) have a lot of smaller jobs that need doing and Amy really wants to celebrate Christmas properly. In addition, the Atlantic pressure map looks a little freaky, with massive high pressure over the UK and N. Europe and no Azores high to speak of and the fact it’s constantly changing meaning we would be heading into potentially dodgy weather. Therefore, we will sit tight until Boxing Day at least, make sure we are properly ready and have a better idea of the weather. Also, I may decide to go to St. Lucia now due to the lack of anchorages in Barbados, I'll keep you posted.

My ‘ToDo’ list so far:
Clean & Pack away dinghy and stow below – Done.
Lift floor boards and sponge bilges dry – Done.
Last minute food shopping – Done (as best as I can).
Top up water – Done.
Remove Jib and bend on Genoa – Done.
Make the galley cupboards useable at sea – Done (Nice one Sym!)
‘Obtain’ Pilot guide to Caribbean – Done (the magic of photocopiers!)

Extra Gaz - Done (Gaz is really cheap here).
Tighten Rigging – Christmas morning (I ran out of daylight today).

Many thanks to Sym, who is a master with a set of hand tools, the galley now will not spill bowls, plates, cups and glasses all over the floor when the boat is at sea. This will make such a difference to my quality of living while sailing and something Hanse should have thought of in the first place.

If any other cruisers (reading this) need work done at sensible rates, do not hesitate to give Sym (Quartermoon) a call if you find yourself in the same area. Sym has practically rebuilt Quartermoon (an Oyster 41) so evidence of his expertise in boat building is easily available.

Quatermoon now has their very own blog site and their progress and adventures can be followed, URL’s in the list to the right.

So … The Cape Verdes?
Well, it’s an interesting place! It seems that the people are either very wealthy (expensive cars etc) or extremely poor (street beggars and sharks). Everything is really expensive, for example a tube of toothpaste cost me about 3 quid and chocolate (Mars, Twix, etc) are kept behind glass to prevent theft they are so expensive!



The beggars ask you to buy them milk powder for their babies (that you never see) for some reason. We think it’s either to cut coke (or something) or to resell it back to the supermarkets. Or, they really do use it? Either way, its weird! I'm sure there's a scam going on somewhere.

I have purchased some extras that will ‘keep me going’ but I don’t have as many goodies as I’d like for such a long trip, especially as my diet is based around chocolate!

Anyway, enough for now, its Christmas eve so Merry Christmas to everyone I know friends, family and cruisers alike. Think of me tomorrow morning when you are unwrapping your pressies, I'll be on deck tightening my rigging!

Have a good one!

Boo & Doris.

Cape Verdes 4 – Doris Bids Fond Farewells To Lindsey

We woke up quite early and went ashore with Sym & Amy to officially check into the Cape Verdes. First visit the police station to announce our arrival and surrender the ships papers (I hate doing this!).

Lindsey was hoping to be home for Christmas so the mission was to find some method of transport to the international airport on the island of Sal. After much asking around we finally found the TACV office that deals with inter island flights and successfully booked her flight for the following day (Tues 23rd).

Knowing that Lindsey was going home we (Amy, Sym and myself) decided we would celebrate Christmas on the Wed 24th and set sail for the Caribbean Christmas morning! This also meant that our next trip to immigration we could get our passports stamped for entry and exit of the Cape Verdes in one hit, perfect.

I know I should really spend some time exploring and sight seeing in the Cape Verdes, but to be honest, the weather here is currently howling winds and pouring rain, a miracle as someone said it normally rains about 9 days a year?!?!?! Being single handed again, I am keen to get back out to sea and achieve my main goal of crossing the Atlantic.

After the immigration office, we all went back to the police station, showed our exit stamps and managed to retrieve our ships papers meaning we can all leave at any time.

Already having a flight booked in the Canaries from Sal to Munich, the only remaining task was to book a flight from Munich to the UK in time for Christmas, which she managed later that evening, albeit with a 15 hour layover in Munich - ouch!. Lindsey spent the evening packing her stuff and booking her final flight before we risked life and limb in the dinghy ride to Quartermoon in about 30kn gusts, for a farewell meal cooked by Sym.

Its now just after 10am local time and Lindsey is on her way home. After waking up at 5am, I took her ashore to meet the taxi she had ordered at 6am in Quatermoon’s dinghy we borrowed due to the howling winds. Her itinery, Mindello -> Sal -> Munich -> UK for about 1am Christmas day.

I now have 2 days to get the boat ready for the ‘big one’…

Farewell Lindz...

Cape Verdes 3

Firstly, sorry for the slow update everyone, as you can see I am still alive and well in the Cape Verdes (at last). As Kat pointed out later, it was probably not the best idea to announce that I had ‘bad vibes’ about the trip from the beginning and then go silent a third of the way across, so appologies to all who were worried about us.

After the initial posting, progress was both slow and actually off course, towards the Carribean for 2-3 days due to a really uncomfortable swell running on our beam and the wind being directly behind us. Being the lazy cruiser I am, we simply flew minimal sail and run with the swell until it died down before getting back on course again.

The weather throughout the trip was generally a major let down considering how far south we are and just off the coast of Africa, patchy sun, windy and quite cold during the day and squally, rainy and damp each night. The last day or so, while we had lovely flat seas and hot sunshine, we had very little wind to actually sail. I imagined the trip would take around 7 days (100 nm per day), Lindsey was hoping for 6 days but we ended up taking 8 days.

We were greeted by Quartermoon, Sym & Amy who guided us into the anchorage as I only had a pilot book and no chart available. Sadly, Aliisa had left for the Carribean the day before we arrived. Good luck for the crossing guys! Stay in touch and let us know when you are safely across.

Sym & Amy told us they were close to contacting the UK Falmouth Coast Guard to see if we had let off our EPIRB or if they had heard any news about us, as they (along with others) were getting very worried about us. A new lesson I have learnt (read the manual) is that I can’t keep more than 30 SMS messages on the sat phone as it prevents new ones from being delivered. With lots of previous trip messages and a whole stream of jokes being received and kept while en-route, I didn’t receive the anxious ones – doh!

Note to self: Always read and delete SMS messages immediately and leave the Sat phone turned on all the time when crossing the Atlantic!

On the subject of SMS messages, many thanks to you guys who sent them, at one stage I had the only Sat phone joke line in the Atlantic ocean, it was great to hear from you all again, Dave, Nick, Francois, Crutey, Prav, Kat, etc

Anyway, enough for this post, I will post again soon with whats new and cool in the Cape Verdes.

Boo & Doris.

Cape Verdes 2

For those who were concerned, I have just heard from Boo who has arrived alive and well in Cape Verdes. His travel sim doesn't work there so I wouldn't try and phone him.

He is sure to post more when he gets an internet connection.

Phew!

Cape Verdes 1

13.12.08-1700.
Valle Gran Rey anchorage. We lifted the hook at 5pm and left under engine with the local wind howling directly on the nose.

13.12.08-1800.
I spent 30 mins removing and cleaning the ships log, as we had no boat speed or distance data. Just after completing the log Lindsey noticed water in the heads floor – another burst pipe! Another 30 mins later saw the pipe fixed with me dripping with sweat and on the edge of being sea sick in the swelly seas. Bad vibes about this trip… Hanse , if you read this change your supplier of spiral reinforced water hose, they are not safe or suitable!

13.12.08-2100.
The forcast winds of 25kn turned into a gale warning with winds to 40kn and building seas 3-4m. We flew a scrap of jib and run with the winds not quite making the rhumb line. Luckily we had some remaining Chilli Con Carne still in the pressure cooker for dinner.

14.12.08-0000. N27 40.800 W17 26.100
Winds dropped to 25kn NE and I gybed to avoid a liner coming out of El Hierro. Almost clear of the Canaries Islands.

15.12.08-0000 N26 14.990 W18 25.330
We ate fresh Dorada filleted and cooked by Lindsey with onion and garlic potatoes. Our first fish, caught around 6pm on a towed lure Lindsey had named Bertie. Unfortunately, Bertie gave himself so that we may eat well. RIP Bertie. Current lures in the collection are: Bertie (RIP), Barny, Ernie, Fanny and Freddie. I took the liberty of ‘pimpin my lure - Fredie’ which is now about 6 inches long with a spinner body and squiddy skirt!

16.12.08-0000 N25 12.300 W19 25.720
The last 24 hours has been a battle to stay close to the rhumb line and keep the boat comfortable in the never ending (often confused) 3-5m swell. Winds have varied from 7kn to 30kn. Sail combinations are basically Jib only at night and prevented main (1-3 reefs) during daylight. Progress is slower than we hoped for mainly due to the poor sea state. Weather at night is cold and damp with rain squalls and sunny but not very hot during the day, not the kind of sail I had in mind when setting off.

About 500nm to go…

Feel free to keep us company by sending SMS messages to 881631667012 via the Iridium website at: http://messaging.iridium.com/

Weds 3rd – Thurs 11th December Valle Gran Rey

After setting off before both Quatermoon and Aliisa from San Sebastian we arrived last in Valle Gran Rey after a brief stop in Santiago for lunch. While in Santiago we managed to contact the Gomera Diving Centre and arrange to see the instructor the next day. We all anchored in the amazing location just outside of Puerto Vueltas harbour almost alongside the dramatic vertical cliffs.

The first night saw a little ‘get together’ aboard Aliisa where Hannis (The German Hippy Dude) we met in Cascais joined us.

The next day (Thurs) Lindsey and I went to the dive centre and arranged to start immediately that afternoon. While I have completed some of the OpenWater (Confined Water and Theory) components of the course I have not done the last four OpenWater Dives. After finally being able to get back in clean water we spent the morning snorkelling and then we went ashore where Lindsey started her theory components and we spent the afternoon in the centre watching PADI DVDs.

Friday morning saw us entering the water after a 9:30am start from the shore just opposite the dive centre for Lindsey to start her Confined Water skills. I mainly watched from underwater and also joined in a few of the skills to ‘brush up’. While only from the shore in about 3-4m of water the dives were amazing with a second dive at 2:30pm. During this second dive we saw a huge Manta (Butterfly) Ray which literally exploded from the sand less than a few feet away. Lindsey had trouble equalising her ears even at moderate depths and it seems like a problem that she is going to have to conquer throughout the course. Being determined she battled on and completed the Confined Water dives successfully.

Dive 1: 4m for 47mins
Dive 2: 4m for 32 mins

That night saw us join the others aboard Quatermoon for the most amazing tasting food I have ever tasted cooked on a boat BBQ.

Saturday was a ‘Day Off’ as the Dive centre was closed. We had a lazy start to the day and finally went ashore to the stony beach opposite the anchorage where Lindsey managed to sit down in the water before getting the dinghy ashore.

After finally getting ashore we found the bank and cashpoint machine to draw out some money. We spent the evening in a bar with a beach front view getting more and more drunk. On the way back to the boat Lindsey was absolutely desperate to go to the toilet which led to a swift swerve up a private looking alley only to be ‘caught in the act’ by someone vacating the building. After finally getting back to the boat out came the Rum and we continued where we left off.
The anchorage was now quite lonely as Aliisa had left Saturday morning and Quatermoon had decided to leave that evening, both heading for the Cape Verdes.

We will be close behind you guys, so stay safe and C ya soon!

Sunday morning was the first of our Open Water Dives, however, we were forced to enter from the shore due to bad sea conditions. The dive was still good with us going a lot deeper but visibility was severely reduced to about 5m.

Dive 3: 7m for 49 mins

We cancelled the second dive of the day again due to conditions and Lindsey and I spent the day snorkelling off the back of Doris after sleeping most of the afternoon. This snorkel session was a milestone for Lindsey as she finally stopped doing ‘dying fly’ impressions on the surface and learnt to dive deeper going to around 4m and then only stopped by not being able to equalise her ears.

With the weather being a lot better Monday morning we set out on our first Boat Dive joined by four other Germans and a Spanish guy, to a place called Cala De La Negra. This dive was amazing but Lindsey had a lot of problems with her ears and I ended up ‘Buddying Up’ with a German guy while the instructor looked after Lindsey and slowly got her down to depth. The fish were generally bigger and the whole experience generally more dramatic.

Dive 4: 12m for 46 mins

The second dive of the day, while being from the boat was literally only the other side of the Vueltas harbour wall (Baja Del Secrets). Again a great dive but with reduced visibility and a lot of ‘surge’ from waves rebounding off the wall. We did see both Bonito and Barracudas.

Dive 5: 15m for 39 mins

Tuesday saw us heading for a place called Iguala for our final qualifying PADI OpenWater dive. Lindsey again had some problems and took around 15 mins to get down to depth due to her ears being slow to equalise. Once we were all down the whole experience was ‘other worldly’. We swam along a reef with steep vertical walls again witnessing the most amazing sights and with this being our deepest dive yet, the feeling of flying over an abyss was incredible. It was this dive that I finally felt I could control my buoyancy with a degree of confidence as could Lindsey.

Dive 6: 17m for 46 mins

Lindsey and I are now fully qualified PADI Open Water divers and able to hire gear and go diving alone – scary stuff! Christmas is coming and I have a new shopping list! Bring on the Carribean…

Cumulative Dive Time: 4 hours 19 mins.


Lance – I owe you a large drink for getting me started!

Wednesday saw Lindsey and I looking for a taxi to take us up (around 1000m – I think) to a town called Arure, where we were to descend along the hiking track back to Valle Gran Rey below.

The weather was far from ideal being windy and threatening to rain. The other walkers (coming the opposite way) must have wondered about us not exactly being appropriately dressed or prepared.

The views across the island and out to sea were breath taking but the final hour or so of descent really took their toll on otherwise unused leg muscles.

Once back at sea level in Valle Gran Rey we made sure Doris was all OK and headed to a bar for some drinks while waiting for our restaurant of choice (Tuyo) to open.

After several well earned Baileys and a few beers we sat down to dinner in complete solitude as we were the only people there. Lindsey finally got to have her fish dinner of Dorada Royal which put a huge smile on her face. After desert and a smooth row back to the boat we were soon making like ‘dead people’ being exhausted from the days hike.

Thursday 11th - We have decided to set sail for the Verdes (~800nm about 7 days at sea) tomorrow after getting everything sorted with the boat and depending on a good weather forcast.

We spent the afternoon rowing back and forth ashore getting fresh water onboard, replacing the used Gaz cylinder and buying more supplies. We also bought some new squiddy lures as recommended by Kat.

During the evening the wind really started blowing and it was not possible to get ashore by rowing the dinghy to check the Internet for email, weather etc so had an early night after Chilli Con Carne and a beer.

It’s now Friday morning (10:30am) and I am writing this. Marcus & Jess on Veracity arrived last night. Today will be spent getting the water cans filled in case anything happens to the main water tank and doing all the Internet based stuff. Hopefully, all being well, we will leave either tonight or tomorrow morning and I will update the blog via twitter.

The trip to Cape Verdes will be the longest leg of my trip yet, although not single handed this time… Stay Tuned!

Las Palmas To La Gomera

Despite the last blog entry we still managed to leave Las Palmas a day later than planned as Marcus finally arrived. We spent a really nice evening with Marcus, Jess, James and Freya of (aboard) Otahi (I think that’s the right spelling).

The next day we left Las Palmas and made a swelly passage to Pasito Blanco, arriving around 5pm to drop the anchor in about 1.8m of water under the keel (my shallowest anchorage yet), make some food and get a few hours sleep before re-setting off for Los Christianos on Tenerife.

Just before arriving at Pasito Blanco we spoke to Aliisa on the VHF who was also heading for La Gomera, mid conversation we experienced a 180 degree wind shift and gusts to 35kn! The winds around the Canaries are crazy.

After eating pasta and watching the crazy local water skier we slept until 2am and then left under motor towards Tenerife, 65nm away. After motoring all night (Lindsey slept while I helmed) the wind finally made an appearance around 8am where I could finally set up the boat to steer herself.

We arrived at Los Christianos after being escorted by a pod of dolphins and discovered that the anchorage as described in the Imray pilot book has completely changed. Anchoring in about 8m of water under the keel I had to let out the warp again as 30m of chain just isn’t enough. More chain is at the top of the shopping list when I get to the Caribbean!

Rather than head off immediately, we decided it might be nice to actually see Los Christianos as Lindsey has never been to Tenerife before. I, on the other hand spent a few months here living on a nudist beach years ago and this is the place where I first discovered that people are sailing boats around the world and probably the birthplace of the crazy idea that now led me back with my own boat.

The next day was spent generally looking around the town with Lindsey buying perfume gifts for her family. We finally headed back to the boat in the afternoon and had a ‘wash’ / swim before heading back for an evening Chinese meal. The next day we left the anchorage with about 5knots of wind and ghosted our way towards La Gomera, with Lindsey sunbathing and me a slave to the wheel.

We saw several whales of which I presume were of the pilot variety. Mid way across we had to use the engine as the wind had died and the swell increased considerably. The last 5 or so miles saw the winds increase to 25kn as we entered the acceleration zone and with 2 reefs in the main and ¾ jib made good progress towards the San Sebastian marina.

Quatermoon and Aliisa were already moored up inside and luckily Sym managed to sweet talk the staff into letting us moor in the haul out pen as the marina was completely full with boats moored up four boats deep.

After a close encounter with a large cat moored in the entrance of the haul out pen we made fast and headed over to the join the BBQ on the pontoon quayside. Needless to say the wine flowed and out came the guitars, with several memorable songs being composed the best being ‘Donde Esta El Doris’ sung by Sym in his best Spanish! Another highlight was ‘We’re German – and I hope you like Germans too’ by a crew of randoms who happened to join in as they passed by. We finally had to abort when the other boats started to complain about the noise…

The next morning I felt like death, I managed to muster a cup of tea before getting back into bed. The second attempt to wake up was even worse. We managed to make it into town and ordering a cooked breakfast in the hope that this would kill or cure. Just the sight of the cold almost raw fried eggs and fatty bacon made my stomach do back flips. Lindsey managed considerably better than me as I sat there shaking, freezing cold with sweat running down my back with watering eyes assessing what bin to throw up into should the need arise.

After walking around a while I started to feel a little better and met up with the rest of the crew who had also been rough all morning. We got the boat sorted for a departure the following day, filling the water and fuel tanks (my first Diesel since Portugal) and went to the supermarket and got some supplies for another BBQ. That evening saw a more subdued version of the previous night, all very civilised with not a single guitar in sight.

Anina having recovered from alcohol poisoning...

The next morning we checked out of the marina and just before leaving we bumped in Matti of Carma who had just arrived. After a quick chat I decided that I would like to stay another day, especially as we were only being charged 10eu per night in the haul out pen!

Sym & Amy of Quatermoon also decided to stay another day. We went into town and looked around in a more relaxed state than previously without having to look for bins to throw up into! After some lunch in a local restaurant we had showers (cold) and met up with Matti for some food on Doris before finding a bar in town.

We decided to get a pizza, which looked really nice when bought to the table. (Un)fortunately, Lindsey managed to find a small cockroach on the underside of the pizza we were sharing quashing any appetite instantly! We asked for the bill and was horrified to discover that Matti had been charged for his pizza despite him returning it due to feeling ill!

Its now 11am and after writing this will prepare to head for Valle Gran Rey (possibly via Santiago) where we will hopefully finally do our PADI Open Water courses.

Daniel of Luna, if you are already there and read this in time, wait for us before heading for the Cape Verdes.