Final preparations

20 February 2013

We are anchored at Mindelo (Porto Grande). Most of our guests are making a beautiful walk on Santo Antao. The crew is busy with the last preparations for departure. Early this morning we bunkered oil at the quayside. Wouter, our cook, was on shore the whole day to buy enough food for the crossing and we were busy with the ship. Repairing a sail, some painting, stowing away groceries, cleaning the deck, etc.
Earlier we painted the mid-deck and today it is time to do the quarterdeck and then the ship looks good again. All the wood fenders and ropes are tucked away, because we won’t need them any time soon so this clears up the deck also. Of course we also checked charts, studied the weather forecast and read the pilot. The forecast predicts strong wind for the coming days. Strong, but in our back so that won’t be a problem. Tomorrow morning we will buy the last fruit and vegetables and we will clear customs. Around lunch we hope to depart.
The ‘Tecla’ is anchoring next to us. They are ready for departure so they will depart in the morning. We will leave a half-day behind, so we have something to focus on… we will have daily radio contact and keep each other up to date. The ‘Tecla’ lead in catching fish. But we have new bait since today so we will pursue them, to be continued!