Tarrafal, Santiago

9 December 2014

After 24 hours of great sailing, we arrived in the bay of Tarrafal on the island Santiago. There, enjoying the view on the mountains, we had breakfast before going to shore by dinghy, where we met our guide, Sayde. We took one day to explore the island and his history. In short: we explored Tarrafal, then we visited a abandoned concentration camp, took a walk through the beautiful nature with fantastic views, had a great lunch, went to a market place, visited the at least 550-year old tree and walked back to Tarrafal through the botanic gardens next to the shore.
Everyone was welcomed back on board with a drink, music of Cesaria Evora and the smell of the just lit barbecue. With the afterglow of the day, we enjoyed dinner and we went to bed early, full of impressions.
The next morning we lifted the anchor and set sail for the longest leg of the voyage, the 130 mile leg to Mindelo on São Vicente. A beautiful day, with a lot of flying fish surrounding the ship and an ibis that hitched a hike on the topsail yard. The wind decreased and we decided to take that opportunity to get into the dinghy and take pictures of the ship, under full sail on the blue ocean.
This morning we arrived in Mindelo and we are going to explore the island São Vicente and, of course, the city.