Relaxed

20 January 2015

Update by Sanne:
“The day after arrival I sit on deck in the shadow of the course enjoying the view at sea. Because the sun reflects in the water it looks like a piece of silver foil that is wrapped around the earth. When first mate Jan asks me how I’m doing, I realise how weird it looks, me sitting with my mouth open staring through my eyelashes at the silver foil. It is going well, really well. It feels great not having to think about serious stuff. The guest crew have spread out over the ship. Someone is standing at the wheel, some read a book in the saloon and others are on deck staring through their eyelashes at sea. The wind pushes us to our destination. After dinner captain Maarten tells us about the island Santiago, where we are going.
The stars are shining bright when we come back on deck and my mouth again falls open and the relaxed feeling from this morning is back instantly. Ben stands next to me and points at the brightest star. “Do you see that star? That is the Betelgeuse. And that group of stars close by? Those are the Pleiades.” Together we stand there watching the stars while the wind is bringing us closer to Santiago. When I sit down on the bench near the wheel I see sparkles in the waves. Bright green lights that light up in the waves. It is algae. The next morning when I come on deck we have arrived in the beautiful bay of Tarrafal at Santiago. We are surrounded by other small sailing boats. By dinghy we go to shore where our guide Sayde is waiting for us amidst Cape Verdean woman who are cleaning and selling the fresh caught fish. With a small bus we travel along the coastal road to Rabelados where we will visit the town. In Assomada we have a typical Cape Verdean lunch with rice, potatoes and fish. After lunch we travel to Boa Entrada to the ancient old kapok tree. Unbelievable how big this tree is! In Serra Malegueta we make a nice walk through the mountains and at the end of the trip we visit a former concentration camp, where we try to imagine how it would have been for prisoners there.
So many impressions in two days, I can’t get enough.”