Swell

26 February 2018

Already early in this voyage it was clear that the weather would influence this trip. But the rain stopped, and finally the wind came with 15 knots from the north-east. Then the wind backed to the north, and eventually even to the west. This is not bad, because the part of the voyage between São Nicolau and Boa Vista is normally not easy to sail, and now it was!
There was one disadvantage, we found out when we arrived at Sal Rei. The swell, produced by the low pressure areas more north in the ocean, is normally weak. But now there is a strong low pressure area on the ocean that pushes our high pressure area south. That causes the westerly winds and a lack of protection from the swell. Normally, swell is not that much of a problem as long as we stay in deep waters. But, in shallow waters such as in the bay of Sal Rei, the swell are even bigger. We encountered waves of over 5 meters in the bay. The decision was easy, we had to get out of there!
So, we went out of the bay to find anchorage on the eastern side of Boa Vista. We found a great spot at Curral Velho, a deserted village. We enjoyed our breakfast here before sailing to the small island of Ilhéu de Curral Velho, a place were lots of birds nest. Afterwards we set the sails and spent the day at the east coast of Boa Vista, where Maarten as a captain has never sailed before in all those years! In the afternoon we sailed to Sal. Last night we anchored in the, also unknown, bay of Pedra Lume (meaning rocks of fire). We spent the day with amazing views of the salt pans and with snorkeling next to the ship.