An unexpected beautiful day!

23 March 2023

News

We arrived in Mindelo after fighting against 7 Bft in the strait between São Vicente and Santo Antão. Once at anchor we were swinging in the swell, so we moved a few hours later, which made it better. The next morning, we had to get up early for the hike on Santo Antão. It was cloudy all day and there was lots of wind in the bay.

The forecasts said that wind would decrease during the day, but that didn’t seem to happen. When I left watch at 02:00 last night (so that is actually this morning) there was still a strong 20-25 knots. But when I woke up the wind was completely gone!

After breakfast we only had to clear customs and then we could depart. While that was being arranged, someone asked if it was possible to swim: of course, that’s possible! We lower the ladder a bit into the water and the first guest jumped in. That apparently looked so good that soon the next one jumped in, followed by several others. Within 15 minutes most of the guests were in the water. In the meantime, the customs clearance had been arranged and the dinghy returned. We put it to work as a stern thruster to turn the ship around, because in the calm weather we (almost) turned completely. And with two anchors out, that is just not convenient..

When everyone was splashed out, the ship was also in a position that the anchors could be hoisted. Expecting that even outside there would be no wind, we left the awning up and hung the dinghy in the davits. Once outside there turned out to be a mild, but sailable wind and we hoisted the sails. It became a beautiful clear day, so we could see São Nicolau clearly quite soon. And the calm weather invited ‘something different again’. Because to ‘just’ sail straight towards your goal under a clear blue sky with a warm sun and a light wind…

So after Santa Lucia we sailed towards Rasso. Just before hitting the shallows around the island, we gybed and sailed between Branco and Rasso. A little later we jibed back and finally saw the south side of Rasso up close. As if this wasn’t enough, a shark swam past and not much later we encountered a group of pilot whales. We were able to sail close to Tarrafal, so we only rigged down at the last minute and just as the dinner bell rang, we dropped anchor.
What a beautiful day today!