Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I have a great blog written on the memory stick but unfortunately it will not copy on this pc!! so I am writing this sitting in an internet joint in Mindelo, Cape Verdes. We had a 6 day trip down here, having left under a cloud and a rainbow from Santa Cruz Tenerife on Tuesday morning. Our first day was charactersied by huge waves, and a report from a friend of Gerards (our crew) that we would be getting upwards of 40 knots of wind. After we had prepaired a drogue and calmed me down night fell and although the wind was high (around 30 knots) it didnt escalate to a storm at all. The night passed with max speed of 12 knots and the rest of the trip was similar, with the wind dying down on our last day freeing us from the crashing waves to enjoy a day of flat sea and spinnaker sailing. The girls were great - they spent the 1st day watching angelina ballerina and the princess dance about 10 times and then the dvd tolerance waned a bit and we did lots of colouring, making xmas snowflakes, and making lanterns (I felt sick through it all!). I found the trip very tiring, John i think enjoyed it and Gerard loved it (he is great crew - doesnt infringe on our lives at all, does long watches during the day and takes a 3 hour watch at night). We saw a huge pod of very jumpy dolphins, some pilot whales, flying fish and incredible phosphouresence. We arrived in Mindelo late monday night, none of the lighthouses were working so the approach was tense with no moon light, however with johns brain in switched on mode we made it in safely and fell asleep (john and Gerard had a celebratory beer - i had a celebratory fall into bed. Although cape verde used to be portugues it feels more african than anything else, it took us all day to do customs and immigration, and everyone was very vague. there are alot of french boats here so gerard is hardly on board since we arrived and we are gearing up to a french african xmas! We are planning to leave to cross the atlantic on boxing day (before i loose my nerve, and while the girls have new toys to play with). I hope you all have a great xmas - we will be thinking of friends and family, and we will be intouch from the sunny carribean in around 3 weeks.
- comments