Sal to Sao Vicente

Christmas resulted in a few " lost days " due to an excess of drink, also the outboard engine on Daves tender began to act up, we diagnosed a fault on the ignition system and another reality of life began to dawn on us, we could make do and mend or do without as spares and parts were unavailable.

Luckily however when Dave in a fit of madness seemingly forgot to tie up the dinghy the local boys were on hand to rescue it before it zoomed off to America!

Christmas tree Cape Verde style!

Our last evening in Palmeria was again hot and we were quite glad to be moving.

The procedures in the Cape Verdes mean that although we had cleared in to the country we still needed to contact the police on each island we visited and we carried a document that needed to be stamped and retained by the Policia.

We intended to clear out of the crowded anchorage and explore the possibilities of a large bay, about 5 miles further down the coast.

It started with a strange haze that we were becoming quite used to, it was a subtle red colour and deposited large parts of the Sahara desert on the decks sails and everything else on board Hocus Pocus.

Later the day cleared and we were able to get a really good look at the volcanic rocks that make up these islands. We passed this hill which looked as if it had been poured into place.

The anchorage turned out to be rather lovely and almost completely deserted.

The beach was completely empty apart from a couple of nudists and strangely in the morning a convoy of 4x4s.

We didn't venture ashore as we had only planned to stay overnight before sailing for Boa Vista, about 40 miles further south. This turned out to be a rough passage as we hit the acceleration zones between the islands.

The anchorage at Boa Vista was in a shallow bay surrounded by dangerous breaking shoals. We anchored ( eventually!) just behind a small island called Sal de Rei. Again it was hot and the water was a beautiful aquamarine colour.

Because of our dodgy outboard we were again confined on board. In the evening we had planned a rather longer sail to Sau Nicolau, a distance of about 80 miles. We sailed through the night and the dawn revealed the island, however most of the anchorages on the south coast were not practical because of the persistent swell and 25 knots trade wind.

So we had a quick conflab and decided to carry on the further 60 miles or so to Sau Vicente and our final jumping off point to the Caribean, Mindelo.....

We approached it as the sun set for the second time on our " short hop", and it was a truly spectacular entry into the Mindelo channel after passing the uninhabited islands of Sau Luzia and several smaller ones. The volcanic rocks were reminiscent of Jurrasic Park or Conan Doyle's Lost World.

We anchored ( eventually ) in the harbour near the Marina carefully avoiding the sunken freighters and crowds of yachts.

In the morning we arranged to enter the Marina and Dave Lynne and I performed our first stern to mooring to bring Hocus Pocus to rest on the pontoon opposite a floating bar,

 we celebrated in the usual way. When on passage Dave like us runs a dry boat, however......

It was New Year's Eve, the jumping off point for our transatlantic passage. It was time to explore Mindelo, we had four days. But first it was time to celebrate!