são vicente

the stop in mindelo, s. vicente turned out to be very interesting. not only it shortened the days at sea in this crossing but also gave the opportunity to peter and esteban to see a new place and get the sail fixed while also receiving the one I had sent. DHL was a bit delayed in the delivery and customs also slowed this down, but at the end it arrived.

this place reminded esteban a lot of jamaica. it had a beautiful marina complex and a colorful and somewhat shanty town outside with kind and helpful people. a lot of the other sailors that make a stop in mindelo also ran into troubles with the boat and therefore esteban was not the only one waiting for parts here. of course a lot of time was spent here with customs and authorities rather than sightseeing, but because the purpose of the stop was to get the sail, he focused on getting just that. they did see the town and enjoyed some of the food and bars nearby.











the marina was excellent and very comfortable.


with the two sails now on board they finally departed again towards Barbados on the first of december. now they are less than 2000 miles away from the caribbean!

bye bye main

i guess it would not be a proper ocean crossing if we did not have at least one minor incident. and so we did, or they did, i should say. last tuesday, only 3 days after having departed, and during the night (everything always happens at night) the main sail ripped in half, from one end to the other, rendering it completely useless (sadly after having paid in gibraltar some sterling ponds to restitch it….). losing the main with over 2600 miles to go is not a minor incident … so they changed course and headed now for mindelo in s. vincente, cape verde islands, off the african coast some 800 miles south of the canaries. still on the way, so luckily this is not a big detour. there are not that many facilities in the cape verdes, but it was the best alternative considering that returning to the canaries would have meant sailing against the wind. i also checked on line and this is the most visited island by other cruisers; something we would generally avoid; except this time, because we hope to find some sail repair facilities (wishful thinking perhaps), but the odds improve if we go to the most visited island, we think.

with the new course in mind, but still considering that there may not be sail lofts or that the sail is probably beyond repair (which might very well be the case), i retrieved the original old main sail we had in storage. luckily for us, our good friend jerry who had taken this old sail to texas had brought it back in case we needed it. who would have thought that that case would be a reality (I guess he thought it would, someday.) so after inspecting it and going to the sail maker in fort lauderdale to inspect it again, it was shipped and it is now on its way to the cape verdes. i just checked and it is within the DHL network traveling to meet the boat soon and continue the journey through the atlantic.

transatlantic crossing

the 2011 atlantic hurricane season is almost over. it is actually officially over on november 30 but historically the last days of the season have been rather quiet, so we hope this year is not the exception. the boat and crew were ready and they finally set sail on sunday november 20. a westbound sail through the atlantic ocean with 2900 nautical miles of open sea, great sunrises and sunsets, hopefully many fish and unfortunately a lot of freighters and other sailboats to be on the lookout for.



the estimated landfall should be sometime around december 15 in the west indies where I will be waiting to rejoin my husband in barbados at last!! peter and esteban will sail around 25 days at an average of 120 miles per day. This is the last of the long crossings of our circumnavigation. I am anxious and very happy to know that they have finally departed.

until the next post, this time from the caribbean...!

la palma

140 miles west of gaciosa is la palma. this is the fifth largest of the seven canary islands, and it is the most north western one. they arrived here on the evening of wednesday 16, just in time to enjoy a cold beer at the marina bar. the marina at la palma was very upscale and beautiful.

esteban told me the island was quite attractive but a little overcasted every day. Sure enough, I read back home that this island does not get much sunshine and therefore it is not the most touristic one, but on the other hand, the rains make the vegetation a lot more abundant than in the other islands nearby and the tourism here is much more relaxed. they enjoyed a quiet time in this place and the last days of sleeping in a marina without watches. they took care of the last preparations like getting more diesel, provisions, and a last oil change of the engine and visited the capital of santa cruz which was small, clean and very picturesque. they were very surprised not to see so many tourists or even boats at the marina but enjoyed having the place almost to themselves!

graciosa

after seven days at sea peter and esteban finally arrived in the canary islands. they were aiming for lanzarote but arrived in graciosa instead because the strong head winds did not allow them to make more progress south. they were happy they made this unexpected stop. graciosa turned out to be a beautiful picturesque quiet island, true to its name: a truly charming little place!

departure at last

on november 7 at 4:00 am they departed at last. the weather conditions were not prefect but they did not want to wait any longer. the more you wait this time of the year, the harder it is to leave. we watched the weather patterns and there are strong gales forming every week. so with a not so great day, and very cold weather they finally left and unfortunately had a very slow progress leaving the strait. there is normally a strong current flowing from the atlantic towards the med of an average of 2 knots. in addition every time the tide rises, the speed of tide against increases. so, to have the weaker current against, one must plan the departure carefully to hit the worse 10 miles of the strait of gibraltar at exactly 5 hours after high tide, or when the tide is coming down. i helped with the calculations from shore but unfortunately the progress was never more than 2 knots. maybe we missed the good timing, or we simply were doing the best possible and it could have been worse. we will never know; but the good news is that they left. the route followed the Spanish coast and then after cutting across the strait they would continue hugging the moroccan atlantic coast for a few days. for me, being the first crossing not being on board it was very difficult. i was constantly thinking about the progress of the boat and following the weather closely and tried to communicate whatever i saw. in the meantime all was good on board, they caught several fish, mostly tuna. peter got a very good looking fish which he liked so much that he put back in the water. after some hours esteban got another of these pretty fishes, which turned out to be a mahi. this one they ate. after peter ate it and liked it so much, esteban says he will not put them back on the water again, no way. they are better looking in the pan!!