Sunday, January 18th, 2009
An early all hands wakeup had us scrambling for the Windlass around 6:30 this morning. We got the
anchor up and used the engine to get turned around and heading South. Then it was aloft to loose all sail
and we had her sailing along close hauled on the Port tack at 8.5 knots in another half an hour.
It’s a beautiful clear day for a sail! The Sun rose over the island and lit up all our sail in a bright golden
light. The seas are not that high in the lee of Sel but they will get lumpier once we pass Sel and head down
to Boa Vista.
Boa Vista is 36 miles away so at this rate it will only take a bit more than 4 hours so we may be anchored
before noon.
The ship is running with the usual sea watches but all hands have to be ready to do sail handling so we
have to be ready to jump at a moments notice, no snoozing allowed this morning.:-)
More later…
It’s later and after an exciting bit of sail handling and motoring we are anchored off a small town on the
island of Boa Vista in the Cape Verde. This island is also very dry with large sandy beaches and dune
fields fronting the sea. The wind is blowing a stiff force 6 with force 7 gusts from the North making the
water very choppy even in the lee of the island. They are trying to get a local to do the boat runs as it is a
bit rough for our skiff.
There is a wifi signal out here in the anchorage, surprisingly strong. It looks like the town is covered in
wifi as my little laptop finds 5 access points with the same name. They charge for downloads here and
restrict the access based on time. Hopefully I can get to some free access ashore, if we get ashore.
We sent the skiff with 4 intrepid foul weather gear clad crew members to to scope out the (code named
Falcon Team) landing and see if they can hire a local top do the runs.
Stay tuned.
The boat they hired was the same size as the skiff. When I went ashore this afternoon we got soaked.
Luckily my camera and laptop were in plastic bags in my pack so didn’t suffer.
The town is quiet and very clean, a welcome change from Senegal.
Tried to find Internet access but was unsuccessful hopefully I’ll have better luck on Sunday. Had a really
nice dinner of grilled tuna steaks, rice and french fries(!?!) washed down with a nice red wine, in a little
hole in the wall restaurant in the square, very nice way to end the day.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
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2015 Postscript
Our arrival at this anchorage had an event which sticks in my mind but I didn't record at the time.
As we motored into the anchorage we had to pass an island on the port side that shelters the Anchorage.
As we were slowly approaching the anchorage there was a brief rumbling sound from beneath our deck.
You get to know all the sounds the ship makes after a while and I had never heard or felt anything like this before.
We looked at each other with a "WTF?" look on our faces. Then it happened again louder his time and the ship seemed to hesitate. Two hundred tons of steel suddenly slowing under your feet is a frightening feeling!
"Hard a Starboard!" roared the Captain and after what felt like a long time the rumbling died away.
We had come very close to running aground! Extending from the point of this island was an unmarked sand bar. The shifting sands that formed the dunes of the island were present under the sea as well.
Odd that I did not record this event in my blog at the time, interesting thing memory.
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