Ashore on Boa Vista Jan 18,09

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Just got back aboard ship after a very nice day ashore on Boa Vista, Cape Verde.

John and Spencer and I walked about 3 miles down the magnificent beach here past one of the fanciest
resort I have ever seen. The place even has a restaurant shaped like a giant crab.

They also have grumpy looking guards at the gates.  It is afterall an all inclusive place so we can’t have any riffraff wandering through can we. :-)

Just past this place was a geocache that John had the coordinates for, one of two on Boa Vista the other
was 60km away. The geocache was in the ruins of a pottery factory which looked quite romantic half
covered in sand dunes.

We then took a cab back into Sel Rei as the thought of walking back along that beach into the teeth of the
force 7 wind blowing across the and dunes (was not pleasant at all).

Once back in town we had a nice lunch at a pizzaria in the town square, that didn’t have pizza even
though most of menu was pizzas of various sorts. Then we went to a resort that had wifi, the one I had
found before actually, and did all my emailing and blog updates.

The trip back to the ship started with a splash. Just as we were loading up, the skiff got turned broadside to
the beach and got a wave broadside. We were using an anchor to hold the bow aimed into the waves and it
came off the bottom. Once underway the ride back was pretty dry so it looks like the wind may be
moderating a bit.

Tomorrow we leave for Sao Vincente and the town of Mindelo. This town is much larger and should have
more “amenities”. The passage should take two days.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

There are pictures from my run ashore in Boa Vista here.

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Photo by John Gareri

2015 Postscript

Here is a picture of me and Spencer doing our online stuff at the resort after our ramble.

The wifi speed here was slower than dial up!

You can check out more of John's photos of Cape Verde here.

Boa Vista Cape Verde Islands Jan 17,08

Sunday, January 18th, 2009
Woke up this morning to find that the wind had increased to a steady force 7 directly offshore into our
anchorage, that is the lower end of Gale force. There is not much wave action which is good although the
odd swell does sweep in from the Atlantic.

Spent the day doing ship work that included splicing and whipping a couple of lines. Some “sailorizing”
stuff that :-)

In the morning the Alexandre Humbolt steamed in and anchored as well as another freighter making a
total of 2 tall ships, and 3 freighters in the anchorage. The wind has been steadily pushing us back so we
have both anchors out and a lot of chain to go with them. Leaving this anchorage on Monday will be a
real workout!

About mid afternoon I came up from my splicing to see that the new freighter had been dragging her
anchor and was now about a ship length away from the Humbolt. Apparently the Humbolt radioed her and
said “you are dragging” to which they responded “no we aren’t” !?!

The freighter shortly thereafter fired up their engine, hoisted anchor and steamed ahead back to where
they were before and dropped anchor again. It appears two hours later that they are still dragging but
much slower now.

We appear to be holding OK although we are “plowing” a bit downwind at the moment, but we are on
notice that all hands may be required sometime during the night if conditions change.

Tomorrow I should be able to go ashore again so hopefully I can find some way to send this so you can
read it in a bit more timely manner.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

P.S. It is now 8:30 in the evening and the wind has moderated a bit but is still near gale force. Deb came
down a few minutes ago and mentioned that both the Humbolt and the dragging freighter have up
anchored and headed for sea. I can see the lights of the freighter she seems to be standing off and on just
off shore but there is no sign of the Humbolt.

On the plus side I used John’s cellphone to call the mysterious Internet provider and now have a place to
go to get access when I get ashore (if I get ashore) in the morning.

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2015 Postscript


Here are two pictures showing how far that freighter had dragged her anchors and drifted down towards the Alexandre Humbolt!

Sailing to Boa Vista Jan 16, 09

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. 

Galley Duty Jan 15, 09

Thur Jan 15,08
 
On galley duty today.

We arrived at Sel Island in the Cape Verde islands around 9:30 this morning and anchored beside the
Alexandre Humbolt, she of the green sails. The Captain has gone ashore to clear in and if he gets back in
time we will up anchor and head for Bona Vista (sic) rather than stay here.

Sel is very dry and dusty looking with at least 3 volcanic cones looming up in the haze. Apparently Boa
Vista is nicer and has a nicer anchorage as well.

The Captain returned but says that we won’t have time to get to Boa Vista today so we will head out early tomorrow morning. All hands are to be awoken at 6:00am to get underway shortly thereafter. It is only
about 36 miles to Boa Vista so we should get there by 10:00 or so.

The Starboard watch went ashore and from the reports of those I’ve talked to since there isn’t much to see
or do here on Sel. Not even any Internet, although Corey did mention he saw an Internet Cafe that looked
more like someone’s living room than a business.

Not sure when you will get to see this, if there isn’t any Internet here you might not see this till we get to
Grenada!

Thanks for reading.
KJ

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Rolling along to Cape Verde Jan12-15, 09

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

We upped anchor and motored out of the anchorage of Dakar at 2:45pm Jan 12. We were sailing under
topsails, main topmast staysail, spanker, fore topmast staysail and inner and outer jibs by 3:00pm. The
fastest transition from engine to sail yet!

The wind had shifted a bit to the East and consequently it was filled with reddish dust from the Sahara. It
was so thick it was like fog making visibity pretty poor.

I picked up a stomach bug in St Louis so I wasn’t feeling very good and hit my bunk for a snooze as soon
as I could. This turned out to be bad idea, when I woke up 4 hours later we were out in the steady
tradewinds close hauled on the starboard tack and really rolling in the big swell. As a result I got seasick
and spent the next day being pretty miserable from both ends! Blah.

The sailing is fantastic however. The sky out here is only a little hazy mostly bright blue and the seas are a
beautiful dark blue with very bright white foam caps. The swells are easily 10′ or more in height and
rolling down wind this means we are sailing across them at an angle which makes for a roller coaster like
ride!

There are lots of flying fish here. I didn’t used to think that they flew, more glided like a flying squirrel.

They actually do fly for a lot farther and under a fair amount of control than I thought. I watched one go
for several wavelengths up over a wave crest and down the trough! Pretty cool to see. So far we haven’t
had any land on board much to Chibley’s disgust (apparently she likes them rawwwww and wwwiiiiggling
precious).

Steering this ship is fascinating. Different people have different styles I’ve noticed. Some people move the
wheel a lot back and forth, essentially “hunting the course”, others tend to make small adjustments, just
enough to start her moving and then wait till she goes back and then they undo the adjustment. I favour
the latter approach myself. I tried once before to make big changes in order to speed up the corrections
but ended up getting into an over correcting feedback loop. Nasty. Note this only applies to sailing of
course, maneuvering is another matter entirely and I have not had to do that yet.

We are now, Wednesday the 14th, over half way to Cape Verde and should arrive sometime tomorrow
morning.

I’m on galley duty so will not have to get up for my night watch which will be nice.

Thanks for reading.
KJ