The final present #9 has been unpacked and consumed on the spot! 😋
Each present was a highlight each day!
Thank you so much Elke and Ulli joining & supporting me on this passage.
Fair winds…
Category: Cabo Verde Page 5 of 7
We have run under bare poles for a while now and still too much speed to ensure arrival in daylight hours. Wind is also still around 20kn gusting 25kn, which has not been predicted. It should slowly decrease a bit over night. However, in order to gain the 1-2 hours needed to ensure arrival not before sunrise we are now going a bit zigzag for a couple of hours.
It seems to work although the waves are coming a bit more from aside rather the stern but the Hydrovane keeps the boat almost in heave to conditions without sails up and at 110 TWA as a compromise with less than 1kn boat speed.
I will probably have to stay up tonight to get this done, which is not a problem as I am pretty rested and had an energizing dinner just a few hours before. The wind is now warmer and it is more pleasant to stay in the cockpit during the night compared to the recent nights when we left La Gomera.
Fair winds…
All flags for our approach of Cabo Verde have been set under the spreader bars:
The courtesy flag of Spain had to be repalced by the courtesy flag for the of the Republic of Cabo Verde. The two pennants for Trans-Ocean e.V. and Intermar e.V. are heavily worn out after more than 2 years exposed to the sun and completely removed for the moment although I have spares on board. The Q-Flag is required for immigration purposes. All set.
The tissue sail out as a foresail might have to be reduced further again – not much left then – as we are still a bit too fast.
Fair winds…
We have now shifted the foresail and left a size of a tissue out there to reduce speed. Wind and waves are still pushing south and I am trying to arrange a speed over ground (SOG) of 3.5 to 4.0 knots only to arrive at the waypoint set in the middle of São Vicente and Santo Antão with a safety distance of 2-3nm at around 8am tomorrow morning.
The spinnaker pole is still up on starboard side and will be taken down once the waves have scaled down. This might only be the case tomorrow morning upon our arrival at the set waypoint.
Got half of a bucket flying fish on deck this morning. All size from 4cm to 24cm. They got this terrible scales and lose some of them on the hard landing which are then spread around on the deck. On top of that they leave some mucus at the place of landing, which is all over boat rather than focusing on one common landing place. No wonder, they look a bit stupid, when I throw them overboard again, although they are already dead. Big relief for the lady once the deck is washed with some good salty blue seawater and the teak starts to look shiny again after the sun has dried it up.
It shall be another sugar sailing day at sea after the routine work has been done!
Fair winds…
It was another pleasant night at sea. The wind stayed around 20kn but the waves became a bit less wild. It is still dark, so I cannot sea how much white cream they still carry. Interesting how the body accomdates to this never ending up and down, side right, side left, backwards and forwards, three dimensional shaking around environment until ignoring it.
My view is, that the normal wave is not a challenge, but the exceptional peak wave appearing every now and then makes it a bit annoying as this disturbes the flow just created and factually accepted being the new normal. But then, most of the time in the worst moment, there is this extra push into any of the above mentioned directions and if you don’t have a solid hold at that very moment it will throw you through the boat.
On a previous passage I ended up on my butt, suddenly sitting there not really knowing how I got there. For sure it was this extra impulse with brutal force and ignorance, which stroke me down. Nothing serious happened but I keep this moment as the eye-opener on this subject. It could easily put an end to our adventure – one bloody wave! That price would be too cheap.
Been to the cinema last night and watched a documentary movie on Cabo Verde. You can find it in the ZDF Mediathek under the title – Im Land der Feuerberge: Kapverdische Inseln. It is very inspirational but it also became clear that our stop in Mindelo is by far too short for this Archipelago. It is sad, that we just pass by and cannot spend a few month within this group of Atlantic Islands. Let´s get a glance first this time before we make another plan.
Feels very good to be already totally excited about what is going to happen once we have arrived!
Fair winds…
Another delight to kill time as – remember – the emergency package from Elke and Ulli received in Puerto Calero at the time we started this part of the journey was about not being bored and killing time while sailing alone.
It worked very well with a good combination of entertainment and kitchen delights.
Tomorrow will be the last one and I wonder what that will be…
Fair winds…
Today being the first Sunday of Advent, I wish you all a good start of the Advent season. Another Christmas is coming soon. I wonder how Mindelo will be affected by this and how much decoration will be placed. Really curious to arrive and explore this place.
We have another 200nm to go and I have started to plan the approach into Mindelo. It shall be on Tuesday morning, 29th November 2022. From tomorrow morning onwards we will have to reduce speed, otherwise we would arrive in darkness. Until then we will keep flying south in 25+kn of wind with impressive following seas and more white caps compared to yesterday. The Hydrovane is doing a fantastic job and the lady is dancing on the waves happily. Showing a cold shoulder and sticking out butt now and then she keeps the teak deck dry telling the waves where to stop. I have to admit in confidence that a little splash here and there is bypassing her attention. Nothing dramatic, good play to watch me sitting in the protecitve centre cockpit drinking tea and eating cockies.
Due to the trouble with the Pactor Modem connection at the moment the blogs might not all come through in a timely right sequence. The ones without photo are easier and shall be my focus for the moment but I will try to keep my logblog diary updated.
I look forward to share this fantastic experience with Susan shortly.
Fair winds…
Since tonight I am also struggling a bit with the bluetooth connection between the PC and the Pactor Modem, which is essential to received weather updated, get messages onto the blog and exchange small e-mails. The COM port allocation is causing the trouble but essentially by try and error it seems to be fixed for the moment. Not sure when Microsoft is playing the next game.
I have also realized that there is a lot of digital traffic on the Winlink CMS Networks and it is harder and harder to get a slot to receive or transmit messages. Not sure, what this peak has caused but even in the middle of the night the network is busy where in the past it worked fine out of business hours for Europe. I am trying to find additional stations to connect with but the good ones are rare.
Therefore I am reconsidering adding a Sailmail Account, which provides additional services to Sailors customized towards their needs. I have to research this once in Mindelo and act quickly to have a back-up system in place before heading out onto the ocean again towards the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean.
Fair winds…
Cooking while on passage is taking some sort of form and shape even in a rolling pantry with 2.5m waves around us resulting in the risk of an extra pinch of salt if the wave hits at the right moment.
My view on this dish is that the tuna steak goes well together with the saffron rice topped with freshly shaved parmesan cheese. Supplemented with some tomato slices aside, it provides a fresh note to the yummy dinner at sea!
I look forward for Susan to arrive and prepare some more dishes from our new ONE Pan cooking book from Jamie, perfectly compiled for boaties.
Fair winds…
Not sure about this coincident but I have started the day with music and it looks like it will end the same way after having unpacked present #7 from the emergency package.
While the generator was running this morning, the jukebox played some of the best shanties from Freddy. This has put the day into the right perspective. First time I did that but it might become a habbit now! Susan will be amused…😅
I will see what I can get out of this Melody Pops tonight!
Fair winds…