SY Hullu Poro

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…

Lanzarote to Cabo Verde – Day 9 / Logblog 2

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…

Lanzarote to Cabo Verde – Day 9 / Logblog 1

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…

Lanzarote to Cabo Verde – Day 8 / Logblog 3

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…

Lanzarote to Cabo Verde – Day 8 / Logblog 2

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…

Lanzarote to Cabo Verde – Day 8 / Logblog 1

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…

Lanzarote to Cabo Verde – Day 7 / Logblog 4

In Cabo Verde, Cooking, Spain

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…

Lanzarote to Cabo Verde – Day 7 / Logblog 3

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…

Lanzarote to Cabo Verde – Day 7 / Logblog 2

On November 26, 2022

We are now flying in 20kn of wind towards Cabo Verde running constantly around 6kn speed over ground. The blue water is pleasantly boiling and has got some white caps here and there. Some wave` tops are breaking producing more white bubbles for a short moment until they dissolve in the blue again. A never ending scenery as far as the eye can capture it. No clouds at all, pure blue sky.

Every other wave sticks a bit out throwing the lady from one side to the other with no chance to win. She quickly stands up proudly again keeping the teak deck dry with a smile as she could take much more if needed. In short: perfekt bluewater sailing conditions!

Early morning I fiddled around quite a while with the computer to get the blog updated and the latest weather data downloaded. The main reason was that all Pactor Stations were busy or just not connecting. The atmospheric conditions were not the best this morning. On top, I got an error message from the modem disconncting in the middle of the file transfer so I had to start from fresh a couple of times until my messages got through and the GRIB File was saved on the computer.. Normally it works quite well and does not take this long.

Talking to Jan afterwards was a pleasure again. Good connection on the 6 Mhz Marine Radio Frequency, loud and clear. We are about 100nm apart, the distance I lost at the beginning due to our slow start and my ignorance taking the main sail out. Otherwise they are enjoying the passage as much as we do.

The conditions crossing the Atlantik next month should be very similar to what we face today. Perhaps another 5kn of wind on top here and there or now and then but the main difference will be the squalls, which become part of the game further south. Shall be exciting anyway.

Let´s enjoy this first although I am also looking forward to my first bike ride on Sao Vincente!

Fair winds…

Lanzarote to Cabo Verde – Day 7 / Logblog 1