Beyond Cape Verde

Passage to Barbados, day 0. We left the fuel dock at Mindelo at 1440 UTC Tuesday with about 15 knots of easterly wind and higher gusts in the channel between the islands. That was a nice, fast ride. Unfortunately, the winds have eased considerably now so that we're probably only averaging around 4.5 knots. We're also heading south of southwest right now, so it's probably time to jibe pretty soon. When we talked with Herb earlier, though, he said there's more wind further south. The seas are pretty lumpy, so we aren't having a very comfortable ride.

Jinja and Alua left ahead of us. Free Spirit and Avocette are leaving Wednesday.

All is well aboard Solstice. Our position at 0240 UTC on Dec. 29 is 16o23'N and 025o51'W. (There's no degree symbol in SailMail.)

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A mahi-mahi Christmas

Tomorrow we continue our Atlantic crossing, heading to Barbados and then on to Grenada. Our week in Mindelo has been spent working on the boat, doing laundry by hand, and visiting with friends. Although we’ve wandered around town a bit looking for the best grocery stores, we haven’t done anything touristy.

Christmas eve the crews of several boats went out on the town. It was fun to meet new people, some of whom (Alua, Free Spirit, and Connect 4) we had heard on the Rum Runners Net, this year’s informal transatlantic crossing short-wave radio group. Christmas evening John cooked more of the mahi-mahi, and we took it over to Avocette of Portsmouth to share with Chris and Roy. Just before we headed to Avocette, our Israeli friends, Liat and Assaf, arrived on Jinja, so we had them over for dinner last night with their friends Noam and Yosephina, and we’re now out of mahi-mahi until John catches some more.

Today we’ll top off our provisions, give the boat a little wash-down, and do our official check-out. In the morning we’ll top off the water and fuel, and then we’re off. Several other boats are planning to leave about the same time, so we’ll have company out there. We’re looking forward to our first sail in the trade winds, and they look good for at least the first week. Daily updates will continue when we’re underway, assuming we don’t use too much time and get locked out of SailMail. Our Yotreps position reporting quit working just before we reached Mindelo, but that seems to be squared away again now. Just in case, we’ll add our position to the end of our blog posts.

P.S.: John heard Orinoco on the net this morning, and all is well with Jim.

Arrived at Mindelo

We arrived at Mindelo, Cape Verde, yesterday, but I had neither Sailmail or Internet, so couldn't post an update. It was lovely to make landfall on the solstice. As we motored through the anchorage here on our way to the marina, we passed close enough to our friend Jim on Orinoco to say hello. Then we moored right next to our new friends Mike and Linda on Aquila. This morning both of those boats left to continue their passage, but we'll listen for them on the SSB (short-wave) radio. Last night we gave Jim his long-postponed mahi-mahi dinner (promised in Costa Rica in early 2008) and then we all went next door for drinks on Aquila. Jim gave us tips on reefing while sailing downwind, and John gave Mike and Linda a short course in filleting mahi-mahi.

We made two trips yesterday to check in, but immigration wasn't open either time, so we accomplished that this morning. Our friends Chris and Roy on Avocette of Portsmouth also came into the marina yesterday, so we'll be getting together with them, if not today then for sure on Christmas. Liat and Assaf on Jinja are somewhere in the Cape Verde islands, so we're hoping to see them too.

All is well aboard Solstice and friends' boats. Daily posts will resume when we set sail again next week. Happy holidays to you all.

Passage to Mindelo: Day 1

The forecasts were good, and we had hoped to leave Las Palmas on Saturday for Mindelo, Cape Verde. Alas, we still had way too much to do, so we planned on Sunday. By Saturday afternoon, all the major chores were done and the provisions loaded on board, albeit not yet stowed, so I decided it was time to build our route in the chart plotter. Until then we had only looked at the big picture. But as I zoomed in on Mindelo's island (Sao Vicente), I wasn't getting the detail I expected. Could it be? Indeed. We didn't have charts for the Cape Verde Islands. So we postponed our departure until Monday and enjoyed an evening out at Sailors Bar chatting with other cruisers.

We officially turned to leave Las Palmas at 1435 Monday (2:35 p.m.). The first 12 hours we motor-sailed because we want to get as far south as possible before the forecast southerlies arrive. I turned the engine off just before 0200 this morning, and we've been sailing fast ever since. Our first 24 hours we covered 141 nautical miles at an average speed of 5.875 knots. That's pretty fast for us, and we're averaging over 6 knots now. The seas started at a meter or less, but have grown a bit lately. John caught one small mahi-mahi right away and let it go, and he just caught another, also too small to keep, but that was technically day 2.

All is well aboard Solstice, and we now have charts.

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