After 6 days of superb sailing with great winds we can now announce our arrival at Cape Verde. We are now “parked” safe and sound in Mindelo marina.
I must say that the sail down here from Las Palmas could not have been better and both me and Anna are VERY HAPPY and impressed with our crew. Everyone is hardworking and helps out when needed and most important of all, -they all take care of each other.
As expected we were pretty slow even though we had strong winds in our back, we had an average of 6.7 knots of speed during the days and around 5.5 during the nights. Yesterday we moved some weight from the back of the boat to the bow and she actually behaved a lot better in the sea after that. A guess would be that we have sailed around 950 nm in 6 days.
Most of the guys/girl didn’t have any real sailing experience when we started our trip but it´s amazing how fast they learned. They now all know how to take out the sails, reef and trim. Maybe it´s smart to start of your sailing career in tough conditions- I think it gives you a lot more respect of the sea and the sailing compared if you are out sailing in calm conditions.
To be 7 people + one dog on a 38 feet cat was not a problem at all- you get plenty of sleep and A LOT of food. I think our cooker was on almost all the time. Rado with is excellent cooking, Davo with his Italian pasta and Eddy’s home baked bread made us both full and happy all the way from Las Palmas to Cape Verde.
Poor Eddy lost the balance this morning when a big wave hit us from the side, He fell really bad and hit his head on our navigation chair – he fell so hard that it got ripped of from the floor were it was mounted with 6 screws?!. He is 100 % fine but I felt really sorry for him- it must have hurt as hell.
Our tracker stopped working after a couple of days and we had many phone calls from worried friends and family- my bad. I forgot to put credits on our “tracker” account so that’s why it did not transmitted that it should.
Tomorrow we will go trough the boat thoroughly and fix everything that needs to be fixed and control everything from rudder, rig, steering and in the same time give her a nice scrub (we have a lot of sand from the Sahara desert all over the boat).
Good night and sleep tight
//Daniel & Anna with crew
Yeah I actually had the swedish coast guard on the line before you answered your satellite phone.
Now I can relate to when Daniel and me did this trip a few years back. Our parents must been worried sick…
Well well glad you guys reached all right and looking forward to the next big step, The Atlantic!
Haha ja det är jobbigt när tekniken sviker:)
Imorgon påbörjar vi seglingen över!