Category Archives: Sailing

Cabo Verde, Cabo Verde…. We should have arrived a few weeks earlier. This islands are just amazing !! Pleasent climate, friendly people, beautiful women, good food, cheap, no mosquitos, great sailing…. etc etc.

Just great, here ! It’s a shame we’re already about to leave. But first we had a lot of fun with our friends. We’ve spent an evening with the crews of Kira and Hitch-Hike-Heidi in the ClubNautico and afterwards had a party on board the Kira. Today we removed the carpets from the Rancho Relaxo – the barefoot-route doesn’t need them. We’ve also checked out already so from now on we’re actually illegal – but who cares ?

Tonight we’ll move into the anchorage but before that we had a little tour through the marina. Had a nice chat here and there with friends or people we didn’t yet know. We also met the crew of the Tres Hombres who invited us to a tour of their ship. But that’s gonna be in another blog post.

We’re doing everything really slowly and don’t plan too much for our days. Also we’ve decided that we’ll spend a few more days on the neighbour island to be sure that we DON’T make it for new years eve to Barbados. We made that decision to take the possibility of stress from our trip. That way we really enjoy the time on the Atlantic without thinking of the landfall….

Today we were at the local market to get some fresh food. Tomorrow we’ll take water and Diesel and then we’re off towards Sao Antao. There we’ll be tomorrow evening and spend one or two days after which we’re off into the great blue ocean. So here and now will be the last internet for three weeks. Then we’re stuck with shortwave radio and SatPhone. It’s gonna be beautiful. The trade winds are stable and we and the ship are well prepared. Yay !!

We had a wonderful sailingtrip from Sal to Sao Vicente. Half-wind sailing was something we had nearly forgotten about. It was wonderful sailing for nearly 24 hours under blazing sunshine or a full moon through the Atlantic ocean from one beautiful island to the next one. And the landscape of Sao Vicente is truly amazing. That’s what you’d expect a landfall to look like. I’m a bit short on time, so see for yourself:

Really beautiful also the ‘stairway to heaven’. And the rust stained motorvessel in that picture is actually still in operation. Yay !!

Here in Mindelo we also met the crew of the Hitch-Hike-Heidi with whom we’re out for dinner right now. We’ll gonna have a nice evening and probably sleep like stones in a while…

Dinner’s coming in a few minutes, but I’ve got the time to upload a few pics from the last island, we visited – Sal. Enjoy:

Unfortunately I forgot to bring the camera the other day but there’ll be more pics soon – promised. Today we already were at the local police station to check out. In a few hours we’ll leave for the next island of Sao Nicolao. There we’ll spend a night before we head to our last harbour in Mindelo.

So we’ll tidy up our ship on the inside and outside, jump into the water and sometime in the afternoon we’re off. It’s about 100 miles so we should be there tomorrow afternoon.

Pfew ! I think the whole Island of Sal shares one single DSL internet connection. To upload just a few pictures, it took me two or three hours. But hey ! Here they are:

Again – we had a WONDERFUL trip towards Cabo Verde. I really hope that the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean will be somewhat like this. In the meantime we’ve discovered a little of the island of Sal. A desert island without many attractions. A few hotels in the south and some of the best Kite-surf spaces around. But despite that you’ve got a few little villages connected via Aluguer (the local bus/taxi). You ride on the back of the pickup and let the warm wind caress your face. The people, the culture, the life – everything really is different from the other places we’ve visited so far. And we’re glad to have left Europe behind. Now it get’s interesting !

Yesterday in the evening our friend Wolfgang arrived at the airport and at one in the morning we interrupted our cockpit party to pick him up. So there we were. Tim and Klaus of the Kira myself and Karl, another sailor we’ve met here. Everybody a bit overexcited we dragged poor Wolfgang to the waiting Aluguer to get back to the ship. With the dinghy we rode towards the Rancho Relaxo lying at anchor with our new and beautiful LED-lightchain hanging from the mast top. Really beautiful. We had a great and funny evening and today in the morning we woke up, jumped into the water and had a nice breakfast.

More stories of Cabo Verde will follow – and also pictures. But now it’s time to turn off the Computer and focus on something more important. Four Caipirinhas were just delivered to our table…

Did I say we’ll leave on saturday ? Of course I meant sunday. Hehehehe. No, really – there were hundereds of little things to do and last night was short (again). So we decided to give it another day and set sail tomorrow in the early afternoon. We’ll be out on sea for approx. 6-7 days with destination ‘Sal’ in the Cabo Verde archipelago. As always, if you want to contact us, use the information on the ‘contact’ page. – Everything’s there.

But of course we’ll use our shortwave connection to post a few stories while underway so stay tuned.

After weeks of intense preparations, the day has come. – Or at least nearly. Tomorrow we’ll be leaving the Canaries ! We stocked up on food, the ToDo-list is (unbelievably !) empty, the tanks are full and everybody is getting slightly nervous. Not really because of the distance to Cabo Verde but because it’s been a while that we’ve been sailing properly. Hehe.

Yesterday in the evening the SY Kira finished shopping and somehow managed to stow an incredible amount of groceries and drinks inside their vessel. Only the now missing boot-topping reveals the amount of food inside. After that incredible performance in real-live-Tetris we opened a five liter can of beer to replenish our electrolytes. I was back on our ship at about 04h in the morning.

Today a couple of friends from the anchorage came by to wish us a good journey and exchange emails, etc. Some of them we will probably see in the Carribean others we won’t meet ever again. But you hardly can tell since everyone seems to change their plans quite as often as we do. What else ? Hmmmm. We got the new persenning for our Genua. We also had last-minute christmas shopping. Allegedly Santa Claus will come around even if we’re out on the ocean. Bruno says he’s got an incredibly fast dinghy – just like the coast guard.

Now it’s time to clean up the ship on the inside. There are still many things looking for a good space to be hidden. I’ll do another posting tomorrow, before we’re leaving. Speaking of: We might be sailing together with the Kira again ! But they have a problem with their spinnaker pole and it might take till monday to fix that. Hmm…

What’s the day today ? The answer to this question will take longer the more yachties try to answer it. But I’ll just ask the computer. Tuesday ? Well… We wanted to go sailing today – didn’t we ?  But that also has become a running gag. But we’ll leave – I promise.

Sunday evening the SY Tamora entered the anchorage and we immediately left the beach party to enter our friends ship. Just seconds after the anchor touched the ground, the crews of Kira and Rancho Relaxo were sitting in the cockpit of our friend’s boat. Last time we’ve seen each other was in Lissabon and so there are plenty of stories to tell. As 217 ships of the ARC-flottilla now have vanished, more and more yachts from the anchorage move into the marina to fill up their batteries, tanks and lockers. Even the LosLocos have started to make a big inventory list and a shopping list. In a few minutes Dieter and Silke of the Tamora will pick us up to go into town.

After shopping we have to check out (officially that is, at the customs), we have to store anchor, fenders, dinghy. Everything else is pretty much done.

Lately we had the discussion whether we’re nervous about the big crossing that’s ahead of us. But without even thinking about it the answer of everyone was: “No. Not at all !” – Well – that still could change. Hehehe.

We also updated our route – cancelled Senegal and made a few plans for the Carribean.

I’ve used the last remaining battery power together with the fast WiFi connection to upload a sh..load of new photos. There’s everything. From the coasts of Spain and Portugal, Santiago de Compostela, the crossing to the Canaries, Lanzarote, Teneriffe, the Loro Parque and even a little of Gran Canaria. Enjoy !

Today at breakfast we decided to stay for a few more days. Senegal would have been really nice – but I don’t and we actually can’t leave in a hurry. Even IF we would have made it in time, we still just would’ve seen Gui’s friends for one or maybe two days. But probably not at all… It’s better to use the last european city to stock up, repair what’s broken and get fit for ‘the crossing’. And we still will go to Cabo Verde but only in a few days.

Yesterday we said goodbye to my parents. And as this was the last time my parents will come to visit us for quite a long time, we were all a bit depressive. The best to do in such a situation ? Change of location.

We started the engine in the last sunlight and crossed over to Gran Canaria during the night. There was no wind and we were running under engine for the whole trip. But that’s ok since we wanted to meet friends in Las Palmas and the wind usually blows from NE which would make that trip rather unpleasent anyway. The night was quite chilly and for the first time in about a month I had to use a fleece vest. We arrived at about 10 in the morning on the 2nd November and woke up our friends from the Kira.

We had a wonderful day (and night) together with Tim, Klaus and their guest Andreas. But next day we already had to say goodbye again as they are off towards the west coast to meet other friends. We’ll probably see each other again in the beginning of December on some island of Cabo Verde.

Our day was quite busy going shopping in the supermarket, getting supplies and parts for the ship, doing our laundry, etc. But now we’re pretty much set to leave Europe. We hope we can start tomorrow in the early afternoon after filling up our tanks with water and diesel, going to the post office, drug store and a few other errants. We’ll see. I for myself would rather stay another day or two and get everything really finished – but friends of Gui are waiting for us in Dakar. And they’ll leave on the 12th ! That doesn’t give us much time…

Anyway. The place here is actually quite nice. We’re at anchor beside the big marina where all the spaces are booked for the ARC ships. The anchorage is crowded with friendly neighbours and we’ve met many ships that we’ve seen somewhere else in the past weeks and months. There are plenty of good shops to get last minute parts for the ship and in general I think it’s a good place to start across to the Carribean or wherever.

And sorry that there wasn’t a arrival-message. Somehow the Spot-location wouldn’t get through – but I’ve placed a nice little anchor on the map just now.