We were supposed to be in Cape Verde for six days, we arrived on 13th January after our eight day passage from Gran Canaria, however it ended up being ten as we (Viking Explorer skippers) collectively extended the stay due to heavy weather and big seas at the start of our Atlantic crossing passage.
The marina was very rolly due to the swell, the pontoons were chained to the sea bed and the movement was incredible. The electricity supply was constantly going off and water purchased via cards to use in showers and the pontoon worked intermittently.
As far as Yanula Blue was concerned we didn’t have much to do to her as we’d completed it all in Las Palmas and the passage over had been fast with no breakages except for an ingress of sea water which we believe is from the huge waves hitting us from the rear.
We arrived in the dark and, having been directed to the fuel berth, we quickly decided to relocate to our berth proper as the wind had abated a little and it was due to blow up more the following morning. Med mooring is the way it’s done in Mindelo, so the stern of the boat is tied to the dock and slime lines connected to a chain on the sea bed are brought up to the bow. Happily we were being blown off, a huge benefit that would reveal itself later.
We were tied up in time for a quick trip to the floating bar and a well earned drink. It was delightful. Then back to the boat for some shut eye.
The sun rose and woke us up and we went for breakfast, again to the floating bar. No sooner had we finished breakfast when other Viking explorers joined us for coffee and then a beer and as friends came and went and the group grew bigger and bigger we ended up there all day long. Awesome!
It was time to explore and we walked the town , doing the usual recce of supermarkets and as we approached the fishermen, Chris asked a local where he could buy a new fishing reel. We followed a guy and then got followed by others who were clearly a little destitute. The guide knocked on a door and it opened in to a fishing tackle shop and at this point the girls got concerned as we were beginning to be surrounded. The reel wasn’t very good, so we declined and walked away but were followed for a short while by a guy asking us to buy powdered milk for his son.
The Good Samaritan (Chris!)
Our friend Marc, sailing alone on Stamina, limped in to Mindelo having had a traumatic passage. His hydrovane connection at the stern had come adrift and the loose bolts had sawn through the fibreglass resulting in 60 litres of water an hour coming in to his boat. 10 buckets full! Stressful. He’d filled the gap with an emergency filler and it had reduced the flow to 6 litres and hour, during the passage, but now it needed fixing.
We carry resin and glass matt for GRP repairs so with the help of Markus, crew from Sea Dreamer, we filled the enlarged holes and then drilled and refitted the hydrovane base as well as checking the rest of the connections. It was a sturdy result and Marc went on to cross the Atlantic using the hydrovane constantly.
The next project was to help Amir and Orly, from Relax, set up their running rigging. They had suffered with lots of chafe during their passage and with a series of new lines, friction rings and existing blocks we setup a system to use the whisker in pole and hoist it independently of the foresail. Amir also had an issue with his generator and with the help of Vince, from Joyce Ellen, we identified it was a loose bolt on the fuel supply which was letting in air.
Brian, of Casa de Brelly, had been brainstorming with different people from the rally on his steering bar. The bar connects the twin rudders of the catamaran. He had discovered the bar was rubbing against the steering device and the bolts were effectively grinding through the aluminium tube. We provided him with a piece of plastic for the job and left him to it. This was the night before we were leaving and he worked into the night to create a solution.
IT department
Everyone had updated charts for Mindelo, but our collective thoughts turned to charts for Grenada. We had bought a Navionics SD card for our plotter and had registered it and updated the charts using a piece of software on a laptop, before inserting the card into our chart plotter. However, others were not so tech savvy and so we helped Brian, of Nordic Dancer, set up opencpn on his laptop and attempted to get his chart plotter reading his new card. The card turned out to be corrupted. Chris also helped him setup his iridium go earlier.
Tim from Calainë also asked for help with his chart card and then Vince with the same card trying to add it to a different plotter. Same thing, the SD card seems to be corrupted. Maybe they had bought from the same batch?
Midnight madness
The swell in the marina and through the pontoons was getting worse and we came back from the floating bar one night to find cleats were being ripped from the pontoon. We helped John from Agape add new cleats, ours were also looking loose so with help from Sven, crew of Xenie, we moved cleats from other pontoons to spread the load.
Another night Chris was in the floating bar, and Jenni was at Yanula Blue and heard a commotion outside and someone knocking on our hull. She dashed out to see what was happening and found many of the skippers running around as the pontoon (further to the end from where we were) had split in two, and water and electricity pipes had broken. They were advising to turn off all boat to shore power connections (which she did) and she also decided this needed Yanula Blue’s Skipper and dashed off to retrieve Chris. He came back and worked hard with the Skippers and some staff to mend the pontoons and secure the boats. There were some very unhappy people and later on damage to boats was discovered – this is where we were fortunate to be on the downwind side as being pushed off we hadn’t been affected!
Exploration
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Mindelo was just all work and no play, but we did manage to explore the island. We hired scooters with Amir and Orly, of Relax, and our crew members Tina and Zachy had a scooter too.
Firstly we set off up the mountain along a cobbled road, which deteriorated in places and twisted and turned to reveal brilliant views of the island and the islands beyond. Next we found a beach and a promenade (pier) that encompassed a lively swimming area. It was here we sought out some volcanic formations in the stone that was clearly mined to form the roads.
Next we took a coast road where we scootered past Amir’s insta 360 in a sort of Top Gear scooter fly-past and saw sand dunes and paragliders. Next it was time for lunch and we had some wonderful food in a tavern with a wobbly roof.
By this time we were heading back the way we had come, but we took a different road, it was not tarmaced, but cobbled so we needed to slow down to stop vibrating ourselves to death. The road had been washed away in places and small detours across car parks and scrub land were required and eventually we got back to town and took the airport road to Turtle beach for smoothies in the beach bar where we watched the planes come in low.
The sun was close to setting and so we headed back down the airport road to drop the scooters off, but not before filling with fuel and shopping for bread, and once dropped off we stopped for a beer and booked the adjacent restaurant for eight for dinner that night.
Getting to know the neighbours
There was one couple on the rally who we hadn’t really got to know. Brian and Kelly were well known to many of the other boats as they had stopped over in Gibraltar and met up with other rally boats, so we went invited them out for dinner together with Orly and Amir and our crew members Tina and Zachy. We hadn’t anticipated them bringing their crew too, so we had 8 chairs for 10 people. Graciously, Amir and Orly offered to eat with Vince and Lyn, who had booked in the same restaurant and so we got to eat with Brian and Kelly, where we conversed about British and American regional accents (Kelly has a great Texas accent Y’all)
The constant swell was grating and we were all relieved to depart for our Atlantic crossing. We videoed some departures and then it was our turn. It all went smoothly and we were off on the final leg of our Viking rally.
