Welcome Aboard! •
Welkom Aan Boord! •
¡Bienvenido Abordo!
For some time now we’ve been considering the pros and cons of an e-book reader. We yotties never seem to have enough room in the boat for all the books that we want to carry, and so a device which promises to house a thousand or more in one tiny space has obvious appeal. An e-book reader also seems to offer easy access to the hundreds of freebie books which can be downloaded from the internet. Of course, one can…
Last year I decided to take a little time out from the cruising life and spend 10 weeks volunteering in Costa Rica and Nicaragua with the youth and sustainable development charity, Raleigh International – and at long last, I’ve finally got around to writing about my experiences! Raleigh has its roots in a project called Operation Drake. In 1978 Colonel John Blashford-Snell and HRH Prince Charles launched a two-year project running youth projects from a sailing ship circumnavigating the globe.…
Anchorage v Marina So far as visiting yachtsmen are concerned the biggest change to Mindelo, in the past few years, is the construction of a marina. This affair completely dominates the waterfront. Once there was a quay here, and the packet boats used to berth on the far end and disgorge their passengers. More recently the quay had fallen into disrepair and the area was used by the fishermen, passing to and from the beach. The area immediately to west…
Mindelo, capital of São Vicente, is the second largest town in the Cape Verdes and the busiest port. Nestled in the north-eastern corner of a huge enclosed bay known as Porto Grande, it offers better shelter than any other harbour in the entire archipelago – but if you arrive here in the winter months then you may not appreciate this fact. Throughout January, February, and March the Porto Grande is blasted by a wind which hurtles down off the mountains…
Our friends have been writing to us lately asking whether we’re okay. At first it was just the folks back home in England. Then people as far away as Fiji and South Africa started commenting on our situation and suggesting that we might be in some kind of danger. To be honest, we were a little bit worried ourselves before we crossed the river from Uruguay. Surely, it’s not a good idea to go and visit a country when that…
The purpose of antifouling is to prevent marine plants and animals from colonising the hull, and the easiest way to do this is by killing them. The ocean is brim full of planktonic larvae and planktonic algal spores whose further development depends on their finding a suitable surface whereon to rest their travel-weary selves and develop into something more adult. Flotsam, and most kinds of jetsam, are surfaces quite suitable enough. Ultra-slippery fast moving things escape the grasp of the…
Having cleared into the island, in Palmeira, where should the visitor to Sal go next? Well, some people would say that he might as well move on, straight away – to Boa Vista, or to Sao Nicolau and then Sao Vicente… There is a certain amount to be said for this philosophy. However, Sal does have a little bit more to offer. If you want to get to know the place a little better then you need to move on…
Palmeira is the port of entry for the island of Sal and is also one of only three places where yachtsmen can clear in and out of the country. It is situated on the west coast and, being the only settlement in the vicinity, is easily spotted in reasonable visibility. This article begins with a discussion of the place and its history. For information relating to navigation and anchoring, scroll towards the bottom of the page. First Impressions Most people…
From the point of view of its topography and scenery, Sal is one of the two least impressive islands in the Cape Verde archipelago (the other being Maio). Sal is low and flat, and if the rest of the group are arid Sal is simply a desert. In the whole island there is only one spring and one small oasis. The monotony of Sal’s dreary wind-swept plain is disturbed only by half a dozen naked brown hills – and each…
We hesitate to list the rules and regulations for yachtsmen visiting the Republic of Cape Verde because, depending on which official you speak to and in which island, you will be given a different set; so we suggest that you consider these brief notes to be an approximation and nothing more.