New Year and Reflections on Cabo Verde

Well, we have been here over two weeks now and have celebrated both Christmas and New Year out of the UK. Christmas was a bit strange and rather subdued though we did enjoy ourselves of course. At least some of our thoughts were with those who we knew who were at sea. Phone calls to parents and relatives brought them closer and I think that they were really thrilled to hear from us as we sat in the cockpit in shorts and t-shirts.

New Year was a very different experience. The town was oddly quiet all evening until midnight. In the minutes preceding it lots of boats let of flares and such like. Then at midnight a huge firework display was kicked off on the shore and the air was full of flares! All the big ships blew their horns including the local ferries with a deafening barrage of sound. Various yachts contributed their much higher pitched horns, ourselves included. The music all started and didn't stop till well into the morning.

Sadly, we had been feeling very tired as the marina is not a restful place. It does not have finger pontoons but uses something called slime lines. There is also a bit of surge which made for very noisy nights with the lines snatching and creaking all the time. Consequently we were not really in the mood to go ashore. Still, we did enjoy ourselves.

Our focus is now on the next stage and we have set a date for our departure which is most likely to be Wednesday 08 Jan which should get us to Barbados near the end of January. One of the strange things we are looking forward to to is being in a place where the native language is English. It will be a bit strange though as all our cruising on this trip so far has been in either Spanish, Portuguese or French speaking countries. It will also feel like we have arrived as the so called objective of an Atlantic circuit is to cruise the Caribbean islands. Barbados will also be our furthest south being just over 13 degrees N. For reference, the south coast of the UK is about 50 N.

We have however loved these islands and will definitely come back here some time. I think that next time we will spend less time in the Canaries and leave for here around the end of October to have a good two months or so before heading across the "pond". There are ten main islands, nine of which are inhabited and we have only really visited one of them properly and another briefly. They would make a fantastic destination for Brits, whether by boat or by plane. The infrastructure is still quite basic when compared with other places but they have a unique charm.

I will work to get a few more pictures up before we leave but this oil rig is dominating our view out to sea at the moment.