New Years Eve

This is our fourth day out at the sea and the furthest we have ever been away from land. To date we have only done 400 odd miles. Probably our slowest trip yet. The last two days we have been averaging about 3 knots, with certain points in the evening going down to about 1.8 knots. We have been more or less becalmed for a period, which in one way is really nice, because the sea state was so calm it was just like being on anchor - I don’t think the cats even knew we were sailing. Sym cooked chips and we have watched movies and its been really relaxing, but then another part of you thinks that we could of achieved about 600 miles in this space of time, hence a few less days at sea.
The wind finally picked up yesterday evening to about 10 -14 knots. We encountered our first squall, which was very surreal. We stripped off our clothes , lathered ourselves with shampoo and took full advantage on the downpour. We are quite fed up with fish now - we have eaten it for a couple of days but there is still mountains of the stuff left, I know its wasteful but sym chucked the rest back in the sea. We certainly wont be fishing for a few more days!
We are making really good progress today and are travelling at 6 odd knots, and the weather has been sunny, unlike the last two days which has been cloudy and raining. We lost contact on VHF with Doris yesterday which im quite gutted about, its always nice to have a chat with someone because its nice to know that other people are suffering to! Ha Ha!Last night we saw two boats for the first time in 400 miles.
Tonight will be the first time in my life I have not been drunk on new years eve, we have some sparkling wine in the fridge which we thought we might have a glass to celebrate, but the sea is quite swelly todday and im certainly not in the mood for drinking. At this point we have only 1600 miles to go ( urg )

Setting off across the drink!

Atlantic Crossing.
27th December. The day after boxing day is the day we finally leave. I am not as nervous as I thought I would be and Sym is mad for it. We cannot wait to get to Antigua, it feels like we have been planning this forever. Sym plots out course before we leave and the total mileage is 2115 miles. Wow, that’s our longest trip ever by far. We check the weather, the wind is great but there is a massive storm up north which is sending down five metre swells which im not to happy about, but still we cant wait forever.
We clear the Islands of the Cape Verdes in a few hours and get our first sighting of Simon on Doris. The wind is all over the place and the seas are a bit swelly, but its not too long after that they settle down and the down wind sailing begins. The weather is really cloudy though. By nightfall we catch Doris up. Making really good speed at about 7.5 knots which is wicked. A few hours after the sun goes down the wind drops off below 10 knots and the annoying sound of the sails starts slamming. It is enough to drive you so insane there were times i thought about lobbing myself in the water. Throughout the night we sail really slow with hardly any wind at about 3.5 to 4 knots, Sym catches 2 really bizarre scary looking fish which are black with big teeth like they just stepped out of a horror movie, he decides they don’t look to appetizing so hes throws them back in. Very poor sleeping going on, which is always the same for us on the first night, it takes some time to get in to a routine.
Anyways first day all well and good and make about 135 nm.
Day Two.
Far nicer weather today, few clouds in the sky and the sun in shining. The sea state has calmed down so its really quite flat and the wind had picked up to about 14 knots so we are making good speed. We can still see Doris in the distance and have been chatting on VHF. Today is wicked, we go up the front of the boat strip off and have a shower which was lush. Then I catch my first baby Mahi - Mahi , so I fillet it which im so chuffed about, thinking about having a beautiful dinner. Then Sym catches one - a 5 kg one, its absolutely massive.(Edwardo would be really impressed) It takes my ages to fillet. So now I think we have a few months supply of beautiful fish on board.
That’s it for today cos this staring at the computer screen is starting to make me feel queasy. It takes me a few days to get into the swing of things!

Xmas in Cape Verdes

We ( Simon, Sym and me ) have a mad shopping spree in the town where we get all our provisions for the Atlantic crossing as well as all the fresh fruit and veg for Xmas. We finally find a butchers and they want £20 for a puney turkey. We decide to go for two small chicks instead. Everything so expensive here. We bought a kilo of Lemons which cost £5 from little old nana on one stall and then find out they are £2 per kilo in the supermarket. We cannot believe that we got scammed by a cute old nana! Where was her xmas sprit.
Whilst in the supermaket hunting for eggs( which are like gold dust ) we get hounded by this girl asking for ( yet again ) powdered milk for her baby. Sym has seen her five times this day, without the baby so god only knows!
Anyway Sym panics and tells her to wait outside. After 10mins she’s obviously getting inpatient and decided to come back in and pick up the milk for herself and try to put in in our basket. She picks up the biggest pack she can find. So I tell her to out it back and I get the smaller one! When we pay and give it to her, she does not even smile just holds her hands out and asks for more dosh- i could not believe the cheek of her. If she was that desperate, surely she would be more grateful instead of being so rude! This got right on my nerves!!
Me and Sym get back to the boat and decide to eat hot dogs and open a bottle of nice wine. Its our 5th year anniversary today- since we have been together. Sym makes a lemon cheesecake and we chill out waiting for xmas day. This must have been the first xmas eve I have not been wasted. Usually it’s a large session with my mates back home!!
Xmas Day!!
We wake up at 10 ish ( not as early as when I was a kid and used to set my alarm for 3 am )
Sym makes me bacon and scrambled egg which was a lush treat and we open a bottle of bubbley and have bucks fizz. I phone my family up and after I get quite upset! don’t know why, think I may have got a tadge home sick as it feels weird being away from Christmas, I would of loved to see my family, especially my nieces and nephew ( Layla and Oscar ) who were born a few weeks back so I have not even seen them and little lili my oldest niece who is so lush.
We go for a dip in the sea and take in the shampoo and have a wash. We then just rinse off with fresh water, it s so much better than just having a shower, don’t use a fraction of our precious water supply.
Simon comes around and we eat a wicked dinner ( cooked by my beautiful husband) he even made his own stuffing from scratch! It tradition to have piggies in blankies but we had to make do with little frankfurter, interesting( alot nicier than it sounds) As always after dinner , your two fat and sleepy to move, so the rest of the night was spent drinking wine and watching movies! Sweet Sweet!!! i love this cruising luife it rocks!

Cape Verdes continued

It’s a few days after Aliisa go and we were still waiting for Doris to turn up. We were both starting to get worried as they were already three days over due. They really should of arrived after 6 days max but we were approaching the 8th day and still no sign. We decided that if they didn’t turn up by the next day we would have to contact Falmouth to see if they’ve activated their Epirb or something.
Anyways that evening thank god they finally turn up in the night and we guide them in with our flashing torch. They had been taking it easy and decided to go slowly - so then we felt a bit silly after thinking maybe they sank or something. Well happy we were that they arrived safe and sound with no damage to Doris.
We go into town to try and sort Lindsey a flight home cos she’s needs to get a flight to the other island Sal and wants to get home before Christmas. Luckily she gets one for the following day and leaves to go back to Britain. Bye Bye Linds.
Poor Simon is back to being a Solo Sailor again with no one to look after him and cook him meals. Me and Sym decide to adopt him. This means his Atlantic crossing will be spent eating biscuits and chocolates.
Anyways it only two days till Christmas so we decided to stay until then having a proper Christmas day and leave the day after boxing day. We would have left boxing day but as it happens it was a Friday and regrettably we have learnt that its bad luck to start a voyage on a Friday - I wish I never knew this !! So now we wait another day before setting across the pond!!
A big hands up to Simon as he is the one who helped us set up our web site, a massive help! So take it slowly with me everyone , ive got another four months of updating to do so give me a couple of weeks!!

Mindelo, Cape Verdes

Our first week in Cape Verdes. 12 the December - 20th dec
The first day we arrive in Mindelo it is considerably different to what we expected. The pilot book tells us to expect to be hounded by the locals who board your boat without asking and never to let them down below on the boat because theft is a big problem.
Well our first morning me and sym are waiting to be hounded ,ready with our big fish to do a bit of trading and low and behold we don’t get a visit off anyone, we keep an eager eye out but no one is the slightest bit interested in us. Gutted!
The first day row into town and go to have a shower in club Natico which was quite crap, bet a hell of a lot better than smelling of grease and sweat and it only costs a euro so its well worth the dosh.
The mad thing we noticed throughout our stay was how poor the place is yet it is so expensive to buy anything. For instance the prices for food and drinks in the shops and restaurants were the same prices as the rest of Europe (some places we visited in Portugal were much cheaper) and yet we found out the average wage was about £100 a month. We really cant figure out how they can afford to eat!
We were approached by few of the local sharks on our first few days who were asking if we needed any services in return for dosh, but once you said no and walked off they seemed to get the picture! They did not continue to hassle us.
Day two our beloved friends on Aliisa turn up and we go out and paint the town red. We went to this bar where everyone in there seemed very wealthy and we nicely dressed. I asked for a gin and tonic and they bought it our in a pint glass with a quarter of it gin, I was drunk on my first drink. Lori gets talking to this local guy whom goes on to ask if he can buy him some milk powder, so off they go to the supermarket and Loir buys it for him. ( After spending over week here we get asked all the time for milk powder for baby twins but we never actually see a baby. Sym thinks it’s a scam and they re-sell it, while sceptical Simon thinks they use it to cut crack. Im not sure what to think, its seems a bit bizarre, it may be genuine!)Anyway we have a bit of a mad session and then we go out for a nice meal ( which came to 100 euros for the four of us) how expensive. We got told to be quiet by some idiotic up tight German bloke which was quite a shame really cos it riled us all up and the old singer dude was trying his best to get everyone up to dance and the rest of the restaurant were sitting there silently like muppets glaring at us. The manger came over to us and told us not to listen and to make as much noise as we wanted. We next needed up in Suzanne’s bar, which was a tadge rough ( lots of men with scars and broken nses ) who all said it was not from fighting but a bike accident. Ha ha
Turned out to be a brilliant night but very ill the following morning.
We spent the next few days chilling out waiting for Simon and Lindsey off Doris to turn up. We had some very entertaining nights aboard Aliisa, a big thank you to them! I was a little upset that to Finnish people managed to beat me in a game on English scrabble! Nice one !!
Aliisa leaves for the Atlantic crossing the following saturday so Sym cooks a Farewell dinner on our boat before they leave, where Annina wants to get pissed as possible as it may be the last time ever gets chance. Wolverine decides it’s a good idea to walk across the candle on the table. All of a sudden his fury belly is on fire and he legs it to the cockpit. Sym runs after him and puts the fire out and get black soot all over his hands. We think he may have been ready to jump in the water to cool down, anyways he ends up with syringed whiskers and he is very emotional the next day. Poor wolves. Ha Ha. We decide to wait for Doris to come and Syms got bits and bobs to do on the boat to get it ready for the crossing. I get on with all the important stuff like the Christmas preparations.

La Gomera to Cape Verdes

We left La Gomera on sat the 6th December at about 5pm to head for the Cape Verdes Islands. It is our longest crossing so far at 800 miles which we reckon should of take between 6 and 7 days.
We stocked up with a load of fresh produce a few days before in San Sebastian and had a massive dinner of eggs and chips before leaving ( because we cannot cook proper chips out at sea - it would be highly dangerous and if sym does not have chips for over a week he starts to get moody and get the shakes!!)
We checked the weather before leaving and for the first four days it was going to be quite windy about 25 knots which about a 2 metre swell. We left behind our mates on yacht Doris cos they were still in the middle of doing their diving course and there was some quite bad weather coming in so we could not hold on any longer.
Our other friends Lori and Annina from Yacht Aliisa left early in the morning and were a good 50 miles ahead of us. We caught up with them by the first night and had radio contact which was pretty cool. We were travelling well quick between 7 and 8 knots making about 140 miles for the first two days We lost Aliisa on the radio by the evening of day two and for the rest of the whole trip we did not see another boat. It was eerily quiet, defo the quietest trip we’ve been on so far.
Sym did some fishing and on the third day caught us a bullet tuna fish which was so tasty we I chopped its head off and gutted him and sym cooked it with Garlic and Lemon. Then the next day he catches 2 dolphin fish. Firstly we were not sure what they were so had to check in on our mates Brendon and Jewels from back home to Google it to check out whether it was edible. ( so the satellite phone has come in very handy indeed)It ended up being an amazing tasting fish so we ate one and kept one hoping that we would be able to trade it for a lobster with one of the locals when we arrived (wishful thinking )
By the last day ( day five ) we could not wait to get there, id had enough of the swells and sea state. We would catch the odd wave that would send the boat flying and flood the cockpit. It got all our bedding soaking and the cats were not very happy when they got a spray . We saw our first load of flying fish on this trip and they were nuts little suicidal things. Every morning we would wake up and there was some in our cock pit. The cats did not seem that bothered by them though. The only thing they were bothered about the tuna( surprise surprise) they don’t half have expensive taste ( sym says they are posh pusses). Wolverine will only eat prawns if they are the king ones
We are both so excited about making landfall, primarily because its 800 miles further south than the canaries and we were looking forward to some sun, cos the last few days in La Gomera was overcast and quite chilly. Would you believe it if I was to say that it never rains in Cape Verdes, some years suffering with a massive drought problem, yet the first day we arrive its chilly and it rains. How nuts is that!
We finally arrive at Mindelo harbour and drop hook about 5 am. The trip into the harbour was not that amazing as some of the leading lights were broken and there were ferries anchored up in the entrance covering all the navigation lights .
Woo Hoo, we arrived to our destination after five - not so lush days at sea.

La Gomera, Valle De Grey

Valle De Grey Anchorage.

After leaving the cram packed marina in San Sebastian, we decided to go and anchor on the west of the island with our friends Aliisa and Doris. We had to stay here and wait for a good weather window before our 800 mile crossing to Cape Verdes.
Bearing in mind we did not want to stay too long as we had just filled up with water and got a load of fresh fruit and veggies as we were not really sure of the situation in Cape Verdes. A lot of the pilot books we read said that it was difficult to get water there and terrible for stocking up, so we not really sure whether this had to last us a month until we got to the Caribbean.

Vale De Grey was a really beautiful anchorage with hardly any swell and with huge cliffs just on the edge of the water. When we arrived we had real difficulty anchoring and our anchor dragged three times before it bit. It is a real hippie town and we were anchored by a meditation centre full of naked people which was quite entertaining.

We had a really good view of the naked people walking from there along the path leading from the beach to town and what we found really bazaar was that they were walking in the nod, everything hanging out but were wearing hats aswell as socks and shoes, it looked soooo weird.

Anyways we had look round the town which was definitely the most unique out of all the canary islands. It used to be a bit of a mecca for the hippies back in the olden days and there are even some people still living on the beach since the 80’s. We had a Bbq on Quartermoon and went snorkelling a few times. We checked the weather on the intent and decided to leave on Sat 6th December for Cape Verdes.

San Sebastian

As you know we love anchoring and find it a real pain when we have to go into marinas, partly due to the fact that the cats keep running onto other people boats. Most people really like it and welcome them in, but others cant stand it, e;g Shackles escaped into another boat and jumped on their spray hood, he did not know we were watching tried to pick her up to get her off, she bit him, and so he slapped her round the head. When he did spot us watching starting petting her and smiling. It was quite amusing. Another time we came back in the night and forgot the lock the cats in. The man next to us told us he did not have a very good sleep as Shackles jumped through his forepeak hatch in the middle of the night when he was sleeping and landed on his guts. I had to turn away to pretend to do something while he was telling Sym this to stop myself laughing.

Sorry a bit of a diversion going on then. So we had to go into the marina to fill up with water and do some washing. It was tiny. We had to raft up to three boats. We we finally sorted out all our rope and shore lines, then come and ask us to move to another space. Half an hour later we have pour own finger pontoon. We spend the next two days getting the boat ready and doing some stocking up in the supermarket and in the evening we had some Bbq s with Doris and Aliisa on the Quay wall. All the boys got their guitars out and had a bit of a jamming session that went on pretty late on night and we got told to shut up by a French boat. Anyways it was good to catch up with them all again as we had not seen them all since Playa Blanca in Lanzarote.