Atlantic Crossing - Day 6

Our 1200 position on the 17/12/2010 was 17.19N / 24.22W. Our noon to noon run from the 16/12 was 175 miles.

Again another frustrating night with wind strengths varying from 5-15kts. For a while the main and jib creaked and groaned struggling to maintain shape and at other times they hummed along with their belly's full in perfect harmony.

Dawn saw the breeze stiffen up reaching 20kts at times and boat speed readout climbing higher and higher peaking in the 12kt zone.
At 0815  at a distance of 65 miles the mountain peaks of the Cape Verde islands were spotted  on the horizon just below the cloud line. Annie called 'Land Ho' and a bottle of bubbly was deposited into the fridge in preparation for the traditional land fall festivities later in the evening

Over the past 72 hours we have noticed that the temperatures, even in the early morning have been steadily getting warmer. Today it's bordering on hot with the mercury showing a tropical 32c in the sun. We left the Canaries wearing track pants and long sleeves and today we are back to shorts and summer t-shirts.
It's a sparkling day out here with the afternoon sun dancing on the big swells as they roll under our keels.

The Cape Verde chain is sprawled out across our path and the courtesy flag has been hoisted. We are looking forward to making landfall in the next few hours and exploring some of the islands over the coming days.

Land Ho!      Raising the Cape Verde flag
 with the islands in the distance



Our first up close view
of Sao Vincente









 





                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       At 1850 and after 940 miles as shown on our log, we anchored in the well protected bay of the port of Mindelo, on the island of  Sao Vincente, Cape Verde .
Our arrival was met with cheers and horn blowing by our good friends Daryl, Annie, Jay and Lisa from     "No Rehearsal". It was wonderful to arrive. Roughly one hour later, "Tehani Li" poked their bow around the breakwall and once they were settled they too joined us in a celebratory sundowner on "No Rehearsal".
A few  beverages later, we adjourned over to "Tehani Li" where the ace fishing team of Karel and Phil proceeded to carve up a freshly caught  4ft Wahoo which they very kindly shared with us.

So the herd is slowly gathering here in Mindelo and we are looking forward to more arrivals over the next couple of days.