Cabo Verde - No Stress

Our final stop in the group of Atlantic islands known as Macaronesia, (made up of the Canaries, Azores, Maderia and the Cape Verdes) took us to the first African nation in our voyage the Cape Verde Islands.  This archipelago is made up of 10 volcanic islands a few hundred miles west of Cap-Vert, in Senegal, the most westerly point of the African continent. 

Palmeira Harbour, Ilha do Sal, Cape Verde

 Our first stop was Ilha do Sal, the most north easterly of the islands where we spent a few days relaxing after our crossing from Gomera in a friendly anchorage with local fishing boats, a couple of pirate wrecks and a steady stream of reggae music from the tiny fish market on the shore.  We refuelled (ourselves) with hearty local fish lunches and quickly eased into the local mantra ‘no stress’. As we had arrived well in advance of the conveyor belt of cruising yachts heading out to the Caribbean in November we were lucky enough to be one of only three visiting yachts in the bay – two of whom we welcomed aboard Saecwen to hear of their stories. Both French, both had stories.

The next stop was Murdeira Bay, a protected marine reserve on the Eastern shores of the island, well protected from the North Easterly Trade Winds. Here we were just one of two yachts and had the most pristine water to swim in where we saw our first turtle of the trip.  We also discovered a very tempting left hand break that Heloise and Emily paddled out to in the blues brothers kayaks,  in the hope of catching a wave, however only to find that the wave was literally breaking on the very rocky shore, hence unsafe to surf.

Mindelo Harbour, Saecwen (left) and the ocean racing two-handers (behind)

 Each of the islands has it’s own character and unique geography. After the flat, dry and desolate island of Sal we moved on to Sao Nicolau with dramatic high volcanic cliffs which plunged down to black pebbled beaches.  One of our favourite spots was Mindelo, the main port of the islands on  Ilha de Sao Vincente  We had a dramatic entrance into the harbour with the familiar acceleration zone gusting up to 30 knots as we tacked in.  Here we shared a pontoon with a fleet of racing two handed circumnavigators getting ready for their next passage around the Cape of Good Hope   Mindelo’s cobbled streets, run down colonial buildings and leafy squares were the perfect backdrop to the soulful Cape Verdean music – no stress here either.

Our new friends in Brava

 Although time was ticking for our weather window to head South to dodge between nascent tropical storm systems we managed to make one final stop in Brava, the smallest and most remote island of  the archipelago and anchored off a tiny village of about 200 inhabitants. This time we really were the only yacht in the bay and our arrival sparked some curiosity, with both of the restaurants ashore preparing lunch for us, as well as supplying us with some local blue eggs, sweet potatoes and fresh bananas for our imminent Atlantic crossing.