Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands
14 November 2012 | North Atlantic
John
We arrived in Mindelo on Tuesday morning, just after sunrise and booked into the marina for two nights. There are loads of other yachts here at the moment, getting ready to cross to the Caribbean and, as we have heard, many have already departed over the past week. We are leaving on Thursday morning, already filled-up with water and diesel for the crossing. It should take us between 14 and 18 days as, looking at the wind patterns for the next week, there is not too much wind out there.
I am looking at going a bit further south after we depart and then sticking between 12 and 13 degrees north, until we are about two thirds across the Atlantic, before I start curling slightly north and hope to arrive in Antigua. The winds do look good for a lot of spinnaker sailing, so lets hope we can save using too much diesel in the crossing.
Mark was originally going to fly back to the UK when we reached the Caribbean and is still going to do this. However, Jason has also now told me that he will need to get back to London as well. I was expecting this as we have had so many delays that his time has nearly run out. I may have to recruit an extra crew member in Antigua for the final run up to Fort Lauderdale, about an 8 or 9 day sail.
In the next few days I will type up a blog report, giving you a bit of info on Mindelo, which I hope you will find interesting. But, for now, cheers from all aboard Ultima Life, John.