SailBlog

Sorry about radio silence. First few days at sea I couldn�'t get the satellite phone set-up to send emails or blogs. Seems like a setting I had wrong as I had been using shore based broadband up to that point of departure. Also has some writer�'s block, but I put that down to eating too many eggs. Arrived in Cape Verde (Mindelo) 4th Jan. Weather a warm 25 degrees. We had arranged an AirBnB apartment above a bar called Simpatico (you can see them on AirBnB �- Simpatico Apartments). Highly recommended, very modern and clean and much easier as a base rather than trying to run everything while living on board the boat. We were able to buy provisions and prep and cook 2-3 meals and keep everything on the freezer until departure day. And have decent internet. Fruit is readily available in the markets or small supermarkets. We asked about meat at the Simpatico and they sent us to Boutique dos Congelados. This place has all manner of frozen meat, chicken, mince, sausages, seafood and even Dr Oetkke pizzas. I took a Cockburn�'s haggis with me for the 25th but we had a challenge to find any neeps (turnips). We eventually found some small neep looking candidates and purchased them full of hope that they will turn out to be something approaching the compulsory accompaniment to Haggis, Neeps �'n Tatties. Time will tell and I hope the haggis lasts. There is no freezer on the boat, just a fridge. Do not talk to me about Fish Sauce. It was on the list month�'s ago but Ian�'s master status list showed it as still �"to buy�". I knew this and was going to steal our bottle from the fridge at home. Ian said he had seen some in Jersey but could not remember why we wanted it. Neither of us brought any and now we were faced with the prospect of not being able to produce Mai�'s (my work colleague in Alaska and a Vietnamese super cook) special dipping sauce. What would we do as an accompaniment when I caught that Mahi Mahi fish that I had spent an inordinate amount of money on buying tackle and lures of every persuasion? The answer was that we spent many foot weary hours wandering the streets of Mindelo in search of a Chinese shop that might sell such an item. We eventually resorted to asking Tom (who runs Simpatico) where we might get it. Tom suggested a Thai restaurant who would probably decant us some so it was planned to eat there one night. I had almost given up the will to live by this point and did not even fancy a Thai meal. Fast forward the next day and Ian was sorting through cupboards on the boat (he is the tidy half of the crew) when, lo and behold, he pulls out the brand new bottle of Fish Sauce we had indeed pre-purchased months ago in Gibraltar. Just need to catch a fish. All in all we did OK with provisioning and should have enough fresh food to last the first week or so and, thereafter, maybe still have some onions, carrots and potatoes. Mindelo is a pleasant place, the people seem decent and it is great to see kids out playing in the evenings. There is always football (soccer) being played in the playgrounds and, at weekends, the place is full of parents with their young kids on the slides and swings. All this as opposed to people walking around with their noses in their smart phones. One evening we saw this couple, a boy and a girl, must have been all of 7 or 8 years old in the playground and they were engaged in a very serious session of ballroom dancing. An adult was standing by with a boombox music player and these kids were quite the thing. Adorable. Strange thing is that most of the supermarkets have guards on duty and you have to leave your previously bought shopping in lockers while you shop at the supermarket, presumably to prevent shoplifting. This means either; there are plenty of light fingered residents, it is a government job creation scheme or it is sign of a protection racket. I hope it is t he second one. We never once felt threatened in any way.

To be continued�...�... Graham