Final approach to Mindelo and first feelings on land.

Our last day at sea before we reached Cape Verde Islands was a very fine
day with sun and good wind. For several days we had begun to find
"flying fishes" on deck in the morning. And since the weather conditions
were now quiet, we decided that it was time to us these gifts from
Neptune to try to fish. We have two fishing lines on-board, one light
one for small fishes (as mackerel for example) and one stronger one for
bigger fishes. This day, we used the strong one... and that was a wise
choice! Half on hour later, we had a catch, and what a catch! "Vlad la
dorade" was 1.20m long and weighted close to 11 kg!! Thomas had to use
all his strength to roll the line in, and taking this monster on-board
had been another of a fight! A special thank you to Mathieu for the
fishing line, to Neil for the harpoon (with which we manage to take the
"over-fighting" fish on-board) and to Philippe for the diver knife. It
is now time to be creative to find ways to eat all this fish without
getting bored. We already tried the simple fish-in-the-pan way (good but
a little dry), the fish-cake (very good) and I made yesterday two big
sterilized cans (to be eaten later). Let's see what will be the idea of
the day!

We arrived then in Cape Verde in the evening of the day before
yesterday. We began to see land late in the morning but we didn't anchor
in the bay of Mindelo before the beginning of the night. Mindelo is
located in the island called Sao Vicente and the entrance of the bay is
facing a relatively narrow channel between Sao Vicente and Santo Antao
islands. We had read in the pilot that strong venturi effects could take
place in this channel. And venturi effect we had! The wind picked up
from 10-15 knots to 25 knots inside the channel, and with sharp
breaking waves and a 4 knots current straight in the face, the approach
was anything but quiet. The boat was strongly rolling from one side to
the other as we were pushed by the waves and despite our 6-7 knots of
speed over water, we were not sailing more then 2-3 knots over the
ground. When we finally reached the bay, it was dark already, and
orientating to find the anchorage place was not so easy, But we finally
made it and we set off the anchor just in time for a well deserved
"aperitif", followed by a good night of sleep (without boat watch or
change of sail in the middle of the night :-) ).

Yesterday, after a lazy morning, we touch land for the first time in 8
days. The first contact we had was with the people from the immigration
office and the maritime police. Both spoke French and all the
formalities were done in half an hour, way faster than we expected!
The city of Mindelo is relatively small but full of people. Streets are
definitely a place like any other to be sited, chatting, doing some
small repair jobs, selling fruits or cigarettes... and together with the
noise of the cars, taxis and buses, this gives the foreigner a feeling
of "life". Mindelo is miles away from all memories I have from Africa,
the streets are very clean, there are supermarkets around each corner,
pubs and restaurants all over the city... but one thing is definitely
the same than in my memories from Ivory Coast some 15 years ago, it is
the smile over people's faces and their tendency to help promptly even
without you asking, the dogs laying everywhere in the streets and a
certain amount of begging people here and there.

The plan for today is getting done with the repairs/maintenance we have
to do before the transat, find an internet connection to get the weather
forecast, wander through the city, do some fresh food shopping and
invite our neighbors for a drink!

Have a nice day everyone!