Departing Cabo Verde…   Friday, 01/08/2025

The intention is to leave Mindelo sometime tomorrow morning. I have already checked out with the authorities – they don’t work at weekends, so if you are departing at the weekend you check out on Friday, and they simply date everything for the appropriate day. 

I have not done very much in the last few days. I found that I was very tired, and I had little desire to visit the neighbouring island of Santo Antao. It is meant to be beautiful. There is a ferry that goes across, but the problem is that it would have meant leaving at 08:00 and only returning at about 17:00. I just did not feel like having such a long day. Instead, I wandered around here. One very attractive thing is the beach. It’s just over a 10 minute walk away, a huge stretch of sand and beautiful light turqoise water. A lovely place to swim, and no sharks (I always check – actually, there are sharks, but not the sort that will attack humans). Every day late afternoon, when it is no longer so hot, I have wandered along to the beach.

I have not had any success getting repairs done. The man concerned came onto the boat on Monday, and we agreed that he would do the work on Thursday. I did wonder if he would show up… And needless to say he didn’t… I caught him at midday – he was in the marina – and he said he was too busy, but “maybe tomorrow”. And of course he hasn’t turned up today – which I fully expected. So I am going to sail regardless – I’m not going to sit here for an indeterminate period hoping that he will do the work. I will just have to hope for the best. Not ideal, but realistically there’s nothing else I can do.

One pleasant surprise here has been the restaurants. There are a couple of pretty good ones. Excellent seafood – such as tuna. I’ve just returned from my favourite, where there are different people playing live music every evening. Last night there was a woman singing traditional Portuguese fado – quiet and often mournful, it’s about life, especially that of the poor. Very interesting. 

Our destination is Ponta Delgada, which is situated on the south coast of the island of Sao Miguel and is the capital of the Azores. It’s apparently an attractive small city, and the island is supposed to be beautiful. Anna, my elder daughter, is flying out for a week, and it is possible that Louisa might come too, if she can get the time off work. That should make the visit to the Azores enjoyable! No doubt we shall have some good evenings out, well lubricated with Azores wine. They’ve been producing wine there since the 15th century…

This will be a relatively short voyage: 1,250 nautical miles. If the wind is consistent we could do it in 10 days. If not, it could end up being 12 days. But that is still short compared with the 23-day voyage to Cabo Verde. (That’s the benefit of doing a very long voyage: anything else then seems short in comparison). I just hope that it goes well. Wish me luck.