Wednesday 19 january 2005.

Hello! Time flies when you are having fun and we have had fun!

In Fuerteventura we had our family visiting with us and that week went faster than ever. We got some Swedish food that we are still enjoying! We had arranged with the Canadian boat Shadowfax to sail together to the Cape Verdes and despite them being on La Gomera and us on Fuerteventura we set sail the same day with radio contact morning and evening. It was a tough start with 20-25 knot winds from the wrong direction (SE and we headed SW) for 2 days but then the wind changed and got weaker the further south we got. But who complains when the sun is shining and the sea is good?! After 8 days we could see Ihla do Sal, on the wrong side… GPS is a good instrument but you have to start the route correctly also! The fault was discovered in time so we did not do too many miles in the wrong direction and we were welcomed by several friends to Baia Palmeira. The anchorage in Palmeira was pretty full and after the happening in Graciosa we have become more aware of boats around us and we want more swinging room. Therefore we went to a bay a few hours south that was much bigger but only 4 boats were there and we could rest a few days and get in rythm after the long sailing. Together with Shadowfax we sailed to the next island Boavista, a daysail south from Sal.

Cargo ship in Boavista.

Boavista was different, we were left alone and looked around with no aggressive sellers, quite peaceful. Once every second week or twice a month the boat from Sao Tiago (one of the green Cape Verde islands) arrives with groceries and that's a big happening we also got to experience. The cargo is unloaded in big nets and divided in piles on the pier at once. Everyone who has ordered something is there and it is a lot of commotion! We went around the island with a taxi, a so called "aluguer" and we saw one of the nicest beaches ever. An international airport is under construction so in a few years there will probably be loads of people here but now there were only a handful tourists. We got stuck in the sand, quite similar to getting stuck in snow but the driver didn't know what to do. We started digging and after a while he ran off to the only house we saw and got help. We got away eventually and after a wash in the ocean we continued to an oasis, a desert and a few villages. The island is called a small piece of Africa in the Atlantic and we agree.

Stuck at Boavista.

Our trip went on to the island of Sao Nicolau which is the next island west, an overnight sail. It is a beautiful island with a dry south side, deep ravines and greener vegetation the further north you go.

Sao Nicolau, Kap Verde.

Street picture from Kap Verde.

Some of the stores had everything behind the counter like old time stores in Sweden and in one store there was an old man adding the sums on a block of papers, the cashier machine non existing!

Store in Sao Nicolau.

Then it was time for Sao Vicente and the big town Mindelo that is the harbour most visited by sailors. Here we got in touch with boatboys that wanted to watch the dingy, take our trash, laundry etc. One day when we were ashore we found out that our dinghy was out in the harbour and it showed our boatboy had taken it to help a pretty spanish lady back to her boat. We didn´t like that so we told him it was nice towards her but not to us and after that he wasn´t as bold anymore. Mindelo is a beautiful town but the poverty of the people is more obvious here than on the other islands and there were a lot of both beggars and homeless people. There are stores with more supplies than we thought they had so stocking up before the Atlantic crossing wasn´t a problem. The islands still do quite a bit of trading with Portugal so we recognized a lot of food from there. It is hard to find tinned meat but basic food is not a problem.

We celebrated Lucia (Swedish festivity) here on the Swedish schoolship "Gunilla" and it was great! The students sang for invited Cape Verdeans and us and it was quite moving. After almost 2 weeks in Mindelo it was time to leave. The weather sounded promising with tradewinds and other sailors on the "Atlantic Crossing Net" said conditions were ok. With the boat loaded with food, water and diesel we took up the anchor and took a last look at land before we set sail and headed west. It was the 18th December and we calculated the crossing would take 20 days to Barbados but we hoped for 17 days...

The first 3 days we made good speed, 400 Nm and Elvina went well even if it was overcast and we were wondering what we were doing out on the sea... Then the wind died and for 5 days we had light winds and sun, every now and again interrupted by thunderstorms. One night we had lightning for 10 hours and it was frightening but somehow we got through.

Krilla's christmas bath.

Christmas Eve was celebrated listening to xmas-music, taking a dip in the sea and opening the only present we had onboard, from Shadowfax. It contained a CD with music and some really good stories from Canada and was very amusing.

Mega rain close to Barbados.

The 27th December will be a day we will never forget. That day we went through a front and we had storm force winds for 8 hours with a cross swell we have never seen before and never want to see more either. Peter, our windsteering, steered well for 3 hours and we went below to hide from the megarain outside. Then we heard a "bang", we rushed out and saw we had gibed and lay sideways in the seas. Krilla got his act together first, started the engine and steered us back on track having the seas in from the stern. Then we took down the mainsail and pulled out about 1 ft of the genoa. That was enough to rush forward and Gunilla refused to let Peter take over again. The fear of being in the middle of the Atlantic in bad weather held a steady grip over the wheel and we abandoned our 3 hour watches to 1 hour watches until the front had passed. It started to calm down by 20.00 but we had big seas all night.

In the morning we discovered that the top sledge on the main had been damaged when we took the sail down so Krilla had to drill it out in order to put the main back up. The genoa already had a little rip in it before the front and it had grown to about 2 ft so we changed to a jib instead. And then we had light winds again... We had joked before saying that when we cross the Atlantic the trades would change course and we can now say we had anything but tradewinds. Wind from all directions, sailchanges and changing Peter became routine so the people who say they set the sails and selfsteering and never changed anything on their trip to the Caribbean we don´t believe anymore...

The last 2 days we had a lot of wind and we were pretty tired after the crossing. After 20 days we got to see land only to see it disappear in the rain of the year that reduced sight to 600ft. But Barbados was ahead and it felt great!

Atlantic calendar, one clothespeg equals one day.

We cleared in at Port St. Charles with health-, customs-, and immigration authorities and it went fairly quick. We sailed the last 10 miles to Carlisle Bay where all our friends cheered us. The tears streamed down the cheeks of happiness to see everyone again and after anchoring we got kidnapped to Neliandrah, an Australian boat with our second Mom Dot onboard, everybody came and we got plenty of hugs and rum punch!! Fantastically wonderful and even though we were very tired we had silly grins on our faces all evening, and the next coming days...

We have been here a week now and we have landed mentally also. The island is green and pretty with very friendly people. The water IS turqouise, 29 degrees warm and very nice to swim in... After all the food fantasies on the Atlantic ocean and some weight loss the stores are a dream even if it is quite expensive. We are going to enjoy the Caribbean and we wish all of you a good 2005!

Gunilla och Krilla Bewert