Lindisfarne – Forgus 37 – 7,5t (>9t equipped)
Gran Canaria to Salvador, Brasilien via Cape Verde
28 May - 25 June  2006

You should have plans, but also be prepared to be flexible. Our "week" in Las Palmas turned out to be three before we where ready to leave, manly due to friendly yacht neighbours, nice mountain walks and of course a lot of things to do with Lindisfarne.

We sat sails for Cape Verde on Sunday the 28 of May. Good tailwind, which unfortunately died in the evening when the land effect was gone. We hade to use the engine during the night and the morning after. But the wind came back and we had just exactly the northerly tailwind we wanted and it made it possible to pole out the Genoa the rest of the way to Cap Verde.

Very comfortable sailing thanks to our self/tacking jib which we keep sheeted "behind" the main and that stops the yacht from swing to and fro. Instead she leans some degrees to the lee of the jib.
 We made landfall in Mindelo, Sao Vicente in the dark Saturday evening after 800 nm, a trip that didn't offer us any surprises except for the fishing.
We got a 2kg Dolphin fish the second day, but after that it was quit empty to the last morning before Cap Verde. We got something enormous on the hook. The line went out with a scream, but just before it was gone, the fish, or what it was, turned towards the yacht, jumped several times 50 m beside us. It was a giant Blue Marlin, some 2 meter long. We where actually happy when it succeeded to shake out the hook and disappeared into the deep blue. It was exactly as in a deepwater fishing movie! Half an hour later we had another big one on the hook. But this time it got loose without showing us his size. It is obvious very difficult to get the "cocking size" on the hook.

There is not so much to write about Mindelo. Besides a nice rest in a not moving yacht, there are not many reasons for stopping over here. The shops are few and their stocks are very limited. Almost everything besides fresh fish is more expensive than in Las Palmas.
But it is possible to by diesel with good quality ,sealed quality sample, tax free and somewhat cheaper than in Las Palmas. Do observe that the Pilot advice you to go to the fishing harbour and not to main harbour, that's not tax free!

We had some windy days in Mindelo. The harbour is very well protected, but katabatic winds reaches the harbour, and we had gusts up to 40kn several times during the days we spent there. The bottom is sand with good holding, and together with the right anchoring equipments the gusts should not be a problem, although a little uncomfortable.
Unfortunately the wind brought fine sand, impregnating ropes and textiles, and covered everything with a thin layer of dark sand. You couldn't touch anything without getting dirty.

This harbour was our first "really" contact with a port of entry. Earlier ports had been in EU/countries and formalities are rare there. Now we got the whole package with emigration, custom and so on... and when leaving - the hole race again. The nice thing was that we got a "clearance" paper, explaining that we have fore filled every law and demand, and that we have a safe ship for the journey to the next port Salvador. The harbourmaster hadn't seen our yacht...

We left for Salvador at lunch time Friday the 9th together with a strong northerly wind. The wind accelerate more than 100% between the islands and we got almost 40 kn during the first three hours until we got free from land and the wind become its normal 15kn.When we past Fogo and Brava in the early morning we got the same wind effect again for some hours.
We had a whether forecast telling us about northerly 15 20kn for the next 5 days and it turned out to be correct.
We saw some ships and talked to a South African sailor during the first three days. After that we didn’t see or hear any ship for six days!
The route from Cape Verde to Salvador is not very easy to choose. Our two pilots suggested different routes, so we had to decide our selves. We had heard about a yacht tacking against the current along the Brazilian coast to Salvador and that we did want to avoid! So we decided to go south as far as possible before reaching the southeast trades and the northwest current, trying to reach the Brazilian coast without tacking.
Our plan worked out quite well, especially thanks to the current that never changed to west, but kept on in a southerly direction.

Doldrums with squalls and big areas with no wind are many sailors nightmare. We got our first squall, a thunderstorm, and thought, this will be a heavy trip. But it turned out to be our only real squall on the whole trip. And the doldrums was behind us after less than two days. The heavy rain in "our" squall took away every trace of the fine sand from Cape Verde, so never clean anything before you have to!!! The yacht looked as if it had been hydro jet blasted, absolutely clean. Unfortunately a lot of grease in furlex and bearings was also almost cleaned out. So some maintenance will have to be carried out in Salvador.
During our last five days before landfall Salvador the wind increased to 30 kn but still easterly. This made our last days a bit bumpier with high seas, 5/6 m waives, making the trip faster but with more water in the cockpit. After our first night with heavier sea we couldn’t get our engine started without the alarm and all the control lamps engaged. We have to run the engine every third day to produce water and with only 50 l and five days to Salvador the engine was a must. We heaved to in order to calm down ourselves and the movement of the yacht, and then emptied the locker in the cockpit to get access to the backside of the panel to the engine. Saltwater had been pressed in behind, and after freshwater cleaning and drying the engine started without alarm and light! Talk about relief. Two hours later our water tank was full and we could continue our silent journey.

Our fishing continued to consist of to big fishes. But we got a new Dolphin fish, 6 kg. Food for three days.
Everything has an ending, and our journey to.

Our chosen rout turned out to be good all the way and our luck kept on. We reach our waypoint 20 nm southeast of Salvador in the early morning the 25th of June and moored 1300 almost by the hour 16 days from Cap Verde and 1921 nm through water and over ground 2200 nm. We got 300 nm from the south going current!
We thought us where a bit slow, but the reaction from sailors on the pontoon was different. The route, very short doldrums and of course the current helped us to do the passage at least two or three days shorter than average.

When we summarise the passage, it is sometimes a bit boring, especially during nights when you are lonely on duty. But with books, recorded books in nighttimes, good food, oven fresh bred, the time flies... On top of that we have time to discuss and plan the next part of our journey without anything hurrying us.
We saw very few birds and only Dolphins at a few times.
The water maker is a blessing. A Freshwater shower every evening in the sunset and dry clothes to the night. In the day time you can’t use clothes when your body is poring away

We got our sea legs back between Gran Canaria and Cape Verde. If not this had been quite an ugly trip.
In Salvador marina Centro Nautico where already about ten not Brazilian yachts, two from Sweden, three from France, one German, one from Swiss, one Irish and one from UK, together with us we where 30% from Sweden!

We have now been almost a week in the marina and the formalities with the authorities are still going on. They have not got a procedure for yachts, so they treat us like a commercial big ship...
The basing of the harbour is very big and swell comes in all the time, making the yachts moving very uncomfortable all the time. So far we have broken one rope!
Salvador is the eastern part of the Bahia de Todos a great bay with a lot of havens and anchorages, the most famous is the island Itaparica where we will spend some weeks.
Now we will relax, fill up our storage, look at the town, chat around with our yacht neighbours, and eventually find a trip into the Amazons.
It’s not time to go south before August, remember there is a winter south there!
Here in Salvador the climate is tropical and we have just below 30 degrees with around 28 in the water. Quite good to bee in the middle of the winter!

30 June 2006
Annika & Björn
S/Y Lindisfarne

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