15/09/06
– 17/09/06
We arrived first into Palmeria, on Sal, Cape Verde in order to
clear in and were lucky enough to find a local police official who stamped
our passports. This saved us a taxi ride to the airport. This town is very
small and very poor with its inhabitants living in not much better than
a shanty town. We were told that Santa Maria in the south of the island
was hosting a festival and there is now some tourist development there so
we quickly weighed anchor and sailed south in the late evening sun. On weighing
anchor we discovered we had collected a large lump of coral now sitting
neatly in our anchor. It took a few attempts to rid ourselves of it. The
landscape as we sailed passed was flat with several volcanic peeks. It looked
rocky and barren. No trees. It was not long before we arrived into Santa
Maria and dropped our anchor as darkness fell. The festival had begun. Music
reached us from the shore and we could see the stage and people on the beaches.
When we head for shore we found there was no pier or slip where we can tie
up alongside or elegantly disembark so we have to ride the waves and land
on the beach then pull the dinghy up to dry ground. This of course involves
getting wet. Some enterprising locals offer to mind it for us for a small
fee. We give them half and promise the other half later. When we do finally
return we discover our good torch had been stolen. However the local people
are friendly and helpful and there was no trouble or even drunkenness to
be seen. The music and bands continued well into the next day without us
as we had long since retired back to the boat, tired and in need of our
sleep.
The mobile
coverage here is restricted to a local network and most of our phones don’t
work. There are plenty of internet cafes and they have phones also but this
is not cheap. Euros’ are accepted in most places (prices are quoted
in Euro) as this has become a popular tourist destination. There are a few
resort hotels along the beach. Power cuts are common as the supply can not
meet the demand. Our repairs and maintenance are nearly complete and it
will not be long now before we leave and are heading across the Atlantic
and further south.
Log 12/09/06 – 14/09/06
Log 11/09/06
Portugal to Canaries
