Mindelo - Delays

Weeks passed, still no sign of our new auto pilot! We were getting itchy feet as we had planned to leave around the 15th February.  When it eventually did arrive our technician Gilson had his hands full fixing charter boats (scheduled to go out). Then the bad weather arrived, howling winds, big seas and very dusty.

Work eventually started on our auto pilot installation....don't get too excited....in Cape Verde they say back in 1 minute, they mean 1/2 hour and back in 10 minutes means tomorrow.  To be fair a lot of items had to be custom made for our boat in the workshop in town i.e. The impressive aluminum frame (mounting for auto pilot), reinforcement to quadrant (to strengthen), a new better fitting pin, a rubber waterproof boot for the linear arm and then the installation of the electronics.

Gilson with frame

All in all we were very impressed with Gilsons work.  The work was completed and the bad weather moved away.  We agreed a date for departure with Philippe & Imelda and prepared Artemis for the journey - destination Brazil!

Mindelo - Out & About

We were invited by our friends Philippe & Imelda to a Sunday afternoon at Chez Loutcha, a short bus ride away for a 'all you can eat' Cape Verdian buffet with live music and dancing.

Apres food, we joined in with the dancing

Another day we all went (14 of us) for swimming and then an evening bbq of locally caught fish etc. At Elvis' beach restaurant at Salamansa, music and dancing again......phew!

Elvis 

Good eats

L-R ; Mae, Sandrine, Marco, Phillipe, Imelda

Tribal dance, once a year something to do with coal

Mindelos famous carnival took place whilst we were here. This was quite spectacular and even some of our friends got in on the act.  We didn't go to the carnival on the first night (lasted 3 days) and luckily  for the charter boat near us.  We saw a flare light up our cabin in a red glow and upon outside investigation we saw the charter boat on fire. The flare had landed on the boats spray hood and was burning its way through ferociously.....We sprang into action. I grabbed a bucket and Alison went to raise the alarm just in case I was unable to extinguish the fire - fire doused with sea water. This was successful and the charter operator was very pleased with us and later that week paid for our breakfast at the marina bar.

Spectacular floats

Mae in Carnival attire

Burnt spray hood 

Mindelo - First Impressions

Our First impressions of Mindelo was total surprise. The marina is smart and well run with a popular floating cafe/bar (yes, they do an English breakfast, albeit a spicy version). Clean toilet facilities, a ship shop chandlery, good key card security and very proficient marinios. Mindelos atmosphere is relaxed and laid back. Not far away, past the commercial port is a lovely white sandy beach. There is several small supermarkets, a fish market and a outside market where we found Merci (flag lady) and purchased 2 courtesy flags and ordered a red British ensign.

Alison found a new friend

Mindelo beach

Merci, Merci !

There were several familiar boats/faces that we were pleased to see again in the marina. One thing we have been looking to buy, for quite a while, is a new anchor. The ship shop has another premises in town that we are directed to and we purchased a spade type anchor at a very good price. We also decided to buy a big round fender to protect our stern from nudging the pontoon when the swell builds up (so glad we did!). We thought about those rubber or spring shock absorbers for our ropes but one of our neighbors said his only lasted around 10 days and another said they made their boat spring back and forward so much that they couldn't sleep. We used reinforced hose pipe and 3 ply nylon rope plus some 8 ply from our middle cleats as insurance, which worked great !

Anchor in situ

After our very tiring trip from the Canaries, hand steering all the way, we had to make a decision regarding a new auto pilot. After speaking to Raymarine specialist Gilson, we pulled the trigger and ordered a linear drive 'Evolution' system to be fitted. Also new cables for our VHF handsets.