Another Day in Cabo Verde

A full day in port, we’ll be staying one more night and leaving first thing tomorrow to cross the Atlantic! Wow.

The day was full of boat work. I have lots of bumps and bruises from trying to do work in very tight spaces. We have a solution in place for the water maker, we have clean laundry, and we have lots of yogurt, fruit, and vegetables. Plus another wonderful land shower. Should be ready to go!

More friendly people at the marina, people stopping by to help, people stopping by to ask about the boat, people just giving a smile.

In the picture, you’ll notice lots of flags flying from the boats. The tradition is to fly your home flag on the port side (left side) spreader and the courtesy flag (or the flag of the country you’re currently in) from the starboard side spreader. I only saw one American flag while I was in port, but more than one American city listed as home bases on the sterns of boats. Not sure of the motivations not to fly the American flag, would be curious to find out. Our neighbor boat in the marina is flying flags on their starboard side for all the countries of the crew on board. Some boats fly all the flags for the countries they’ve visited so far on their forestay and backstay.

More musings on Mindelo:

I went on a walk early this morning to be the first drop off at the lavandería. Locals were just getting set up with their fruits and vegetables. Dogs roam the streets and sleep on the sidewalks. A good vantage from one street revealed that the hills were covered with wind turbines. Makes a ton of sense for the area. If there’s one thing you can rely on here it’s consistent winds! (Dad, wonder who makes the turbines?)

Jan and I went on a walk in the afternoon to get some water and ice cream for the boat (yay for freezers on boats!) and stopped by an art collective. Looks like it could sometimes be more lively but today it was pretty mellow. Little doors in the walls lead to small rooms where artisans are sewing and braiding and beading. One man making jewelry and baskets and trinkets out of whatever he could find: good leather from an old belt someone gave away, dried banana leaves, corks, aluminum wire.

Dinner and gelato on land to celebrate our departure. I got a Cabo Verdean Seafood Rice which was excellent, and peanut butter and coffee gelato. Good combo! Wake up time of 0800 tomorrow for a departure soon after.

Falling asleep with the breeze coming in from the hatch above me. Clean sheets, a few pages of a book, cold water from the fridge, and the distant sound of music and celebration from the marina bar as a large group of people prepare to race across an ocean together. How incredible that our species does this sort of thing.

E