Back to the Sea

What a day! Exciting and occasionally tense. Hoping all our repairs over the last couple days paid off and would allow us to start on the longer leg of our voyage.

Left port early in the morning after some breakfast and tea. Because water in the marina is dirty and water from the dock hose bibs is not potable in Mindelo, we couldn’t really test our newly/mostly repaired water maker until we got out into the channel.

While waiting for the water maker to stretch its legs, we practiced our upwind sailing, tacking back and forth across the channel. We watched flying fish flee from our bow wave and sail for longer than seemed possible into a distant wave. Early on, the line connecting the jib sheet to the jib clew came loose. So after hauling the jib in from it luffing everywhere and finding some shelter from the wind behind a rock we were able to reattach the jib sheet no problem with the simplicity of a trust bowline (who needs a shackle?).

While sailing upwind in the channel, we were also able to generate a lot of energy with the motors and charge the batteries. We had a great view of the start of the ARC+ race as they all set out at noon, spinnakers flying in 18knot winds. Other sailboats were coming south down the channel from upwind places, coming to take shelter in the freshly vacated spots of Mindelo Marina.

With a firmly attached jib, newly charged batteries, and our water supply at 50% and climbing, we turned down wind and left the safety of the channel, headed out to sea. A pod of dolphins joined us briefly, choosing to ride the waves at our stern instead of in front of our bow. It was as if they were greeting us, and encouraging us to move along. “It’s time,” they seemed to say. “Go, cross! Be with the ocean.”

Our chart plotter, full of other sailboats found on AIS this morning (pictured), now only shows 10 sailboats, headed in the same direction we are (although a little bit further south since the ARC ends in Granada. As the days go on, they’ll continue to spread out, but it’s comforting to know this many boats are crossing the ocean together. After a yummy dinner of ramen noodle stir fry, we’ve jybed one more time today to keep with the group. We bring up the rear but we hope to catch up and pass some in the days and weeks to come.

Cabo Verde disappears in the haze behind us, the choppy waves lap at the stern of Nam Thanh, a few sneaky ones creeping over the rim of the cockpit and spilling harmlessly onto the floor at our feet.

The journey continues,

E