EILEAN’S ATLANTIC CROSSING
“Night, we decide, is lost on most landed folk. And we are the lucky few sailors gliding through the interstellar void.”
unearthly tinge as if seeing everything through a tobacco filter... “a slightly sepia effect,” I noted. On the fourth day this reduces visibility to “poor” – less than 2nM, plus we discover that we have a gas leak. There are days, especially in the tropics, when salad or a cold collation are welcome but the thought of not being able to cook for the next 14 days clearly fills chef Stef with horror (not to mention the rest of us; a lack of coffee would reduce us Chiantis to misery). “I have nothing but an empty pot,” he dolorously declares at that evening’s cold supper. So we decide to divert to Cape Verde, altering course from 230° to 190°, to go and buy some gas hose. Some of the sailing has been amazing: the day also saw our best 24-hour run so far – 201nM. On our night watch we’d gazed at the deck log with fascination, watching speeds climb from 9s and 10s to 12s and even a 14-knot surge as she flew down a wave front in good ocean swells in the F5s and F6s we had been enjoying. We’ve also been trying to catch a fish, streaming lures from two rods mounted in tubes lashed to the aft stanchions. So far we’d managed a very small tuna, which was returned to the sea with our abject apologies, and a few small flying fish have landed on deck. With tuna in mind we won’t be eating them.
Skipper Andy is filing a daily position report via our 160-character text Inmarsat phone and Panerai boss Angelo Bonati tells us we’re sailing way too fast for
14 CLASSIC BOAT APRIL 2012
fishing. “Come and join us, show us how it’s done,” Andy replies after relaying that we’ll detour to San Vicente. Sadly, he has a week of important meetings. Later we’ll catch quite a few fish, including a large mahi mahi (dorado) and a wahoo which is excellent grilled. In the early hours of Sunday morning after nearly a week at sea we tie up in the port of Mindelo, San Vicente. We enjoy some welcome sleep in calm conditions; downwind sailing had seen Eilean yawing as well as pitching and rolling and to get to sleep you kind of had to jam yourself in your bunk some nights. It being Sunday the Portuguese-African island is also closed so we’ll have to wait for Monday morning for the hose.
SALTY CUSHION COVERS
Salty cushion covers and bedding are removed and two bulging kitbags of laundry are collected. The Pont D’Agua right next to the marina is a sushi restaurant so we book a table for that evening – much to Yoichi’s delight, only to discover that sushi is not served on Sunday. Our second day in port is restorative. With the gas fixed, new gas bottles bought, and the laundry quickly done for us, we leave at 1730. I’d happily go back to the Cape Verdes; they look fun and some yachts have clearly been here for a while, riding at anchor or tied up in the marina. Several are bound for Brazil – the Caribbean holding slightly less allure, perhaps, than it has in recent decades.
Above far left: Andy uses an electric rope cutter to clean up an eye splice Above left: Giovanni sheaves a new halyard for the mizzen staysail at the top of the mast Above right: I was lowered into the dinghy for photos of our arrival
Right group: The aft deck with following sea; night sailing on a digital camera; dawn, with rain squall under cloud
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