22nd Dec Mindelo, Ilha de Sao Vicente

I woke up on the 16^th to find my tripping buoy four feet underwater, so broke out my diving gear and found the line well tangled, it took me a good twenty minutes and had to do a brief second dive to reattach the buoy. In the bay at Tarrafal I saw a turtle, only very briefly. The town has building work going on everywhere, but is friendly and without hassle. There is internet available in the town but I did not use it.

Ancorage at Santa Luzia

Ancorage from Snow White

I checked out on Monday 19^th and was in two minds whether to leave late at night and go directly to Mindelo or leave immediately and head for Santa Luzia, where David anchored on the last trip, I eventually decided to go for Santa Luzia putting off the evil hour of having to get into Mindelo. Had a cracking sail over to find another boat anchored in the bay, so got in fairly close to him, as he was in the ideal spot to avoid the worst of the gusts coming around the  mountain, only to have another boat come in and anchor between us later on! I decided to stay for the day of Tuesday 20^th and have a look around, so rowed dingy ashore and wandered up one of the mountains, there were a number of fishing boats pulled up on the shore at the Southern end of the bay, and a whole lot more arrived during the day, one came by with a swollen wrist asking if I could help, since he said it was a bite I gave him ¼ bottle of TCP and told him to put it on the marks.

Fishing boats arriving

Instant village

Leaving St Luzia

 I pulled up the anchor at first light (8am)on the 21^st  and sailed over to Mindelo, had to use engine a couple of times when the wind died and of course to enter the harbour, otherwise another cracking sail doing 4-8knots; in Mindelo found boats of every size anchored in the bay , so picked a spot and dropped the hook, here’s hoping it holds, settling with a cup of tea at 1pm. I left the dingy in the marina, for a small fee, and went in search of the immigration and Port Captain, finding the Port Captain first who told me to go to immigration, who told me to go to the port Captain! Finally I found the Policia De Frontera who were very helpful and gave me two forms to fill in, took my ships papers and said to come back 24 hours before departure, and no I did not need to see anybody else; after a short walk about town to replenish supplies of fruit and bread and get Wi-Fi from the marina office I returned to Snow White for the evening. 

Entering harbour of Mindelo

From my ancorage

Mindelo

Old Town

Fruit and veg market

 It looks as though my diagnosis of the water in the engine was correct, it was that when the boat was heeling hard over on starboard side, water was siphoning back into the engine, one solution is to sail on the other tack, I have raised the exhaust pipe a little and redistributed tools and fuel cans, I also dumped the old chain (30m of 10mm) so far all is well the oil is still clean after changing it in Tarrafal.