Do you know Mindelo?
GPS fix at 08:20 UTC on Friday March 11. 25 N 25.117 and 22 W 05.739 - Heading 225- Light wind 10 Knts NE - Speed 4.5-5 Knts (with only the Genoa).
Atlantic Ocean Come in Canary Islands and the Cape Verde Archipelago. I sleep all night restless because sailing slowly and with only one sail, I wonder what options I should activate after sunrise . The boat with the Genoa as the only propellant is not balanced and shakes, pitching too much to allow me a rest as I would need due to the accumulated tension.
In my sleep I think that it is not difficult for me to get used to the constant blue, the blue-greenish, the grayish that surrounds me for a month now . They say that the sea acquires its color depending on the depth and the plankton. Like the desert, the sea is never the same, although it is always the same sea. The one that changes is who navigates it . And like the sea, we don't wear the same color every day. I have left La Gomera believing that I will never set foot on land again until the Antilles. I was very anxious to see my face alone with that infinite horizon to which to point almost in a straight line towards the W, the West, head towards the West and collect sunsets. But fate has its own grammar and its own chart.
Since the breakage of the Mainsail we have made little progress and with a light and weakening wind. I must find a suitable solution and make the right decisions . The attempt to fix the sail, with the waves that shake us constantly, is impracticable. Before making the big decisions I must try a repair with the material I have, but I must lower the sail and take it to the cabin. Only by working dry and stable, however uncomfortable it may be, will I be able to do a reasonable job. It takes me almost all day to maneuver : the patch, as neat as possible, and trim the sail again in its final place. It's 18:00 UTC and I'm proud of the work done, we'll see how it holds up, You have to think that we have 2,400 miles ahead of us!
Map of Cape Verde, showing an attack by Francis Drake on a Spanish fort, on November 17, 1585
GPS plot at 20:20 UTC on Friday March 11 24 N 47,400 and 22 W 37,900 - Heading 225- Light wind 5-10 Knts NE - Speed 4.5 Knts (with Mainsail + Genoa). Total distance to Destination 2,388 Nm
There is little swell that carries favorably, the wind is very variable and weak, therefore the speed does not stabilize. At 9:00 p.m. I decide to turn on the engine to support walking a bit because we have already lost a lot of time in the last day and a half and without enough speed the hydrogenerator does not charge the batteries enough. If I put the navigation lights, added to the refrigerator that I had kept off all day, we run a serious risk that we will run out of enough energy . I will take the opportunity to make a dinner with lots of vegetables. Today lunch, due to the intense work, was only Jabugo Ham, cheese and a Quilmes beer! You have to treat the staff properly...
I decided to make a risotto with vegetables and authentic Parmesan, which came out very well. I add a glass of wine Malbec , necessary satisfaction to offset the disappointments of the last few days. After dinner, the routine return to check that everything was going well and oh, surprise! The sail repair did not hold! Plastic remedies were falling off again due to the excessive tension they support.
I must lower the sail in the middle of the night. At the end of the maneuver, I return to the cabin and decide not to decide anything until the next morning. The only measure I feel capable of taking is to set a course further south, in case, finally, as I sense, I decide to head for Cape Verde to repair the Mainsail before continuing. Saturday morning dawns extremely calm, with little wind. I start the engine after deciding to change course. New destination: Cape Verde, island of San Vicente, port of Mindelo, where I am informed from my base that there is a Marina with all the services available . It is the wisest option.
A large pod of dolphins
GPS plot at 17:20 UTC on Saturday March 12 23 N 30.521 and 23 W 19.782 - Heading 200- Wind almost non-existent 3-5 Knts - Speed 6 Knts (with Motor). Distance to Mindelo 406 Nm Total distance to Destination 2,520 Nm (recalculated due to the mandatory detour).
Before nightfall I try to raise the fortune sail, which is no less than the best sail, the competition one, in Kevlar fabric. But it has a drawback: the solo maneuver is very difficult and risky . This reason prevents me from thinking of continuing alone with her to my destination. If I had been halfway there, obviously I would have assumed that difficulty, but having the Cape Verde option, I know that I have made the best possible decision. The three days from my breakdown position to Mindelo, the second largest city in the Cape Verde archipelago, capital of the island of São Vicente and the port I want to reach, are smooth sailing. Barely wind until approaching the islands. The threatening white, that of suspicious clouds and agitated foam, disappears.
GPS fix at 09:40 UTC on Sunday March 13. 22 N 32,200 and 23 W 39,360 - Heading 202- Light wind 8-9 Knts NE - Speed 3.5-4 Knts. Distance to Mindelo 346 Nm Total distance to Destination 2,460 Nm.
Sunday without news. I try to fish, but I can't.
GPS point at 21:30 UTC on Sunday 03/13 21 N 41.210 and 23 W 52.498 - Heading 202- Weak wind 10 Knts NE - Speed 5 Knts. (in donkey ears) Distance to Mindelo 293 Nm Total distance to Destination 2,408 Nm
On Monday morning, the wind seems to return as we approach Cape Verde. The problems seem to have evaporated. A perfect morning of sailing. There is a little disturbing swell.
GPS fix at 08:20 UTC on Monday March 14. 20 N 49.098 and 23 W 59.235 - Heading 195 - Light wind 11-12 Knts NE - Speed 5-6 Knts. Distance to Mindelo 241 Nm Total distance to Destination 2,355 Nm.
Day of great calm, for the first time on the trip since the start of the prologue in the Peninsula that I was not sailing relaxed. It gives me time to think, something that I have barely been able to do during the previous days, while I continue my ruminant dialogue with myself and with those who stayed on the ground. New technologies prevent absolute solitude. But it's not what I want either.
Remote islands have unusual magnetism. They are isolated pieces of land that were imagined before they were explored. Finally I feel that I am happy with the event that forces me to deviate. It will allow me to explore my island chart. I try to fish. Again without success.
The navigation continues with a leaden tranquility despite the freighters that can be distinguished by eye and that cause a concert of beeps from the AIS alarm that insists on reminding me that I am not alone. The freighters tell me that at least I'm on the right track, on the direct route south or west. As I get closer and think where I'll go , I realize that I did not come prepared for this stop and therefore I did not foresee any letter or program.
Lose yourself in the leisurely pace of Mindelo
GPS fix at 14:00 UTC on Monday, March 14. 17 N 59.211 and 24 W 38.240 - Heading 235 - Light wind 5-10 Knts NE - Speed 4 Knts. (in donkey ears) Distance to Mindelo 68.5 Nm Total distance to Destination 2,182 Nm
Monday passes without pain or glory, a half gray day, without heat but not cool either, until at sunset a large pod of dolphins appeared. Due to its proximity to Mindelo, I decide to offer myself a light but elegant dinner, cream of lobster and prawns with a couple of glasses of Canarian wine.
A few hours before sighting land, it becomes completely dark and I find myself sailing blind. It is the most dangerous navigation that exists, also the most archaic and that fishermen continue to carry out, especially the artisanal ones. The stars are not with me , although the sonar is, but the rest of the modern paraphernalia is of no use to me. The darkness in the sea leaves no room for any other color and I must recover the skill of the old navigators. Sharpen the look, differentiate the contrasts between the different blacks and grays. The most difficult thing is to control the anxiety of running into something that he had only seen at the last moment or not even until the impact...
Destination: Mindelo, in the north of the island of São Vicente
At 02:30 UTC I arrive at the mouth of the port of Mindelo, but there is very little and poor signage to be able to find the Marina. They don't answer the radio or the phone. I venture out until I see some masts in the background and I approach, mooring alone at the pontoon of the gas station. It's 04:00 and I'm glad I came from resting on a bed that no longer moves in all directions... We have arrived.
Cape Verde. What do I know about Cape Verde when I wake up? hardly anything. Cesaria Evora . The sweet voice and bare feet, the authentic and tortured artist. Creole ballads, soft, nostalgic, that music that caresses and teaches you to appreciate saudade . Little more. The rhythmic lyrics, the words that rip your soul apart. It's sweet to die at sea, she sang… my favourite, for reasons I won't explain.
It's sweet to die in the sea
The green waves of the sea
The night he didn't come
it was sad for me
The barge came back alone
A sad night was for me
It's sweet to die in the sea
The green waves of the sea
The barge sailed, night was
The morning has not returned
handsome sailor
The siren of the sea took him away
It's sweet to die in the sea
The green waves of the sea
It's sweet to die in the sea
The green waves of the sea
The waves of the honey green sea
Volcanic landscapes in Mindelo, Cape Verde
The first thing that surprises me when I arrive in Cape Verde is the light, intense, as it always is in the tropics. A light that does not admit nuances. The colors here are all in place. The roughness of the terrain. Volcanic, yes, but hard. A land that doesn't seem friendly . Whoever walks its islands, their feet are skinned. Cesária Évora wore the soles of her feet open, "footsteps", as she said after fifty-five years walking barefoot, from the port of Mindelo to other ports. Cape Verde: nine islands, 300 miles from the mainland, Atlantic Ocean, northwest of Senegal , one million and forty thousand souls, seven hundred thousand Cape Verdeans in emigration, nine Creole dialects that remained of the windswept Portuguese, confused with the song of the birds. It was a Portuguese colony, independent in 1975, an agrarian and fishing country, punished by time and drought. L Cesária Évora's voice had the scent of Cape Verde on her dark skin and her easy, wide smile.
Surroundings of Mindelo, Cape Verde
People surprise me. Contrary to the land they inhabit, the people of Mindelo, the Cape Verdeans, they reconstruct my image of happiness . That of which I have spoken so much to my squire, my Clinamen, in our hours of night talks. Away from everything, away from everyone, unhurried, calm, expecting little, because little is to be expected, yearning for little, because little is to be yearned for, ambitious for what is right. A good fishing, a good place under the sun, the green of the sea. Happiness is distilled by detachment, distance. Could it be that it is easier to be happy – or pretend to be happy – in the middle of the Atlantic, than to do it in Paris or Barcelona. I have over 2100 miles left to figure it out. These islands, which have always been a refuge for sailors, were also the base of the slave trade. The African Caribbean, like Haiti, also exudes that sadness for the uprooting . Could it be that happiness has to do with accepting the destiny that touches, with not provoking the oracles, with a certain meekness of spirit? Or could it be that they have freed themselves from the anxiety of being happy at all costs? I don't want to associate meekness with happiness, nor with resignation. I feel in these people a sense of dignity. Perhaps that is happiness.
I decide to give myself the opportunity to walk the island, to meet its people. Cherish, if you let me, a tiny part of their secrets. As I did in La Gomera, I walk the streets and paths because it is with your feet that you know the land. On the other side of the island I walk alone along a path by the sea . I walk barefoot. Sand and rocks. Ten kilometers under the sun while thousands of thoughts pass through my mind at will. I choose them at random: “one does not stop sailing by stepping on land; one does not stop traveling by docking in a port. Infinite travel is an attitude, not a means of transportation . It is absorbing the “other”. I have always thought that other people's stories are more interesting than mine, that is why I am passionate about literature and instead I am surprised when they encourage me to tell my anecdotes, which is true I collect thousands. To understand the world sciences are essential, to understand it, literature is essential. We travel while we read, we travel while we meet the "other", while we put ourselves in his place. Infinite travel is infinite compassion, because everything around us will "one day" cease to exist.
Market in Mindelo
I return and stop at the fish market, at the market, at the Cesária Évora exhibition. While my Sail is being repaired, I allow myself to be seduced by the stories they tell me, the voices that speak to me. I did not pretend to know Cape Verde and today I wonder if Cape Verde was not the necessary stage of this trip. I thank the God of seams for breaking my Mainsail, the God of Threads for preventing me from re-sewing the rag. To the gods of the sea, to their mermaids and mermen, I thank you for letting me rest on this piece of land. Everything comes from the sea, and then the sea breaks lives and only sometimes returns them. Bring wealth and leave saudade. From the sea also comes the music of Cise, the queen of morna.
I will always carry Cape Verde with me and its waves of honey green sea.
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