Blue Bell Santo Antao

... barely got off of the pier when Jim said he was ready to go back - but we continued on. We saw a Shell plant and then ran across the convenience store - well that looked familiar enough. There were a lot of very thin stray dogs roaming around and that was sad to see. There were quite a few kids begging for money and a lot of guys selling beaded necklaces and 'paintings' made from sand. Apparently from what we heard ...

... and was very proud of myself. Somehow, I think the local people half-expected to bargain. Most foodstuff are generally expensive for the local living standards...almost the same or more expensive than in France...perhaps it's because everything is imported here....not much fertile land for agriculture. Only seafood remains inexpensive.. 3 EUR for a medium size red snapper! Here are more photos of the city. Enjoy!

... is so colourful here. We noticed quite a lot of chinese-owned shops here too! Haven´t found my chinese provision shop yet...I'll be asking around later. Need more of my instant noodles ;p People are very friendly. The streets are rather full of kids, asking for money...but it seems to be more out of mischief than their real need... they would complain that the money's not enough! Whoever said that beggers can't be chosen has obviously not been here. I ...

... Un groupe de dauphin passe lentement à quelques dizaines de mètres. Avec les quelques nuages dans le ciel, on devrait avoir un superbe couche de soleil. C'est magnifique...mais c'est chiant. On décide de démarrer le moteur. J+ 11 : Sunday 18 Nov Apres une nuit au moteur on voit enfin la terre. Vers 10h le vent se lève un peu, enfin on peut couper le moteur. On devrait jeter l'encre vers 3h.

... so far...the first time, Greg let it escape by mistake. The 2nd time, we decided that it was too ugly to eat it so we put it back into the water. Talk about saved by the skin! The 3rd time, we found it at the end of the line too late...it was all disfigured by the time we pull it up. We threw it back into the water. In an attempt to improve our chances of catching a fish, Phil added a weight from his diving equipment to the line. At around 4 pm, Eddy noticed that we had something on ...

... pour se rincer. Le temps qu'il attache une corde qui traîne derrière le bateau pour se rattraper et remonter a bord, je saute le premier a l'eau. Je m'accroche assez rapidement à la corde « oh putain ca tire1 » et remonte difficilement au bateau. Philip se prépare a sauter a son tour. J'hésite a lui dire d'attendre Claudia a l'eau pour l'aider a remonter. C'est sûrement trop puissant pour elle. J'ai pas le temps et le voila a l'eau, qui l'embarque rapidement loin derrière ...

... vers Sal (est du cap vert), on part vers Sao Vicente, plus a l'ouest et plus pratique pour partir vers l'amerique. (In English) We spotted a sailboat! From far, it seems to be heading for us. It was a Danish sailboat, Expresso. We think that they're also heading for Cape Verde, but they're travelling much faster than us ...

... we were treated to tribal dance of dolphins in the horizon. There must have been around 30 of them, one leaping after the other. They reminded me of the scene in Lion King, where all the animals gathered to meet their new king. I quietly wished for them to approach, but they didn't. 10 minutes before my night shift, Eddy woke me up to alert me of the dolphins. There were maybe 2-3 of them. Streaks of green line criss-crossing decorated the sides of the boat.

... est et apparemment les fait fuir. « Je vais te tuer ! » m'annonce délicatement Claudia après le réveille qu'elle m'a offert. « Bah on en verra d'autre... » Quelques minutes plus tard, voila que la ligne de la canne a pêche se met a défiler. « Un poisson » s'écrit Claudia. Il serait temps, ça fait 4 jours qu'on traîne cette ligne et on a toujours rien attrape. Sceptique en voyant que rien ne se débat au bout de la ligne, ça doit être un sac plastique ...

... long du bateau et qui laisse une traînée derrière nous comme si on était une étoile filante (en moins furtif quand même !) (In English) Glow-in-the-dark dolphins! During our nightwatch, I spotted some flashes of green light that lasted quite long in the water, not like the ones caused by waves. I jumped, of course. My intuition told me that they were dolphins. Greg, who was soundly asleep on my lap while waiting for his shift, was scared to his wits! He was annoyed ...