Mindel Hotel Cape Verde San Vicente Mindelo

... so we haven't really talked to too many people. We keep running into our little foursome from England and enjoy little chats with them. We are enjoying the fresh sea air and getting a lot of reading accomplished - the only problem is that the sound of the Ocean and the warm air keeps putting us to sleep. We had another formal night - Jim looked handsome as ever - but I did not get any photos. Lyda - thanks ...

... Will and Allie - that was our only purchase - fortunately they accepted Euros and we were able to make a clean exchange - although a coin or two would have been kind of nice for our foreign money collection. Jim was really ready to return to the ship and so we did walk back and we were not the only ones - many people had already returned and as we walked back to the ship while people were on their way out ...

... 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 ...

(En français) Fabuleux, on tient une moyenne de plus de 4.5 noeuds. Et alors qu'on est a près de 6 noeuds, survient notre première frayeur : Je suis en train de lire dans la cabine quand Claudia arrive et me dit qu'elle va se baigner. « Tiens, la mer et le vent se sont calmes ! ». Bon j'enfile mon short de bain et arrive sur le pont. La mer est agitée, le bateau va toujours a 6 noeuds et je vois le capitaine Philip entrain de se savonner dans un saut d'eau et prêt a aller a l ...

(En français) Apres nous être fait dépasser par un voilier qui avait une voile a droite et une voile a gauche, on décide de faire de même pour permettre de mieux prendre le vent qui nous arrive de derrière. Gagne, on accélère enfin et tient une vitesse de 5 noeuds. On décide également de changer notre destination. Au lieu d ...

... 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.

(En français) Les nuits sont superbes; un ciel dégage, pas de lune, le noir complet. Des milliers d'étoiles, il y en a tellement que je n'arrive même pas à reconnaître les constellations. Comme notre pilote automatique principal nous a lâche, j'en profite pour barrer en suivant les étoiles ; c'est génial tu n'as pas besoin de lumière, et tu peux conduire et regarder les étoiles en même temps. Chose également extraordinaire, c'est le plancton phosphorescent qui brille ...