On our way
On our way
Wednesday 23rd December 2009, 0700 GMT
We eventually slipped our lines from Mindelo Marina, Cape Verde, at 1500 GMT yesterday Tuesday 22nd. We had a busy morning. Ceasar had stayed until 9.00pm on Monday to ensure both engines were completely overhauled and the infected diesel removed from every pipe but he ran out of time to put everything back together again that night. So yesterday morning, by the time we had fuelled up with 800 litres of diesel, filled the fresh water tanks and given the generator a quick service, we had lost another half day. Just before we left, we had a visit from Ademiro Neves who is a manager at the Shell depot in Sao Vicente who had also kindly offered to help fix our problems with our engines before our arrival - thanks to Susana's uncle Andy for his help in arranging that. Unfortunately by the time we heard of Shell's offer, we had learned of the new marina facilities and made our arrangements with them. But I am extremely grateful to Shell for showing such willing to help and Ademiro kindly took the trouble to come by the boat yesterday to make sure we were OK and to wish us well - he even bought us some gifts - thank you Ademiro.
Added to the last minute stress getting the boat ready yesterday, I took a call from Elaine who was on her way to Gatwick airport with Timothy to catch the British Airways flight to Antigua. This was at 0800 GMT, she was on the M25, still some 20 miles from the airport and less than 2 hours until the flight. Apparently the UK has been suffering blizzard-like conditions. She told me the road and motorways were littered with broken down cars and lorries and Gatwick airport at one stage had been closed because of the snow. Added to the worry was that my cameramans wife and daughter, Paula and Frances, who were on the same flight, were not answering their phone and were not at the airport. So it was with some relief that I took a call at 1000 to say they had all just arrived in time and were sat on the plane getting ready for take off. I've not heard from them but they must be in Tortola by now.
It was a stunningly spectacular departure from the CVI's. The volcanic islands are more akin to moonscapes; steep jagged cliffs thousands of feet high, completely barren, just black and brown scorched earth with the occassional settlement of white houses clustered to a shoreline. We sailed out with a stiff breeze behind us between two islands and were making 7 knots with just the genoa and staysail, it was a wonderful sail. Unfortunately the wind died just before sunset. But the highlight of the day occured about 20 minutes before sundown. Having only had success catching Dorado, just before we left Mindelo, I asked Kai Brossman, owner of the marina for his advice on which of my fishing lures I was most likely to catch a tuna - the one fish I have alsways wanted to catch. Of the various ones available, he advised the red squid-like one. Boy, was he right. We had the fishing rod rigged and the line out and we were thinking about bringing it in when suddenly the reel started to quite literally "scream". The clutch was set quite tight so whatever was taking the line so quickly was a big fish. It took a good 10 minutes of hard winding for Susana to eventually land the most beautiful tuna - I would guess that it weighed about 25 lbs / 10 kg - certainly the biggest fish I have seen caught. Once humanely sent to fishy-heaven, Susana had it gutted and fillited and we were snacking on tuna sushi with soy sauce and lime marinated tuna carpaccio within 20 minutes. And the main course of pan fried truna in chilli oil with soy noodles was to die-for. And that has only used up a 1/3rd of the fish - 3 guesses what we have got for tea?
OK, sun is up now, it's going to be a scorcher - if any of you know of any methods for increasing wind speed, please forward them on a postcard.
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