Gran Canaria to St Lucia via Cape Verde islands.

The ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers)  is the largest transatlantic sailing event in the world, attracting over 300 boats each year.  Its founder Jimmy Cornell (well known sailing icon and author of "world cruising routes") created the event in 1986 and it has grown to now support boats on hundreds of different routes throughout the world - some boats even do a whole circumnavigation with the support of the ARC

Meeting in Las Palmas marina a week or two ahead of the departure date, the ARC organise, not only seminars, events, and demonstrations, but lots of parties and social events. There is a strong emphasis on safety and at some point during the run up to the departure date, an ARC member of staff will come and inspect your boat - If the safety equipment is not 100% tip top, you will not be allowed to participate. 

This had the dual effect of us not only buying all the safety equipment on the ARC list, but checking it, practicing using it, making sure it was all present, in good condition and accessible.  This was a really good thing for us. 

The safety inspection was a big date in all the ARC entrants diaries and everyone was talking about it - it felt a bit like doing final exams or a VIVA at medical school. I was so nervous! Of course, my very chill husband was as ever -  cool as a cucumber!!

Inspection day arrived, we had been through the  ARC list carefully, bought/replaced all our safety equipment, had our life raft tested and certified, and I think we were both quietly confident we had done all we could.  

So the big day arrived,  as did Chief Superintendent, or Miss Marple  (aka ARC safety inspector) and went through our boat with a fine tooth comb, I think she actually had a nit comb. She was determined to find something wrong - this made me wonder whether the inspection team are on commission - find a problem on a boat, you get a 5%bonus?? Or maybe a glass of dry sherry. 

Well of course she did find something wrong - the date on the batteries for the lights on our life jackets had expired by about a month. She was so excited!! 

So there we were, on the "SEE ME" list

A few days later, after replacing said batteries, we got the all clear and only then could we fully relax, and enjoy the comprehensive drinking programme/social functions and parties the ARC had arranged for us. It was so much fun! 

For newbie cruisers, like us, this was a great way of easing  our transition into cruising life and we are still in contact with many of the boats and people we met during this time. 

The WCC had lots of seminars and educational events for us keeno (and slightly nervous) yachties doing their first big ocean crossing.

Here is the blog of our Atlantic crossing .....

Las Palmas, Gran Canaria - Mindelo, Cape Verde 

Day One - November 10th 2019 

There are two options for the ARC leaving Gran Canaria - the ARC which goes directly to the Caribbean, or the ARC+ which stops in Cape Verde islands on the way. We chose this route because - we had plenty of time, we were keen to have a look at the Cape Verde Islands, and lets face it, why wouldnt you?

We are on the ARC+ which is the fleet travelling to the Caribbean via the Cape Verde Islands. 

There were 100 boats in our fleet - 20 multihulls, and 80 monohulls. Of the boats electing to go to the Caribbean, some boats are going to St Vincent (Of St Vincent and the Grenadines) and the rest finish their journey in St Lucia (this is us) 

The ARC  leaves on a  set  date and time every year,  this year (2019) it was at 1pm on November 10th  (Sunday) - and unless the weather is, frankly, dangerous, they will generally leave as predicted. 

The forecasted weather for the set date was not great, the sail was downwind, so very forgiving,  but still, stronger than we would normally leave with - at 28knots, gusting to 35. 

We did quite a big risk assessment in the morning before we left, spoke to some of our friends (Thankyou Martin and Debs!) and decided to go. 

As we left the berth at Las Palmas Marina, our port winch exploded into a million pieces, scattering all over the cockpit floor.  Hmm - was this an omen?? 

Crawford thankfully managed to do a quick fix - we do need this winch, ten minutes late, we ambled along to the start line. 

Although the ARC is a "rally" and not a "race" the mentality was definitely "race" - with people shouting and screaming at each other - tacking/gybing/getting their spinnakers up, shouting "protest" etc. 

Nauplios is not a fast boat, and even though we knew we were not really in a chance with  winning against some of the light nifty racing yachts in the fleet,  it was hard not to get excited by the atmosphere. 

So started the first day - very windy, with a problematic big seastate, leading into a bumpy, rolly,  uncomfortable night.  Happy days! 

As we were leaving the island of Gran Canaria, I looked back and did a sort of mental "hail mary"  - even though I'm not religious and dont even really know what that means. I think, looking back, I was pretty much  s***tting myself. 

Gradually the ARC boats were dispersing, away from each other and we were mostly on our own by around midnight on that first night - that is, until we got a loud angry message on the radio from a German boat nearby "Nauplios what is your course?"  I think they thought we were getting a bit too close. We  had them in sight and we knew we weren't (obvs!!)

We had spotted them on the AIS and could see them on the sea - their navigation lights -which technically, because they were sailing should have been a tricolor of red/green/white - this is so that vessels know, in the dark, which side of the boat is facing them. His navigation lights were, instead of  red, green, white, - all blue. 

We wondered if he may have had the wrong lens in the nav lights - Miss Marple missed that didnt she??  

Anyway, my husband who, unfortunately forgot to attend diplomacy school, answered the call with " Ah is that you with the blue navigation lights?" 

The guy obviously knew he had the wrong Nav lights because there was definitely a pregnant pause on the radio! 

This is a bit of a conversation stopper and it did pretty much end the conversation. They were calling us out on our course, I think they thought we were getting too close to them, we (Crawford) replied by very subtly criticizing their navigation equipment. Very good. 

We still dont know who they were, and didnt see them again - either on the water or in the Caribbean.  It was quite funny though in a cringe/hide under the sofa sort of way. 

Day two - Mon 11th Nov 2019

Still big seas and wind around 23-28 gusting to 35.  Just got the stay sail out. The boat feels steady and safe. 

Crawford went on deck to sort the halyard out as it was clanking about - while doing so, he banged his life jacket, causing his AIS transponder to deploy - WOOPS!! This sends an emergency call to any nearby vessels/emergency search and rescue. 

So, before we caused any more chaos on the high seas, we quickly sent an "all ships" call to cancel the emergency alert and apologised for any inconvenience. to any nearby vessels. Oh dear!! 

When we hear a mayday call on our radio, it is always taken incredibly seriously - who is it? what is the emergency? where are they? are we in a position to help? 

We did get a call back from a lovely guy - a Captain on a cargo ship nearby. Just a general chat really. He was surprised at the number of boats out in this rough weather. We explained it was the ARC  - we were still quite surprised we were out, but all was good really. (Now that bit is over!!) 

Day Three - Tues 12th November 

The next drama on the high seas was when Crawford went on the sugar scoop on the back deck where we keep our gas bottles. One of the gas bottles had fallen over in the rough sea and we were worried it would cause damage. 

Life jacket on and he was safely clipped on to the back of the boat on a short tether ( My heart rate was around 314bpm at this point) he stepped off and managed to sort out the gas bottles. (phew - heart rate down to 200) Just as he was getting back into the boat, a big wave came onto the boat, hitting him fairly full on! I think he got a shock but his life jacket also thought it was needed and started to inflate, very loudly. Oh well, at least we know it is working. Luckily there was no AIS transponder alert this time. 

Day four - Weds 13th November 

The autopilot is now really noisy - squeaking loudly! Crawford thinks it needs some oil but doesnt want to do that at sea. 

Because the autopilot is using so much power, we have had to fire up the generator to charge the batteries. 

In further Sneddon drama, the cord from the generator snapped and gobbled itself up inside the generator!! Yikes. More fixing to be done 

Luckily the sea state is now much more settled, the wind is great at 13-18knots and we have 6knots of speed. 

Chilli for dinner which was amazing! 522nm to go for Cape Verde....

Day five - Thurs 14th November 

Stay sail and genoa, wing on wing, working really well. 

Dinner was amazing - loving having spare time to spend in the galley = aubergine and egg quiche with tzatziki 

Day six - Friday 15th November 

Less than 200nm to go now, Got the main out on the SB side with two reefs. Poled out genoa on the port side. 

Chicken pie for dinner- Crawfords favourite! Read - the locked ward. 

Day seven - Saturday 16th November 

Arrived at 13.34 C pontoon 

Close by were Sue and Tony of SV Mirabella, SV Cavatina, SV Verona 

Found ourselves in the marina bar - lots of arriving yachties taking their sails for emergency repair - I guess we were lucky we had no damage. Cautious school of sailing wins in my book!! 

Crawford poured a litre of oil into the autopilot steering column - loud stressful, nervous breakdown inducing noise now completely settled!!!!!

CAPE VERDE 

We arrived into Mindelo, on the western side of St Vincent Island, Cape Verde archipelago on Saturday 16th November after 6 days at sea.

More parties/social events/ fun to be had, and we also had a good look around the island of St Vincent

Cape Verde islands, or Cabo Verde - an archipelago of ten volcanic islands in the central Atlantic Ocean. My third visit to these islands. 
The archipelago  lies around 350 miles west of Cap-Vert which is the most western point of Africa and around 800 miles SW of the Canaries.
Along with the Azores, the Canary Islands, Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Savage Isles the Cape Verde islands form what is known as the macaronesia ecoregion and these volcanic islands all share similar features of ecology, evolution and conservation. 

www.ub.edu/bio/home 

Allegedly the Cape Verde islands were uninhabited until the 1400’s when Portuguese navigators discovered, then colonised the islands. From then, they were  used as a convenient stopover during the Atlantic slave trade in the 1500s and 1600’s but after slavery was suppressed, the islands did not have enough natural resorces to support a population, and most of the inhabitants emigrated. 

The islands have gradually recovered economically and due to their very convenient position on the trade wind route, have become a useful stopover, not only for major shipping routes, but for many yachts and transatlantic sailors.

A stark lack of natural resources in Cape Verde means that over 90% of all food consumed in Cape Verde is imported - consequently, the main economy now is tourism and foreign investment which is gradually increasing.

Only five of the ten Cape Verde islands support any agricultural production which is  salt, Pozzolana ( a type of volcanic rock used in cement production) and limestone.

Due to the ambient climate, there are a growing number of wineries starting to achieve international acclaim and wine tours of Cape Verde islands are proving popular.
Cape Verde was, until 1975, an overseas department of Portugal, however is now an independent country and is one of the most developed and democratic countries in Africa. 

Speaking, purely as a tourist with no prior education or knowledge about the country, I accepted my experiences based on my own personal experiences within the hotels and towns I visited.

My first visit to the Islands, was a family trip to an all inclusive international hotel chain. (RIU) on the island of Sal. This was an amazingly positive experience of the country.

The hotel staff, the people in the town- bars/restaurants/taxi drivers, we had a family visit to a local hospital when my poor mum sliced her leg getting out of a taxi! The whole experience exposed me to very friendly, happy, kind, warm people with a strong sense of fun. The music was amazing - dancing on the beach, drinking pina coladas and in all, a place I was keen to return to.

The second time I went to the island of Boa Vista, as a couple, again to a RIU hotel.

This island is known as a quiet, relaxing island with 55km of "dazzling beaches"

Unfortunately this experience was a bit different to my first - they say you should never go back to the same place twice! 

Its strange how we make an assessment of the places we visit, but it was just difficult getting anything -the transport from the airport to the hotel, being allocated our  room, meals and drinks, taxis, out in shops and bars  - the whole experience was different and the locals we met were just not the same. There was a major exception in this, we did our Padi open water course here - 2 days in a classroom and 2 days diving, and the instructor was unbelievably lovely.

Unfortunately the third time I went - which was the ARC - we were in Mindelo on the island of St Lawrence. This third island is known as the hub of music and culture, again with an abundance of white sandy beaches good for wind/kite surfing. 

Our experience. on this island, unfortunately, just wasnt great. 

We arrived with 99 other boats - in a mad flurry of excitement. 

Many of the boats in the rally needed work doing after the fast furious sail from Gran Canaria - there were a lot of torn sails, broken poles, and boat hardware . It seemed that the locals were keen to take the work on and the ARC participants made the most of this opportunity.  

We went to  parties and demonstrations laid on for us tourists, and had a bit of a tour of the island - it was fun.

However - what really put me off was the attitude of the locals. Im not sure how things are economically on this island and please forgive me if Im speaking out of turn - the ARC brings a lot of money onto the island, and as I have said, it is on a major shipping route, but it felt like the locals didnt really want to know. 

We walked around shops, and were basically completely ignored. Its difficult to say, but there seemed to be a general dislike/distrust/hostility towards us - was it the white man, is it tourists, is it anyone new? This was prior to Covid, so I cant even use this excuse.

We were trying to restock our galley for the next passage which was predicted to be taking around 2-3 weeks. I wanted to buy more fresh fruit, vegetables and meat.

Our experience in the local market and shops were really very disappointing - I was completely overcharged for goods that do not have set prices.

At first I just accepted it was an island, most of the stuff is imported etc, but when I eventually worked out the exchange rate, and was asked for the equivalent of £5 for a small bag of carrots, I just left them on the side of the stall, to walk away.

I knew carrots werent expensive, because I had just seen them in a local supermarket where the prices are set.  Of course, the stall holder tried to call me back saying " I give you a good price" but by then, my will to live had gone, and I had decided to "make do" with the food we already had on Nauplios. 

Several of the other ARC participants said the same thing about their experiences in the local shops/restaurants. I think we would all be willing to pay a little more for the products, but inflating the goods to silly, made up prices had the adverse effect of turning a lot of us away, hence, losing the trade.

 So, instead of spending our local money on food, where better than in the Irish pub - where the service was excellent, the food and beer was amazing and the diddly dee band (after a few beers) exceptional! 

 Who would have thought it - an Irish pub in a small town on the west coast of a small island in the middle of the Atlantic. Omg - this place was packed ( with a lot of ARC folk but also locals and other tourists)  It was so good!! 

We love an Irish pub!

Cape Verde Islands to St Lucia - the blog........