We have been at sea for exactly a week now and landed in the doldrums yesterday. Waiting for the wind, we drove 145 nautical miles towards Cabo Verde all day and night under engine. It was big washing day and drying clothes were fluttering from our life lines. The boat and cockpit were also scrubbed clean.
Food is checked daily for signs of perishability and used immediately as next meal. Luckily, until now we only had to throw away a few fruit and vegetables because they were moldy or crushed. In the afternoon we enjoyed Max’s super delicious curry. Then we stopped the boat and jumped (naked) into more than 4000 meters deep ocean with the queasy feeling of all the marine animals swimming around and below us. An amazing feeling! Since we have been running under the engine for a long time and our diesel supplies are limited, the big decision arose to steer further towards Cabo Verde with the engine or to drift around without engine for 1-2 days and wait for wind. But the newly downloaded weather forecasts again indicate a severe low pressure system in the North Atlantic for next week, which could leave us in another several-day doldrums in the middle of the Atlantic. This data is of course well in advance and is therefore not very reliable. However, we don’t want to take the risk of crossing with too little diesel and, above all, fresh water. Therefore we continued to steer towards Cabo Verde under engine, because this is no longer a big detour and only one day (two if we are sailing) away. At the moment it seems to make sense to stop there at least for a short time to fill up all the tanks and give us the chance to continue monitoring the weather. Worst case we will wait for a better weather window in port. Today we will try to contact the Marina Mindelo on Sao Vicente to see if we can make landfall there depending on the current COVID restrictions. Until then, we have to be patient and keep checking the weather. Depending on the wind and weather, we have to decide in the next few days whether and how long we will stop in Cabo Verde. But that remains to be seen. That’s the way it is with nature! This morning, while Papa and I were having breakfast in peace, we threw out the line and caught a double pack with Max lure, i.e. two fish at the same time. The scrambled eggs were set aside to take out the fish and store them quickly in the fridge. This means that Max is currently in the lead in our fishing competition. Again they were very narrow, silver-yellowish fish with long dorsal fin and yellowish fine caudal fin. So we will not starve to death with our previous beginners’ luck :-). And only our dad is waiting for his first catch. Perhaps his mahi mahi bait works better in even warmer waters. Then the wind increased a little and we sailed with the poled-out genoa at 3 knots towards Cabo Verde.
Por Que No Sailing 