I’m feeling a little under pressure. H has pointed out that I have only written one blog in the six months we have been afloat and that this, really doesn’t come up to muster, or some such phrase.
So, here’s a few stories from the last few days.

That was Dave’s contribution to blog-dom. He hasn’t got any further as there was some ‘spanner-ing’ to be done. Easily distracted that boy. Am I being a bit mean publishing this? Undoubtedly yes…..but maybe it will spur him into action! He writes really well so feel free to start a petition or a t shirt campaign to get him to write more. You know the kind of thing, “Free the Cromford one” or “Frankie says relax”.

Enough of my blog bullying, the Atlantic looms. The marina boys have been round with our newly welded self steering metalwork. In offering it up, a washer has dropped into the sea so they’ve headed back to the workshop to get another. The sea is unforgiving.

The self steering works brilliantly when set up properly and means we don’t need to hand steer and it doesn’t require any battery power. Dave works for the ‘battery police’ in his spare time and constantly monitors amps so a system which does not require any amps, is a dream for his mental health. And mine.

There’ll be a bit of tinkering and adjustment to make when the metalwork is remounted but once done, we’re essentially free to depart. The big engineering job is ticked. Fresh food provisioning will be our last job. Oranges, sweet potatoes and onions last well. Soft fruit not so good. But nice for a few days. We have enough dry stores, pasta, rice, noodles, tins of tomatoes etc to see us stocked up for many sea mile. Not the most exciting of culinary treats but do have a jar of extra extra hot Nando’s chilli sauce on board which can spice up any meal.

We have done a bit more exploring. Our best trip involved a day on Santo Antao, the most westerly of the Cape Verde Islands. The island interior is the polar opposite to San Vincente. We took a minibus up near the top of the island and walked down through the volcanic crater to the sea. It’s stunning. A steep cobbled path led down through lush, green, fertile lands offering fantastic growing conditions for sugar cane, papaya, bananas, coffee, tomatoes, oranges, and cabbages. My photos don’t give a true sense of the place. Part Middle Earth, part Heligan in Cornwall but real and not a garden, we enjoyed the company of the crews from Little Coconut and Spirit of Oysterhaven. Getting into bed that night, we were still smiling from our day trip.

I think we have sorted the tracking out on the website so if you choose, you’ll be able to see us crossing the pond…..slowly. I’ve added a page called Tracking. There is a link on that page that takes you through to a predict wind site and fingers crossed you’ll see us.

Our friend the Lovely Lisa has volunteered to keep our blog updated while we’re at sea. Thanks Lovely Lisa. Your cabin awaits when you visit us in the Carib. We plan to email Lisa text every few days when we are at sea and she will work her IT magic and put it up in the blog. Won’t be any pics as our email isn’t that grand but we will post these from the other side. Barbados here we come. 2,100 miles at 5 knots is 17.5 days. The maths won’t be exact like this but we hope to be in within 20 days. We’re both keen to get going and are excited at the prospect of our first ocean crossing.

Dave at work in Mindelo

Descent with Simon and Miranda

Harding towards the fertile terraces

Dave buying coffee

Our walking gang

Vertical fields

Nice shapes

Nursery for new banana saplings

Skipper Oliver heading off

Tea and freshly made bread