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Tuesday Nov 19

We have enm in Mindelo Cape Verde since we arrived early Friday AM. We are actually in the lead. One other cat arrivedbefore us but theirhandicap is greater than ours so, technically, we are in the lead. The other boat protested their handicap , but they lost their protest, and even had their handicap increased because they are using a new larger spinnaker. They are very serious about therace andare furious.

 Our Russian Csptain is also very serious about it. He is determined to beat them even though they have a faster boat.

Mindelo Cape Verde is not Europe like the Canaries. It is very much West Africa. The island group is made up of volcano formed islands. We travelled to another island by ferry and rode up winding steep roads to the top of one mountain to see the craterof a large volcano. Fortunately it was sleeping.

It is verywindy here. The marina hasfloating docks and the wholething is constantly rolling and pitching in the swells.

We will leave tomorrow to continue the raceto Saint Lucia. Weill not have email or internetduring the crossing so our bog will not continue untill then.

Tess will tryto updatefacebook today.

It has been a great adventure.

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Saturday 16

The start was spectacular with the 47 boats in the rally and spectator boats and cheering people on thebreakwaters.

We had an exciting downwind sail with 30 + knts of wind on the stearn. Great conditions for this boat. Windfell off some as we neared Mindelo Cape Verde. Blew outour large spinnaker the day before arriving. Did just as well with staysail and jib.For my sailing friends, surfing down 10 ft waves at one point we hit 16 knts.

We made a night landfall just before midnight Thursday. Quite beautiful approaching theislands in the moonlight. Our capttain was somewhat tense as hehad not been here before but with alleyes on deck everything went well.

I was notableto get our sat internet to work while at sea. I will continue to work on it. I have been chosen to figure itout. Everyone else gave up. I will continue totry. I am sending this using my phone hotspot. I can use this while I have cell connection atthe marina here. I havemany stories of the boat and crew. We were able to catch mahimahi andtuna and mystery fish. Some ofthe folks on theboat eat thefish raw. Notme. Ha..at least notyet. Watches 2 hr on six off. Notbad.

Will send more later. Will be here until Wed.

Harry

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This is second test

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We have been here in Las Palmas for six days. The days have been full. The World Crusing Club, the sponsors of the ARC, have held seminars on a number of sailing topics such as emergencies, rigging, trade wind sailing and like topics. Tess and I have attended all of them. Trying to soak up all the knowledge and experience around us.

The captain and the cook have been working hard to have the boat ready and stocked. Now we are anticipating the start of the rally. We will sail tomorrow 850 miles to the Cape Verdes island group. We ill be there for 4 or 5 days before continuing to St Lucia across the Atlantic.

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We traveled for five days south to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. The crew were young and entergetic. They, and we, coped with the rolling ship as best we all could. The ship had a tall, heavy rig. The winds were from our stern, sometimes greater than 35 knots. As a matter of explanation for the non sailors, this is a setup for lots of rolling in ten foot swells. We were almost thrown out of our bed on several occasions. Plates and glasses frequently went flying. The crew and passengers took at in stride and it added to the sense of adventure.

All of the crew and passengers were interesting. There were germans, russians, and dutch. We were the only Americans. All were quite entertained with my efforts to confirm our position with celestial navigation. Even the Captain got enthusiastic and helped me with "shooting the stars".

We arrived at Las Palmas in the late morning and anchored in the harbor. Tes and I and our luggage left by dinghy from Chronos. We did not know where Enigma was in the harbor or even if she was there yet. I tried to call the Captain of the Enigma when we got cell phone service in the harbor but I got no answer. Matt, the mate on the dinghy with us, steered past the breakwater near the fuel dock and, by golly, there the Enigma lay. We hailed the Captain, said goodby to Matt, and boarded Enigma.

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I am now testing our email from the boat with this message

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We spent five days in Madrid. Had a great time there. We stayed at an apartment instead of a hotel. That was a better way for us. There was more space and we had a full porch overlooking an interesting street with lots of local color.The apartment was centrally located and we could walk everywhere we wanted to go. I tried out my spanish at every opportunity. 

 

We travelled by train to southern Spain when we left Madrid. Saw lots of mountains and miles and miles of olive trees. La Linea, next to Gilbraltar, was were we were to meet Chronos, a 150 ft sailing ship. Tess has posted more detail previously. I will be continuing the blog.

Chronos did show up as planned. She was a beautiful ship. There were a total of fifteen guests and eight crew. We left La Linea the next day and made an unscheduled stop in Cueta on the north african coast. The crew had stopped there before arriving at La Linea to drop off a boom for some repairs. After retriving the boom, we were back off into the Mediterranean. The ship went through the Strait of Gilbraltar. We said goodbye to the "rock" and met the expanse of the Atlantic. We turned south toward the Canaries. We felt like Bogart and Bergman as se saw the night glow of Casablanca on the eastern horizon. 

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