We sailed from the Canaries to Cape Verde first, rather than directly to Barbados, to break up the Atlantic crossing into smaller chunks. It would have probably taken us 3 weeks to cross directly. With the Cape Verde stopover, we would shorten the longest passage to approximately 2 weeks.
Mindelo has the windiest harbour we have ever visited. The marina seems to have been designed specifically for the prevailing strong winds, with an ingenious system of mooring buoys and mooring lines on each end of the pontoons, according to whether you are facing the wind or not. It’s hard to explain but it’s really cleverly done. After Max had done a great job of backing Spacegrazer into a berth against the 25-knots wind with stronger gusts, we relaxed. We had made it! It had taken us 6 and a half days to get here.
We spent 4 days in Mindelo, mostly shopping for fresh fruits and vegetables to provision the boat for the big crossing. We also had fun exploring the colours and smells all around us! In the evenings we got together with our friends on our buddy boats for dinner, drinks, and fun.
Mindelo turned out to be a great stopover for us to stock up on food, laughs, and courage for the next leg of the journey to the Carribbean!
