So finally we were ready to leave the Canaries and the wind went into the right direction to make it possible, so we left La Gomera on Monday the 21st of December at noon.

With quite a lot of gusts and turn in wind direction coming out of la Gomera’s valley’s we fought our way south until the presence of the islands became less, the wind more steady, but also the waves a lot higher.

For the first time in the Atlantic we had not only the waves from the wind but also a huge swell coming from the north atlantic depressions and at this moment for us from a different angle than the wind, so it became really choppy for the first time. We even started to feel a bit sick from time to time, something that normally we don’t feel at all…

The salt water started to find different ways of coming into the cockpit, from the back, through the air and also from our drain hole just before our salon door. We learned that it is better to keep that one closed if we don’t want to get our floor inside constantly flooded.

Then the second reef line ripped off, but we were still going almost 7 knots in average even with the 3rd reef. The reef line was brand new and being used for the first time, so we thought that we have bought a poor quality material. Only one day later we recognized the point of chafe that was also already destroying the 3rd reef, and finally could start to fix it and prevent this to happen again.

Then we celebrated christmas with our 30 cm red and green christmas tree and our 3 artificial candles. It was better like that since we had to learn that also on a catamaran things will fall if not fixed well enough.

We had great weather during the whole trip and almost all the time at night the moon was lighting up the sky and the sea.

Then we had to decide to either speed up, in order to arrive after 5 days in the evening or to slow down and take our time to arrive only the next morning. Since the wind became very little we decided for the second less stressful and safer option.

While we were just “hanging around” and waiting that the wind will pick up again, I was just taking a nap, when Reto screamed “fiiish, fiiiish!!” . So I immediately ran upstairs and saw that he is on the left fishing rod, but in the same moment also the other one makes the noise of having a bite. So I start taking in the other rod and we indeed had two catches within one minute. To get them on board takes then a bit more time, and we soon see what we have got there: two dolphin fish, one is 1 m long and 5.6 kg, the other one 1.20 m and 8.5 kg. It was clear for me what to do in the next couple of hours… 😉

Then the next morning we arrive in Palmeira on Sal, Cabo Verde after almost 6 days and 769 miles.

Thanks to the help of D’Jay who shows us the way into the anchorage with his dinghy we get a nice place to put our catamaran close to the beach and the village. Soon we drink our arrival beer and just sit there and look at our surroundings. We realize, now were not any more in Europe, this is Africa!

And then we find out that in Palmeira on Sunday it is party time, so even though we are more than tired from the trip we enjoy our first local cabo verde village party with a lot of music and dancing 😉

The next morning we officially clear in and chat with the friendly police officer and one again I have the feeling that it does help a lot being able to speak to local language ;-).

We immediately feel well here and look forward to pass the next weeks here on Sal and the other islands. Where and when we move on once again the winds will decide 😉