Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands

Arrived in Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands, this morning after a very calm journey from Tenerife. There is a north east wind blowing, bringing sand and dust from Africa which cast a strange hue to the weather early on. Now clear and about 24 degrees. An interesting place. Looks like a small corner of Africa. Everybody is very friendly and approachable. Only problem with FindPenguins is that I cannot write off line so must wait until I find a free wifi cafe. Hence now in hotel drinking cold beer writing this. It’s a hard life! It transpires that the fishing net caught up in one of the propellors caused some damage and we are now having to stay overnight in Mindelo to await the delivery of a particular type of oil to lubricate the damaged propellor. It was due to arrive in the early hours but, in fact did not arrive until after 10am in the morning because the cargo plane delivering the oil had to be refuelled in Morocco and we did not depart until 1.30pm, almost 24 hours after our scheduled departure. Our itinerary has been amended slightly. We will now be arriving in Manaus on 17th, not 16th. Fortunately, we will not be missing any of the places on the itinerary. We are now making good progress across the Atlantic with light winds and a calm sea and a temperature of 25 degrees.Read more