Cape Verde Arrival...

We have completed the voyage from Tenerife to Cape Verde! 880 miles in 192 hours, mostly on a port tack.

We dropped anchor in the harbour of Palmiera, on the island of Sal, where we found 20-30 other yachts at anchor. We made our way through a few and anchored closer to the shore than most... The anchor bit hard on something so we feel secure for the night. It's always a bit of a wary dropping anchor into unknown ground, so we attached a small pick up buoy to the anchor to assist in retrieving it if it has got snagged.

It has been an interesting voyage, nothing broken, no close shaves, just one liner which passed within half a mile, a strange blue green light bobbing along in the dead of night, fairly regular visits by Atlantic spotted Dolphins, and in the last two days lots of flying fish. Bird life has been extremely sparse, a swallow, some shearwaters, or fulmars? too far off to see if they had yellow or red legs.... A couple of turtles seemingly just hanging around then one real bit of excitement this afternoon when we saw dolphins accompanying at least two pilot whales about 35 miles off our destination.

We have been a little preoccupied with batteries and battery life but probably have that under control now! We had battery which is used to start the engine replaced the day we left Tenerife...

We celebrated our arrival with Mini Cheddars and rum and coke. Rum courtesy of Phil Iceaxe who should have joined us for the trip but couldn't quite make it.

Tomorrow morning we have to register our arrival which might involve a trip to the airport to see the immigration officers.

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