Sleeping dogs

After a short night’s sleep, I have to confess to waking to a slight headache, probably due to a lack of sleep……………

Exploring Mindelo on a Sunday morning probably doesn’t show it at its best being rather quiet apart from the children begging. The colonial architecture would probably once have been impressive but now everything has a faded, run down feel to it. The laid back attitude is probably best crystallised in this picture of a sleeping dog.

Seemingly feral dogs appear to be everywhere and this did elicit a comment from Stephen that, although he has medication for most situations, he doesn’t have anything for rabies!

The Mindelo marina infrastructure doesn’t seem to run to sufficient voltage to run the air conditioning so we are almost grateful that the skies remain cloudy and rain is threatened.

Our evening complimentary function turned out to be anything but that. The meal was adequate but we were not allowed to leave (by heavies) until an apparent 60 Euro bill was paid for complimentary wine. The chap sat next to me described how he and a colleague were mugged the night before by five people who stripped them of all their cash, he said he didn’t report it to avoid the bureaucracy…….

Stephen writes:-

Today the Master declared a rest day and relaxed his vice like grip on crew activities for a few brief hours. We were then led around Mindelo and the tired reminders of Cape Verde’s colonial past. Begging children and persistent hawkers were a cold dose of reality after the splendid isolation of our passage. The ARC crews were all in good spirits and it has been a pleasure to meet so many fellow adventurers from around the world .We had a visitation from a lovely couple, Dave and Emma who were crewing on another boat and amazingly they gifted us some Welsh cakes and Bara broth, something to look forward to with afternoon tea! The anticipation of the next stage in our voyage is palpable and the iron sky and rain has not dampened our spirits. Tomorrow we have an expedition planned to a hardware store so that Nick and Barry can launch another assault on our uncooperative watermaker. If they are successful it means we can have showers as we sail our final leg, if not then the Skipper announced  we would have to pass (or more likely fail) the `sniff test’ before we can use  precious water for our ablutions. I think we might have to check our lockers for a `plague ship’ flag.

Crew and Skipper A1 condition.

Bob writes:-

An interesting mooch around Mindelo. It reminded me very much of other African countries that I have visited with the vestiges of their colonial past interspersed with much more modern and garish developments. The crew supper was, overall, a disappointment. A good meal and convivial company was spoiled at the end of the evening by the demand for payment for the wine that we had consumed. Whilst we were quite content that we should pay for wine (despite it having been declared ‘complimentary’), it was the rather menacing manner in which the payment was exacted that left a bad taste. A great shame as the organisation of the whole event has generally been excellent. Still, we remain positive and are all looking forward to commencing the next leg of what is a great experience.

Barry is still being Barry.