This was our 2^nd day in this beautiful port, although today we had to share it with about 12,000 other cruise guests. The morning started with rain showers gathering at the horizon near sunrise and we were all fervently hoping that they would come over the ship. We have problems getting the salt and sand off the decks and a good downpour is much more effective than a sailor with a small garden hose. Plus rain water is free and our own water we have to pay for. Either by loading it from the shore side, or by making it ourselves. However our hopes were in vain, the clouds drifted away to the south, missing the island altogether. No wonder that the islands are so barren here.  For the guests it turned out to be another great day. Not too warm, due to the northerly breeze and that made it perfect sightseeing weather. Continue reading

It was still blowing 25 to 30 knots and I decided to take a tugboat as the weather information received from the shore side was: let’s say inconclusive.  Traffic Control advised that it was wind still in the port and port control talked that it blew “about 15 knots”. Thus we are better safe than sorry and a tugboat is cheap insurance against bumping into something when swinging around in the docking basin and going astern to the berth. To get to the port of Santa Cruz you approach via a Vessel Traffic Separation scheme.  That is a sort highway at sea that was implemented a number of years ago for very good reasons. The body of water, with the island of Tenerife to the West and the island of Lanzarote to the East, is used as a thoroughfare for ships that are on the North/South routes from Europe to Africa and vice versa. On top of that, Santa Cruz is a bunker port with many ships at anchor and thus there is a lot of traffic moving all over the place and not always in regular patterns. On top of that there is a lot of ferry traffic and thus enough reasons to implement these highways at sea to keep the opposing traffic flows apart from each other. So we were coming up, being Northbound, on the starboard side of this system and had to cross over to the West to get to the pilot station for a 06.00 pick-up. Continue reading

This was our second windy day at sea. Wind caused by this high pressure ridge near the Azores and of course also by the ships speed going against it. 30 knots of wind speed and another 15 of ships speed, gave a “stormy feeling” on the outside deck of 45 knots. Thus we had the signs up not to go on the outside decks as the combined wind force would blow you straight over. However that was the whole extent of what the elements were doing to us. The sun shone all day and the ship rode the waves nicely so for everybody it was a nice day at sea. We were sailing about 90 miles from shore and most of the day we were busy with over taking two ships that were going at almost the same speed. So it took a looooong time. On the port we had a fully laden tanker on the way to Rotterdam and on the starboard side a bulkcarrier heading for Tenerife, most likely for loading fuel. Each ship about a mile away from us; so we could safely sail in the middle. Continue reading

Thus after our experiences in Dakar we have two restful days at sea, time to plan for our next port of calls, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Here we will stay two days and then we will visit Arrecife on Lanzarote.  As was forecast the wind did not diminish but grew even stronger during the day and by noon time we had a good force 7 to 8 blowing, right on the bow with combined swells and waves of 12 to 14 feet. However as we are doing this stretch of our cruise with a scheduled speed of about 16 knots, the ship did not have to plough into the waves to maintain it’s schedule. With the lower average speed needed we could ride the waves nicely and have a steady ship. Still with the current and the wind against us, I had to run an extra engine, which otherwise would not have been needed. That is not good for my average fuel consumption but there is not much that I can do about it. This is the one of the reasons why captains only like following winds and nothing else. Continue reading

Dakar is a major deep water port located on one of the most western points of Africa. It has always been an entry point for all sorts of commerce going to and coming from Africa and has about 30 docks available that can take most of the world size ships. It is fairly sheltered from the sea and as most winds are North East or South West the majority of the large docks are situated that way, so that it is easier for the ships to dock. As it had been windy in the past few days, with little sign of getting less, I had set my ETA for 06.45 with the eye of being docked by 07.15, so that when the wind increased after sunrise I would be happily tucked away in the port. And with that plan we approached the pilot station. We made our mandatory call to Port Control who confirmed our ETA and advised that the pilot would be boarding upon arrival. So the whole arrival machinery was put into action and everybody went to stations. All went according to plan, with one exception, no pilot. Not exactly a minor detail as Pilotage is compulsory in Dakar which means I am not allowed to go in without one. Continue reading

 As planned we arrived at the fairway buoy at 04.30 in the morning and slowed down to 10 knots. That brought our squat down to about a foot (At full sea speed it can be over 10 feet in the stern) and then we followed the buoys over the shallow estuary. It is 20 miles from the fairway buoy to the dock and thus it took us 2 hours to travel this distance. Contrary to previous information received (Br. Admiralty sailing directions), all buoys were in position and all but one was also lit. That made life a lot easier. So with taking frequent bearings off the land, we sailed over the bar while keeping a close eye on the depth. We had calculated that the minimum depth under the keel should not go below 1.5 meters and with a lowest observation of 1.6 meters (just over five feet) we were not that far off. The pilot station is about 3 miles north of the town but we quickly found out that he prefers to board just before docking. Although we were here in the dry season, there was still a strong current running and together with an even stronger wind it was quite a challenge to bring the ship to the dock. However the compulsory tugboat helped out and by 07.30 we were happily docked. Continue reading

The total distance between Mindalo and the Banjul Sea buoy is 540 Nautical miles, while the shortest distance between the most Eastern Cape Verde Island and the nearest African shore is just over 300 miles.  We had to travel this longer distance, firstly to get out of the Cape Verdes as Mindalo is located on the West side and then go further South as The Gambia has a lower latitude than Mindalo. As a matter of fact tomorrow we will come the nearest to the equator on this whole trip. This is one of these distances, that if you sail full speed, you end up at your destination in the middle of the night and that does not serve anybody, so we crossed this part of the North Atlantic at a sedate speed of 15 knots. The wind had decided to remain breezy and shifted during the day from the NNE to the NNW and create a short swell hitting us on the beam. As the wind was from Northerly directions it brought with it cooler temperatures, which was quite pleasant on the deck, but will make for a very “nippy” arrival tomorrow. At least for African standards. Continue reading

After four days of seeing only blue water we had land again today. The Cape Verdes are basically two groups of islands lying about 300 miles off the African coast. So after our call here, there will be another day at sea before we will reach the African Continent. There are several ports that can be visited in the Cape Verdes and on our schedule today was Mindalo which is located on the island of Sao Vicente. This is the 2^nd island of the most northerly group when coming from the West.  The first island is Antao and by 05.00 hrs we were sailing under its coast on the way to the pilot station of Mindalo. The town lies on the North East side of a large bay which is facing west. The North East side being chosen to be out of the strong winds that can blow here. There are two main docks, some smaller ones and a large anchorage area. The whole area together is called the Grand Port. The place was of great prominence in the past, as a coaling station for steamships on Atlantic crossings or on the way down to the Cape Town area. Now it still acts as a fueling station for ships but it is of less prominence than it was in the old days. Continue reading

 As promised by the weather forecast, the wind and the seas diminished from wind force 5 to just over 3 in the course of the day and only picked up again in the evening. The latter was not forecast but then around “disturbances” in the ocean, there tends to be some local weather. The Cape Verdes islands are of course “a lot of disturbance” in the middle of the open ocean and the mountain ridges deviate the wind sometimes a little bit and can also influence the frontal systems coming by. Although the Cape Verdes do not get that much in the way of real frontal systems as it is a really dry and barren place as we will see tomorrow. So we plodded along happily for the remainder of the day on the same course we have been following since leaving Barbados. As explained before, the difference between the Great Circle and the Rhumb line on this latitude is only 1.5 miles. On a 3,000 mile stretch not something to be very concerned about. A little bit of drift causes more extra miles to make than what we can save by opting for the Great Circle track. The influence of the North Equatorial Current is much greater as well. Here we were lucky as that current remained steady only 0.5 of a knot in strength against us and thus it was not much of a problem either. Only in the evening when we came to the area where this current curves away from following the African Coast southwards and turns west, we noticed about a 1.5 knots against us. By that time I had built up so much plus on the speed that it did not affect our arrival time at all anymore. Continue reading

Today was our third day of the crossing and we reached the middle of this crossing. That is of course not the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean as such, as the Cape Verdes are an archipelago that is located quite a distance from the African Continent. However we covered half of our distance to Mindalo. Due to the bulge of Brazil with the Caribbean islands as a logical extension on the top, the Atlantic Ocean is smaller here than further North or further south. But our “middle of the crossing” did coincide with passing over the Mid Atlantic Ridge. This is a mountain range under water that pushes up quite high from the ocean floor. The day before the water depth was in the area of 20,000 feet, now it became as shallow as 6,000 feet. Still deep; but a lot less than before and at 08:00 we were right on top of it. Continue reading