We left Gran Canaria on November 21st 2022, and waved goodbye to all the pals we were leaving behind. Our usual partner in crime Russ was unable to fit the trip in due to all his hospital appointments but we were really lucky that Grant stepped up and offered to come along.

We had a lumpy passage for about 24 hours leaving the Canaries, but having been based there for a while, we knew this would be the case. Loaded up with tablets we didn’t care as we quickly settled into an easy, laid back routine. Weather was fabulous, the sailing great and the company even better. Grant was so easy to have on board, the extra pair of hands made watches a piece of cake and it was lovely to have someone else to chat to.

We poled out the headsail, stuck a preventer on the main and off we went. Changing the sail sides every couple of days was about as energetic as it got as we worked through books, Netflix and the food.

About 3 days in Lee started making little noises about there being some water in the engine bay. After dismantling what appeared to be the entire boat he declared it was the rudder seals. The exact same thing we had been lifted for in A Coruña. Never ideal, but being in the middle of the Atlantic we had limited options so he decided to keep an eye on it, and we carried on.

After a few hours of Lee saying there was “a bit” of water in the engine bay I decided to take a bit more of an interest, reluctantly put down my tablet and chocolate bar and started to accurately measure exactly how much was “a bit”. 12 hours later we all agreed Lee and my version of “a bit” differed greatly, and I declared a consistent 1 litre of seawater an hour into the engine bay was not ideal. Especially as our engine bay, like most are, is sealed and needed manually emptying out. We decided to divert to Mindelo as it was only a days sail away.

We didn’t plan on stopping in Mindelo at all, mainly because we were concerned about Franco and then visiting subsequent countries, but needs must. We arrived the evening of the 27th and dropped the anchor. This was after we had done a quick recon and found a huge empty space that looked perfect. Until we saw a mast sticking up out of the water.

The next day we parked up in about 30 knots of wind and quickly realised why they called it Windelo. It blows a perpetual, howling gale 24 hours a day. The marina staff couldn’t have been more helpful though, and after sorting ourselves out we quickly got loaded onto the repair service; Boat CV’s computer system and settled in for the wait.

There was a great bar at the end of the pontoon which was packed everyday. There were ARC boats, people looking for rides, backpackers, workers and then just the usual rag tag of boat people like us. I knew provisioning would be more difficult here so I had decided that the food we had on board would remain for the trip.

After being royally ripped off in the fruit market where I ended up telling her to put everything back, I found a rather sad looking supermarket for breakfast supplies, continued to make bread for lunch and we ate at the bar every evening.

It became apparent that the fix was going to take a while, and with Christmas sneaking up on us, Grant had to head back home. I think a cross country, round the world trip would have been easier to organise than getting from Mindelo to the UK, but eventually it was done and we sadly waved Grant off.

We don’t like doing a fly by when visiting somewhere new, so we organised an island tour, agreed a price and off we went. Cape Verde is actually super pretty once you get past everyone understandingly trying to  make a fast buck out of all the yachties. We saw the sights in half the agreed time, the driver tried to charge us twice the agreed price and life in Mindelo carried on as normal.

After twice daily checks with Boat CV it was finally our turn! After waiting 12 days they said they would be with us in half an hour so we charged back to the boat and quickly moved everything from the stern to the bow to try and raise our bum as much as possible.

The awesome guys from Boat CV turned up trumps and are highly recommended. They managed to source 3 rudder seals which Lee promptly copied. Out of my wetsuit. Dick.

Once the guys arrived they were super quick and everything was done and dusted in an hour. They even showed Lee what to do in case it happened again. All this  whilst in the water. Screw you A Coruña!!

On December 10th, after an unexpected 2 weeks detour, we left Cape Verde behind us and carried on our way to the Caribbean.

The second leg was exactly the same as the first. But without the leak, without Grant and without most of the chocolate I had secretly been snarfing. So not really the same.

Our relaxed watch system of 4 on 4 off became even more relaxed and in the evenings we would chill down below, playing games, reading, watching TV and keeping Franco occupied. Every hour whoever was on watch would check the instruments and have a look around outside. And then retreat to the comfort of down below! No point being cold and alone when you could be snuggled up down below. Sometimes the stars really were too spectacular to ignore though, and you would sit in the cockpit, in the middle of the night in the middle of the ocean and really understand quite how remarkable the world is and how very insignificant we are in it.

We saw the lights of St Lucia on the 23rd which was stupidly exciting! We could see it getting closer and closer on the chart plotter and then suddenly it was there! Land!! Having not seen another vessel since leaving Cape Verde we were suddenly surrounded by catamarans everywhere. With St Lucia to our port side, we could clearly see our destination, Martinique.

On Christmas Eve, 14 days after leaving Mindelo we dropped anchor in Anse Caritan in Martinique. We were in the Caribbean!!!