Today we celebrated that we are more than half way from Gran Canaria to St. Lucia. Pretty late in the rally one might say, well that is because we made a pit stop in Mindelo for a boom repair. Measured from Mindelo to Rodney Bay we are on one third of the way. This is great, since another reason for a celebration is not far away.
Departure from Las Palmas was exciting. Seeing all these sailboats headed towards our shared destination. The large swell made for funny displays of appearing and disappearing boats in the waves. On our third day we saw the first group of dolphins along side the boat, approximately 40 in total!
After four days ARC rally control said "hope everyone is adjusted to life at sea" and they were right. Non of us ever crossed the Atlantic before, but life at see suits us well.
It was also at this day the missing safety pin of the gooseneck was detected. We decided to take down the main and make our way to the Cape Verdes using the head sail only. This way we made our ARC into an ARC+. The nights are spend stargazing, chatting and snacking. Based on Stockey's seminars we try to find the navigational stars and tell the time. In this first week we also catch our first fish! We hope for many more catches to come.
Despite the unwanted reroute, Mindelo has proven to be an amazing pitstop. The town and its people are great. With our crew we had some nice days and pleasant nights here. We met up with our Las Palmas neighbors, Vitamin Sea. And discussed our journey thusfar over a beer. The ARC boats departed from Mindelo almost all on the same day, we will meet again in St. Lucia!
Now we are again a week at sea. In the mean time we did catch more fish, even a yellow fin tuna, who we called Toni. Having an all Dutch crew we had the delight of a visit by Sinterklaas last Monday. There was a treasure hunt including presents and we had a great day!
The wind has been a bit light the last couple of days, enforcing us to use the motor more often than wanted. We hope for better winds and in the mean time keep enjoying this passage to the fullest!
Cheers
Artemis crew