12th January 2025: Day 7

Today will be our final leg of stage 1.  We have been sailing with caution in force 4 to 6 winds taking as much care as possible not to damage the boat or ourselves.  Of the 22 boats in the Vikings Explorers rally three have torn their downwind sails, one has a slow leak and five have had problems with rudders, steering or autopilots. Today we have overtaken Bonnie Doon, a Lagoon catamaran that would normally be much faster than us. Unfortunately, they broke their spinnaker halyard halfway across the passage, then their autopilot failed and they have been hand steering since. Happily all are OK and half the boats are already safely in Mindelo marina.  The remaining ten boats still on passage will mainly arrive this evening.

We have had a great night with fairly strong winds that have continued today.  In fact the weather forecast was for lighter winds and less swell but we are still waiting for conditions to ease.

We are flying along and are due to arrive in Mindelo this evening between 10pm and midnight.  On the plus side the wind should ease as we approach the harbour.  The downside is that we’ll arrive in the dark and the harbour is not an easy one to navigate with lots of abandoned boats and unmarked shipwrecks.  Fingers crossed that we can moor up without any hitches and enjoy a well earned beer and good night’s sleep.