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Extract from Cruising Association Magazine October 2007

From David Darn aboard “Kathleen”

This is the story of a catamaran on passage from South Africa to Majorca, which after storms and then lack of wind, decided to visit the Cape Verde Islands

"We decided that we would have to call at Cape Verde for fuel and fresh provisions. So it was that at 0200 on 8th June we anchored in Mindelo Harbour or at least we thought we did. The lights shown on the charts and in the pilot were not visible and the many ships at anchor obscured what other lights were available. It turned out we were just outside the harbour and after being woken by shouts from the harbour wall at 0200 followed by a loud bang we found that we had dragged the anchor and bumped the harbour wall. We still don’t know how this happened as we had plenty of scope out and there was very little wind or current. The delivery skipper thought we may have been “moved” by a local boat but I think we were all exhausted and not as careful as we should have been. Anyway very little damage was done as Kathleen is a very strong lady so we motored very slowly around the other boats and eventually located the proper yacht anchorage, made sure the anchor was well set and went back to sleep.

Sao Vicente was an unscheduled stop. We should have been halfway to Tenerife but these things happen and need to be provided for. Although geologically similar to the Canaries, they are probably 10 years behind them commercially. There is very little tourism but the people are very friendly and fresh supplies are relatively easy to get hold of. There is not a great deal of choice however and you will not find brand names like Heinz. What I would have done for a tin of creamed rice pudding, but I settled for a tin of fruit salad and some very strange local custard.

With our first safe, sheltered mooring since Cape Town, we had 3 nights very restful sleep and replenished our stores and repaired the damage caused when we hit the harbour wall. We had to fill up with diesel yet again but this time thankfully from a pump in the harbour. There was a NATO exercise starting and military ships were unloading tanks, jeeps and personnel. Of course all the bars were full at night. It would have been very quiet otherwise. We serviced the engines again and it was again fortunate that we brought spares with us as we would have had a long wait for a delivery."