WE DEPARTED ON SCHEDULE 24th NOV, BUT HAD TO RETURN TO MINDELO

Beautiful departure at about 10.00 local time here in Mindelo on the 24th November turned into our worst experience so far. A British registered boat called Lionheart of Clyde rammed us at 6 knots while we were raising our mainsail before heading out across the Atlantic.

The captain of this yacht was running on autopilot within the harbour and was not even at his helm, so he had very little chance to avoid us. We were sailing at the time so although we saw him coming we couldn't take avoiding action. We just shouted and then suffered to worst impact you can imagine. The culprit was as shocked as we, and tried to leave the scene. Luckily we got help from the marina manager and he called the port police. So the culprit returned reluctantly. He was very contrary in all respects and refused to fill out an insurance claims form. I had contacted both party insurances within an hour.

End result... We are now stuck in Mindelo with smashed window and structure damage where there is little chance of any repair.! Desperate! Our dreams of the Caribbean fading fast.

WAITING IN MINDELO

Nerves are on edge as we do final preparation ( our mental prep and the yacht prep). Last bit of veg shopping, some social events and route planning. We have checked the time zone and exchanged rates for Bridgetown Barbados which is our next destination after leaving MINDELO.

EL HIERO TO THE CAPE VERDE ISLANDS. 780 NM SOUTH EAST. 14 NOV

The beginning of the long traverse.! To follow the trade winds most yachts crossing the Atlantic head south (until the butter melts) then catch the trades across to the Caribbean.

Our Islands Odyssey was from the Canary island of El Hiero, which is the most Westerly point of the Canaries, with a scheduled stop-over in the Cape Verdes.

Many other transatlantic sailors just take the direct route from Canaries to Saint Lucia, without a stop. This takes about 20 days.

Our trip here (to Mindelo) would take volumes to describe, so to keep it short we can say that it was rough and persistent.! However we arrived in the amazing island of Sao Vicente on a sunny afternoon with azure sea and epic landscapes.

780 nautical miles in 5 days and seven hours.

LA PALMA TO EL HIERO, 12 Nov

This was the first leg of our transatlantic "Islands Odyssey". A relatively short sail of 55 Nautical miles from La Palma to the furthest South West island in the Canaries group. Weather was calm at first and then became more ragged with high swell and 23knot winds from the North. It was a downwind sail so we used our polled-out genoa sail and main. We started very sedately in the group of yachts that made up the "rally" then gradually overtook everyone to arrive at El Hiero in the lead. Our Kwanza certainly showed her sailing speed.

THE ISLAND OF LA PALMA, 7 to 11 Nov

This was to be our departure point for the Islands Odyssey transatlantic cruise in company of 14 other boats. We had quite a long stay on the island for the preparation and some sight seeing.

We were very impressed with the style of the architecture and the magnificence of this huge volcanic island with green wooded slopes and volcanic ridges.

Here are some photos:

CRUISE FROM LAS PALMAS TO LA PALMA, 6 NOV

With our technical problem we had to drop out of the "Islands Odyssey". We had intended to catch up with the fleet when it got to La Gomera, but decided instead that we wanted to see Santa Cruz on the island of La Palma, and this was the port from which the transatlantic was scheduled to depart from, and we didn't want to miss this departure.

The sail across to La Palma was 150 NM, so we had to leave Las Palmas on Friday at 08.30 with the plan to sail a day and night in order to get to Santa Cruz on Saturday afternoon.

The sailing was super and the night was magnificent. A trillion stars showed up. Large passenger vessels lit up the sky as they gently cruised from port to port (Aidasol was one of them.!). We also travelled with Dolphins and saw some whales in the distance as we rounded to head of the island of Tenerife .

TECHNICAL PROBLEM IN LAS PALMAS, 27 OCT - 6 NOV

As mentioned we were struggling to get a berth in the Las Palmas marina when our propulsion system packed in. The system in question is called Dock and Go, which is designed by Beneteau and ZF and installed only on Beneteau yachts as an option. We had bought our yacht with the system installed which was unfortunate. It is quite useful while docking because it allows sideways movement in conjunction with the bow thruster, however it's very delicate and prone to expensive break-downs.

The headquarters of Beneteau reacted magnificently and dispatched an engineer from France with a replacement part.

The engineer arrived in Las Palmas on Monday the 2 Nov, and we met him on Tuesday 3 Nov. He worked on replacing the rotation motor and had it done in three hours. I had prepared the engine compartment and provided the tools, and of course assisted with the delicate operation, which I hope speeded up the process.

So with our problem solved we were free of worry and got on with some site seeing and shopping in Las Palmas.

This is the removed rotation motor. It weighed 28 kg.!