our first Atlantic crossing

After a 10 days long passage (3 of which drifting in no wind) from the Canary islands to Cap Vert, we have been at anchor in Mindelo for a while, visiting Sao Vicente and San Antonio, and preparing L’Alliance for her jump across the Atlantic. We really enjoyed a lot our stay in Mindelo, where we met again our friend Rai (co-founder and great promoter of the “Cofradía de Navegantes Anarquistas”) and many more interesting sailors (like the crew of s.v. Espiritu). We even received the visit of Metello’s parents, who came for a day sailing trip on L’Alliance for the very first time.  And just before to leave Porto Grande,  The Ship of Fools arrived and drop anchor near us… what a pleasure to finally visit this legendary Dutch ship, built in 1916, serving as a floating theater for almost 30 years and traveling around the world (relying on a 60 years old engine!).

(this is just a film strip: to see the full size pics go to 2017 photo albums page)

We finally sat sail on November 19th, just to anchor in S.Antao for a hull cleaning, and the next day we head to Martinique. The crossing took 21 days (we had a week of very light breeze), and we really enjoyed the passage, as you can see in the video clip we filmed and edited on board. For this first ocean crossing we were 4 on board: Metello, Borja, Chay, and Mirko. We quickly get into a routine of cooking, eating, playing “gabó” (an amazing card game), doing some gym, fishing, and the ritual sunset joint on the foredeck drinking mate and playing guitar. We had no major repair to deal with during this trip, beside to saw a part of the gennaker’s foot. The exceptional moments were a couple of showers with 30 knots of wind, and the pan of pilot whales who played with us during few hours.   Now we are in Martinique for a quick stopover, and next weekend we aim to continue to Curacao, to dry dock L’Alliance for some maintenance, and to spend a few months over there…