Let's go again !

Yessss ! The autopilot is finally fixed after many morale ups and downs. The pilot computer was the innocent victim of a mechanical problem, a rudder having slipped a few centimeters down (which is a lot). Thanks to the boatyard for having nominated an expert who could help with the fix. In the other hand, I suggest a radical UPS boycott as it took them 3 weeks to deliver the replacement computer. A few visits to a physiotherapist in Mindelo also got me on my legs with a spine almost in perfect condition. So we'll leave  Cape Verde tomorrow morning. The clearance is made, so is the food supplying. We hope to reach the West Indies before mid Jan.
Look at the previous steps since Lanzarote here.
As we are completely out of time, the CornellSailing tracker will not work. Next news from the next wifi spot, guys. Yeeeeeeehaaaaaaaa, let's go again !!!!!

Cesaria

Cesaria is everywhere. She gave her name to the airport, she is on the 2000 escudos notes, she has a museum and is pictured in many shops. Today was the fourth anniversary of her death (in Mindelo where she was also born), so there was a procession downtown, including a stop at her house. We followed the hundreds of people present, some wearing T-shirts "4 ano sodade, obrigada cize" (4 years of sad nostalgia, thank you Cize) and singing her songs. Cesaria Evora is definitely the local Bob Marley.

Odyssey 7/9 - Mindelo & lumbago

Fate, I guess. I had just spent two days twisted in every way to identify few electrical cables, and I gave hands to the kids of the neighboring boat so they could easily regain their board. I should not have. I summarize the situation:

• A lumbago nails me in bed since 48 hours, only the horizontal position is acceptable
• I have all the time to monitor the computer delivery date on the UPS site; that's how I learned that it is stuck in Dakar and that no new date is available for now
• It is possible that I can not retrieve my physical abilities - although quite average - before 2 or 3 weeks
• We will miss not only the rally arrival party, but perhaps the flight supposed to bring us back from Fort-de-France in early Jan.

Otherwise, the parents of the kids cited above left this morning without asking how I was ; amazing how people are shy, sometimes ...

Odyssey 1-7/9 - Lanzarote to Cape Verdes

November 26, 2015 - Odyssey 7/9: Mindelo, bad luck

The other day we were happy to leave, the ocean was in front of the bow. 5-6 Bf downwind, business as usual .. The sky was clear, the morale high, and the full moon was waiting to get up the next night. At the first autopilot alarm, I thought that a vicious wave had managed to confuse it, then with the following alarms our enthusiasm has weakened and after three hours we had to turn back. Hand steering 24 hours during 15 days is not what we call a happy crossing.

Tests conducted at the marina confirm today that the driver calculator is out of service. The replacement part will be shipped from Netherlands and will arrive in a week or two. Bye bye the party upon arrival with all the other boats, we will arrive way too late. Sad and frustrating.

November 23, 2015 - Odyssey 7/9: More on Mindelo

At 200 meters from the marina, spot the pink house across from the Shell station and go up to the 2nd floor, under the roof. The sea is right in front of the stage and the bar on the left. A lot of tourists, but the band (guitar / bass / violin / vocals) looks authentic: slow motion and sadness at the same time. That must be the morna, and it's beautiful. A little further to the beach, other bands play in bars and swap musicians, the audience is mostly Cape Verdean, good atmosphere (video). At one point a singer came, set fire then sat back down, satisfied. We thought of Francis S.

Tomorrow morning (noon, French time) we'll be off to Barbados, 2,000 miles to the west. Pure happiness, with the strange feeling that it's not real .. are we just watching a movie instead ? We bought fruits and vegetables and Helene made some pre-cooking. It's more convenient in the harbour and some days we will just have to open Tupperware. Back in two weeks! Some pictures here.

November 19, 2015 - Odyssey 7/9: Mindelo (Cape Verde)

Threatening peaks in the mist and against the light, this is how São Vicente appeared after 5 days and 9 hours at sea, the time it took to move from one archipelago to another, and arrive in Africa. A bit of motoring on the 2nd day (no wind) and just before landing, for the rest just a long journey punctuated by various events on board: pole manipulation, catching a 4 kg mahi-mahi, cooking part of it à la tahitienne, taking a second reef with wind above 25 knots, reading (Murakami for me, Millennium for her), VHF calls with neighboring boats, unsuccessful watching of marine mammals, cooking the remaining fish as a stew with ginger and other stuff, taking 3rd reef for the night and potential thunderstorms, securing the boom brake, start the generator (autopilot consumes more that what the solar panels can generate with that shaded sun), etc.

We are in Mindelo and that's exciting. We only have four days to visit, it's a little short for the 10 Cape Verde Islands. Therefore we will stay on São Vicente. We will try to find a good morna bar for tomorrow night. Should Teofilo Chantre play around, that would be great.

November 14, 2015 - Odyssey 6/9: Puerto La Estaca (El Hierro)

Yes there's wifi in El Hierro! The stage between La Palma and here was the best of all. Wind 5-6 Bf from behind in a choppy sea: long live the centerboarder that finds its way between the waves at a speed of 8 or 9 knots, without the rolling that disturbs our keelboats buddies. See video here.

Yesterday we visited a local pride : the hydro-wind plant that will feed all the energy needs of the island at some future time. This morning, the Canary story is coming to an end (sob). Bound for Cape Verdes.

November 11, 2015 - Odyssey 5/9: Santa Cruz (La Palma)

Tomorrow is the last Canarian leg, between La Palma and El Hierro. Not sure there will be wifi there. Two days later, we'll be bound for Cape Verde (note that Friday 13 was carefully avoided by the organizers). Five days of navigation that can be followed on Contact & Position. This morning at the market, we got plenty of fruits and vegetables. Yesterday we visited the north of the island by bus and in the evening we played cards (tarot) on the catamaran next door. And the crossing from San Sebastian to Santa Cruz, you say? Bad, we let the gennaker halyard fly up the masthead and then as we were motoring, we got a fisherman rope in the propeller. To be forgotten performance-wise, but the swim in the open sea to free the propeller (tied to the boat, of course ..) was great. 24 ° C, it is summer. Some pics of the last three weeks here.

November 7, 2015 - Odyssey 4/9: San Sebastian (La Gomera)

Nice passage between Tenerife and La Gomera: Tenerife downwind descent (D Code or solent+staysail in opposition, we tried out all options), then becalmed south of the island to watch the pilot whales, and wind back up again for the last 10 miles. A small mahi-mahi was caught (1.1 kg) and turned into a Tahitian marinade. A tour of the island by bus, then an idle day, and we go again this morning to La Palma, Canarian penultimate stage. Blues when leaving Pascale & Pascal on the pontoon.

November 5, 2015 - Odyssey 3/9: Santa Cruz (Tenerife)

The crossing Las Palmas - Santa Cruz was very Canarian: 1 hour motoring, 2 hours of enjoyable sailing, 1 hour of accelerated wind, and go again. It makes us a fourth stay in Tenerife and the volcano will be missed again, too bad. More work had to be done : for example I do not like the automatic reefs, so I changed them to my taste with Alain (reef 1 at mast foot, reefs 2 and 3 with two ropes each); experts will understand. The chart of Caribean and Gulf of Mexico is now on the plotter, it was time to buy it. Next step: La Gomera.

31 Oct. 2015 - Odyssey 2/9: Las Palmas (Gran Canaria)

Superb night crossing between Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria. The full moon lit up everything, and a little warm wind was with us until midnight. Then motoring until dawn while Eole and Helene were deeply sleeping. Then we ended up with 3 sails (main, staysail and code zero). Now we are back to Las Palmas. Looks like Nice and diesel costs 85 cents, yahoo. Pascale & Pascal are still with us, with their handheld VHF open to questions and complaints from other boats. Today we should have left for Tenerife, but we'll wait until tomorrow: it is raining and the sea is rough.

October 26, 2015 - Odyssey 1/9: Corralejo (Fuerteventura)

At Fuerteventura, they say that it only rains once every 2 years. Still we arrived under pouring water. Yesterday, island tour by bus with all the crews: lovely views on Lanzarote and the islet of Lobos, beautiful dunes too. We leave in the late afternoon for a night navigation on Las Palmas. The moon will be almost full. Hard boiled eggs and tomatoes are ready.

October 24, 2015 - Let's go !

Safety Checks: OK; Food: OK; Fuel: OK; Water: OK; Tender stowage: OK; Bilge inspection : OK; weather: wind and rain possible (no, please ..); GoPro: batteries up; sore toe: yeah; Morale: excellent; Routing: easy (25 nm)

We leave in two hours Lanzarote. Some action will be good. Pascal will give the starting signal at 10:00, from Velvet taking the role of a commitee ship. Jimmy will expect us in Corralejo. Yessssss!

J - 5

We're departing soon. The Cornell team landed in Lanzarote and vessel safety inspection starts tomorrow. Fire extinguishers are in place, so are the life raft, life jackets, etc. so it should be fine. Pascal and Pascale will make the first legs with us, probably until La Gomera. Talking about legs, the schedule is here.

Velvet has a tracker on board, and the boat's position will be updated daily, starting from the leg La Palma - El Hierro (November 12). See "Other pages (french) -> Contact & Position".

J - 14

An important event in the run-up to the October 24th start in Lanzarote : hull cleaning (video). The Islands Odyssey is not a race, but that's no reason why we should go with a collection of shellfish under the hull. And they were many to slow us down. I even found a mussel and an oyster being mates at the engine intake. You could take that as a universal message of brotherhood, but I have squashed both.

Starloose in Santa Crooze

Memories... Eight years ago arose a rock band with meteoric career, weirdly named Starloose. Less than two weeks after our first rehearsal, we had at least two dozens fans, ready to listen to us half an hour each time there was a birthday party. We even made the "Antirouille" in Montpellier ... I still hear Francis declaiming: "we are rebels and spit on society". It made everyone laugh and the set was launched.

The band continued all these years in different forms, but the reason why I'm telling this, is that last week, the 5 initial members of Starloose were all together in Tenerife. More precisely in El Sauzal for Francis (lead & voice), Jean-Mi (the one playing bass too loud), Fredo (the drums) and Genevieve (vocals, guitar and girly effects). And I (reluctant keyboard and approximate guitar) on the boat in Marina Santa Cruz.

In the absence of musical instruments, we went for hiking, swimming, boating, not mentioning food and booze. Excellent week summed up in this short video (soundtrack Starloose, of course). Plus a few pics here.