The Big Crossing

It’s now Wednesday afternoon, 3 December, and we left Mindelo at around half past ten, bound for Suriname (Paramaribo). The distance is still 1853 miles as the crow flies, and we expect to arrive in about 10 days.

We spent a day being driven around the island of São Vicente with a driver and guide, and our main conclusion was that it is indeed bone dry. The fact that it then rained four times during the rest of the week was something even the locals couldn’t explain. It was the first time in years that it had rained outside the rainy season.

After Sietse arrived, the De Man family went to the neighbouring island of Santo Antão to spend two days hiking there. I stayed on board because the toilet refused to drain. After a long day of jobs we managed to clear the hose of hair, soil and other materials. I did this together with a guy who was hanging around the pontoon angling for work. He turned out to be a great help and it was a clear win/win: he earned what was for him a nice amount of euros, and I got help. In the evening the neighbours (Paul and Sheryl of Distant Shores IV, known from TV and YouTube) asked if I’d come over for a drink and then go out for dinner with them. Super nice people, very Canadian: modest, friendly, polite. I know them from Makkum, when they were looking into having a boat built there with KM. In the end they went for a Kees van de Stadt design, built by the Van Enkhuizen brothers, a few hundred metres from KM.

The next day I worked on the watermaker, which is now almost as good as new; only the volume meter still doesn’t work. Another bite to eat with the Shards and their Irish/American crew. Through Marion I heard that Ella had been told her father had been spotted on Instagram. Channel DistantShoresTV. Funny.

On Saturday the crew was back, full of big stories and very sore muscles. Unfortunately the exertion left Sietse ill for a couple of days with a sort of stomach bug. After Mark arrived on Sunday the plan was to leave on Tuesday, but Monday turned out to be another full day of jobs. This time the outlet of the black water tank was blocked. Worked on it until 20:30. Next morning: well, the toilet was blocked again. Fortunately I managed to fix it in half an hour. After four days of toilet maintenance, I’m hoping it will be OK for a while now.

The next day we decided to leave a day later so that on Tuesday we could do some “normal” boat jobs, like working on the halyards and the dinghy. The latter passed its test with the outboard with flying colours, so we’re all set to anchor in the Suriname River shortly. I also installed a new gadget to test: a new Nemesis data display. Now where on earth should this one go? In the aft cabin then, so the skipper can follow the wind and course from his bunk.

We’re about to head into the first night, and to make cooking on day one a bit easier I’m cooking tonight: Marion’s rendang from the freezer, with rice. Everyone is scraping their bowl clean, so apparently it’s still very tasty.

conclusion