This was my third voyage on Oosterschlede having previously sailed from The Canaries to Cabo Verde and from Ullapool to St. Kilda. I joined the ship in Palmeira on the island of Sal on 13th February 2022 I didn’t plan to spend much time on Sal, having been there before I knew there wasn’t a lot to see or do and the attraction of this voyage was visiting the other islands in the Cabo Verde archipelago. Rather unusually there were only six guest crew on this voyage, where the ship can accommodate 24, so, as there weren’t really enough of us we didn’t assign watches, rather just agreeing you could come on watch whenever it suited you.
We set sail the next day heading SSW towards Santiago and arrived on the 15th Feb anchoring off Tarrafal in the North West of the island. Oosterchelde has a long standing association with Cabo Verde and over the years has linked with a number of locals to provide on island tours whilst in port. Our tour of Santiago include a hike around Poilão Park and a visit to the giant Kapok tree ending with a swim on a black volcanic sand beach.
The next day we set sail for São Vicente with a good wind and 9 knots with me at the helm and arrived in the main port of Mindelo on the 17th Feb heading into town for a short tour. We had an early start next day at 05:00 to catch the first ferry to Santo Antao – Porto Novo where we boarded a mini bus for the log drive up to the volcanic caldera of Faja de Cima along the winding cobblestoned mountain road. We were dropped off at the summit of the volcano and commenced the long walk along the Ribiera Grande down to the town of Riberio Grande on the other side of the island for lunch. There were stunning views on this hike even though it was a bit over cast and we had a wee pit stop at a sugar cane processing ‘plan’ where they made rum. The ferry ride back to Mindello was a bit choppy on the old second hand Danish ferry.
On the 19th we set sail over the North of São Vicente and Santa Luzia heading for Tarrafal de São Nicolau. There were very strong winds on this leg as well as a freak wave across the helm that soaked all of us there. As the night drew in I helmed the ship in the dark into port and we anchored in the bay. The next day we had another tour organised in the Monte Gardo national park and onto Ribeira Brava, than back to the coast near Tarrafal for some spectacular volcanic coastal landscapes.
We raised the anchor around 04:00 the next day to set off for our last island destination of Boa Vista spotting a pod of dolphins along the way. We did manage to set some sails and arrived around 22:00 and dropped anchor off Sal Rei. Anther tour had been organised for us to explore the island inland sand dunes by 4×4 then back to the ship. A short trip across the bay by tender to Ilheu de Sal Rei where we were dropped off to explore the small island with a bit of beachcombing and swimming before heading back to the ship for dinner. We left early the next day for our last day of sailing back to Sal and our last night onboard before leaving the ship on the 24th Feb.
Voyage stats: 11 days onboard, 12 night hours and 462 nautical miles