0945 March 12, 2008
After a final day, yesterday, of preparations and safety training we dropped Paul Bryant-Smith off at the Praia fish pier this morning at 0500 and woke everyone else up at 0600 to get underway just as the sun rose.

Hauling back went smoothly and it felt like we had come full circle as we passed the end of the breakwater and hailed Boavista, a cargo ship just coming home. The captain of Boavista, Mr. Spencer, had invited Ramiro Mendes and I for lunch our first day in port, and his chef had been thrilled to serve me my first of many Kachupas - a wonderful local bean dish that is sort of a stew. Over our three "long" weeks, as Ramiro says, I had hoped to be able to return the favor but never seemed to be able to coordinate it - even though we kept being in the same ports.

Shortly after leaving the harbor we also saw Sal Rei, an inter-island ferry, we had shared ports with as well  - and this time we got to say thanks for a HUGE fish they had given us - a fish we have had for several wonderful meals including last night's farewell dinner for Paul. It was fabulous - everyone made comments on the fish and we still are not quite sure what it was.... they call it a shelf fish.... meaning caught on the continental shelf we think.

Still motoring, just until we can fill the sails with wind - it is nice after weeks of thrashing around in the trade winds to be beginning this leg of the voyage gently. Let's hope it holds for a bit while everyone gets their sea legs... including fogo....

Last call went out to Ramiro, our fabulous host, and to Maria at the Embassy
- who held my hand through linguistically and practically through conferences, official welcomes, formalities, ceremonies and fun! Our thanks go out to them both from deep in our hearts. 

It is hard to know where to start writing again - after a spate of time without the sat phone and our email connection - there is so much to tell. But now that we are back at sea - the routines can set in again and oddly I will actually have some time to reflect and communicate again.

It is good to be headed back to sea....  from Latitude 14 51.8N Longitude 023 42.5 W all is well....
 

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