![\"romatic_approach_capo_verde\"](\"https:\/\/sailrivercafe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Sao-Vincente-510x383.jpg\")
![\"cape_verde\"](\"https:\/\/sailrivercafe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cape-Verde-dusk-510x383.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sailrivercafe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/breakfast-at-rivercafe-383x510.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Emergency manoeuvres and blackout<\/h2>\n
And right in the first one the event programme “Action and Stress – that the world doesn’t need” started. And clear, in the middle of the night. A fellow ARC participant crossed our bow without responding to our radio call. That still went well. And then a second ARC sailor appeared in front of our bow, for whom the electricity for the radio was probably too expensive. No answer to our calls. With the spinnaker up we only have a small navigation space of max. 40 degrees, in our case it was 20, because we were at 180 degrees before the wind. The other one was under normal sail and could have easily avoided. Well, there it was, our first emergency manoeuvre. Spi recovery in collision mode. Everything went well and nothing and nobody was damaged. But we were pretty pissed off. The good ride was done, two hours lost and on top of that 2 engine hours each on the clock, which will be added to our time later. What a miracle of technology is a radio switched on. Darling, we have to talk – in the harbour of Mindelo.<\/p>\n
The next days it freshened up and we were able to work off our initial deficit with good speed and convert the 10-20 kn wind well into speed up to 10 kn. And very slowly they came back, the sea legs. This has only partly to do with stability. It takes time to get used to the constant movement, the waves and wind. Often the first days make you very tired and lethargic. Every activity requires overcoming. But that subsides after a few days.<\/p>\n
On the third night there was the second unordered night event. We were just sitting together for dinner in a good mood, when suddenly the electricity was completely gone. Blackout. Ghost. Navigation, lights, autopilot – all gone. And action. I jumped to the rudder and took care that we didn’t lose the spi in the dark and without autopilot ans any sight. We started the engine and generator for safety reasons and then the troubleshooting began. All the electrical bulkheads were screwed on, it looked like in a shipyard. Only in the light of the torches. Nothing to find, we ran out of ideas. Oh how good that there are Sat phones.<\/p>\n
With Leopard nobody was reachable anymore and so Garry got his buddy – also Garry – who gave the saving tip. The Deadman fuse had blown. This was never supposed to happen, and there was no apparent reason. I didn’t even know there was such a thing on board. After 3 hours we had power again and could continue the course. Why on earth does this shit always have to happen at night? By the way, that was the day (11.11) we wanted to arrive in Barbados, in the times before Covid.<\/p>\n
Refugee vessel<\/h2>\n
And if nothing happens for a few hours, a refugee boat appears out of nowhere. A super motorised wooden barge with about 30 people on board. No emergency and for us rather a threat than a case of help. According to the ARC briefings, we should not provide help under any circumstances. Instead we contacted the Spanish coast guard. Ending open. But as soon as we gave the boys the signal, they left. It seemed as if they didn’t want professional help.<\/p>\n On Thursday we ran into a leaden doldrums which cost us the secret plan to make it in 5 sailing days. Only 6 kn of wind drove us to set the code D. This is a sail that any football fan club would pass through the station with pleasure. So really big. But if there is no wind, even the biggest rag is no use. 2.5-3-0 kn and on the wrong course. At 01.00 am we took it down and set the spinnaker. The course got better at first, but a maximum speed of 4 kn would have brought us to Mindelo only at the beginning of the week. On my night watch the wind shifted even further, towards Brazil. At 04.00 am we recovered the spinnaker and started the engine for the first time with the aim of making miles to the finish.<\/p>\n Tthis 03.00 to 06.00 am night watch was my first one in shorts. We have now officially arrived in the warm. But I hope that this night action will not establish itself on our further way. There is nothing like really uneventful nights, where you can just stare into the incredible starry sky.<\/p>\n Our fish yield is still low, the sea between the Canary Islands and Cape Verde seems to be fished quite empty. Only one shark we saw once sniffing at the bait. Our first dolphins visited us only 250 nm off the Cape Verde Islands. But that was all in, with all the relatives and several times. It is a dream to sit at the bow and watch these sensational animals. I hope they have the same fun with us. Our approach to Mindelo was accompanied by another bunch of dolphins.<\/p>\n Of course we still want to see something of the Cape Verde Islands and on Monday the next C19 test for St. Lucia is scheduled. So we started the engines on Friday, which will give us a handicap at the finish. C`est la vie. But until then we were the fastest cat of the cruisers. We still have two rocket cats in the field, which sail in a league that is unattainable for us. In our cruiser league we are four and that is our competition. (No Ka, we are not sailing a race . Karin also thinks that the cool guys always sat in the back of the bus).<\/p>\n It is nice to be back to Mindelo. On Saturday at 7 pm we moored in the marina and waited for our clearance. Thursday is the restart. Until then we still have to fix some things on board, replenish our provisions and of course explore Sao Vincente and San Antao. Maybe I can still manage to write something before our start on Thursday. \/Holger Binz<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And it always happens at night At the start of a rally it is so busy that you don’t have time to feel like Columbus. What a pity, because we sail almost the same way as he did. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1371,2247,1054,1529,1053,1052],"class_list":["post-1846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arc","tag-capo-verde","tag-holger-binz","tag-kapverden","tag-karin-binz","tag-rivercafe"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"refugee](\"https:\/\/sailrivercafe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/refugee-vessel-510x383.jpg\")