I neglected to mention during my post from Mindelo, just how windy the place was.  Fortunately, the builders of the port had the foresight to build the piers where we berthed, parallel to the predominant wind, which was north-east.  During our stay, the winds reached over 40 knots, or around 45 mph, however it was coming from almost ahead; these winds remained with us for almost our entire stay, easing slightly during the night and then coming back in the mornings.

Leaving the berth was another matter and come our 5 p.m. sailing, it was still as strong.  Working our way off the pier and astern, far enough to swing out of the harbour should not present a challenge, providing of course that I kept her bow into it and take care not to get the wind off the bow, or side.  The joystick is ideal for this scenario, however I had the added complication of having to take a pilot, which meant that once clear of the breakwater itself, I would have to stay at a slow speed to disembark him; at this time, the wind would be on the beam (90º) and I had a lee shore, where I would drift, any prudent seaman would tell you that this was not recommended.

So, my first task was to inform the port control that I had no wish to take a pilot; surprisingly they agreed, (he sounded almost grateful, actually), probably because the pilot had no wish to go out there either.  Very nice, that took him out of the equation.

Once we had let go, using the joystick, (which controls bow thrusts,and azipods), I eased her off and, using ‘auto’ heading, the joystick held her into the wind, while I controlled movement astern and sideways.  Once the end of the breakwater had passed our bow, it was time to swing 90º and the open sea; herein lay the most awkward point of the maneuver, wind blowing us down, while trying to increase speed, however I had let the Engineers below that I would be using an unusual amount of power and so it came to pass, increasing speed rapidly, avoiding the anchored ships while we did so.

The whole departure took only 20 minutes, however it seemed longer, I assure you.

We are now heading slightly south of west, Barbados lies 1340 miles ahead of us.  We have not seen the sun since we left Mindelo, cloudy skies are predominate; we do however have the Trade winds with us, so it is quite pleasant outside.

I leave you with 2 recent photos of Olly and his little sister Emily, it won’t be long before I can give them a cuddle!