At home in Rota!!!

Sunday, August 31, 2008

We came to Rota from Sanlucar on Friday, with the intent of sizing up the marina and town for our winter stay here. So we showed up and took a slip for a few days. Then the lady at the marina told me that, if we wanted, we could start our winter stay on September 1 instead of October 1 - for the same reduced price of the winter stay. Well, yes, we'd like that very much, thank you. So here we are in our permanent home. We have a mailing address: Richard and Andrea Black, S/V Saeta, Puerto de Rota, Rota, Cadiz 11520, España.

Having become temporary Roteños, we went out the check out the town. It is very nice - cute and charming and pleasantly small. We found the public market and the flamenco peña right away. We went to the Peña in the afternoon and found it quiet, few people there and nothing going on. We came back later in the evening to see if anything more was going on. The place was jumping. We started to walk in and then realized that the crowds inside were not watching flamenco - they were playing BINGO! After several days, we are concluding that they play BINGO every night. El Viejo Agujetas, the gypsy for whom the peña was named must be rolling over in his grave! Last night we went there again with some friends who know the group well. They introduced us around a bit and we met one of the local singers. He and I had to sing in the smallest possible voices to avoid being shushed so as to not bother the bingueros. But we connected and will do some flamenco together soon. On occasion, the Peña actually does flamenco.

The rest of Rota is terrific. The climate is very mild - this is where people in Sevilla come in the summer to escape the heat. There are some great restaurants - really a lot of them - and also some charming hotels where visiting friends may want to stay. I'll find out the prices. My only complaint is that there is no internet available on the boat. We'll have to go to the library or internet cafes to upload pictures - so we will in due course. We also got some phones so that we have local phone numbers. I am going to get internet access on the phone which will then allow us to plug the phone into the computer and connect that way.

We have been assisted in getting to know Rota by connecting with Richard Parker and his wife Alicia. They have given us the guided tour and we've had a ball. They are getting ready to fly back to the US, but it looks like they will rent us their car while they are gone which means that we will be mobile! What a wonderful turn of events.

We still have email, especial via Sailmail, so don't be afraid to write. We'll answer.

Here is one of the pedestrian streets in Rota - nice of them to put up awnings for shade.

Here I am "putting on" Richard Parker's car. I wish we had little cars like this in the US.

They built a new lighthouse, so they took the light from the old lighthouse and put it over the arch that leads into town.

The city is well-lit and everyone stays out late.

Here we are with Richard and Alicia Parker. Going out for dinner is much cheaper than in the states. Filling up on tapas and drinks costs us in the $30 range (4 people).

Still in Sanlucar

Thursday, August 28, 2008 The fiesta the other night was very fun. The MC and lead singer was Diego Carrasco. He was later joined in a guest set by Fernando el de la Morena, an older serious gypsy singer. All of these folks are from Barrio Santiago in Jerez. There was a trio of girls who sang backup vocals to support the flamenco-rock of Diego Carrasco. These young girls were the daughters of famous women singers. It's the unfortunate fact that flamenco-rock appeals to a paying audience. The beach bar was packed! Pure flamenco appeals to a very limited audience. But quibbles about purity aside, Diego Carrasco puts on a great show and has a lot of fun doing it. He can do wonderful pure flamenco when he wants, but he is having a big success with rock.

The highlight was when they invited Israel Galvan up to dance. And he was jointed by his sister (beautifully slim again) Pastora Galvan. Andrea studied with Pastora and her father, Jose. This was all great fun and very flamenco.

So now we are just hanging out in the free anchorage, going into town to start arranging to get cell phones and grocery shopping. Tonight we'll go back and visit the fine folks at the Pen~a.

Here is Fernando el de la Morena singing for Israel and Pastora Galvan with jaleo by Diego Carrasco!

Anchored in Sanlucar

Tuesday, August 26, 2008
We have been anchored in Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain for two days now. This is at the mouth of the Rio Guadalquivir, the river that runs through Sevilla. In fact, if we wanted, we could go all the way to Sevilla. But Sevilla is very hot just now and we're thinking that we can go by car later in the fall.
We've moved our anchorage several times and now have a place that seems satisfactory. It's a bit like our anchorage in the Hudson River where the current goes one way for 6 hours and then turns around and goes the other way. That means that the pull on the anchor keeps changing direction and could cause the anchor to drag (not dig into the bottom correctly). But we are in a good spot now.
Today we went into town and visited a Flamenco Peña. (I hope special Spanish characters like the tilde come through intact). We met the president of the peña and his wife. They were most gracious and presented us with baseball caps that said "Peña Cultural Flamenco Puerto Lucero". I'm very pleased that my spanish has gotten good enough to relate easily. I need to get a spanish phone number, but by the time we got back to the phone store, they were closed for siesta. Maybe tomorrow. Tonight, there is a fiesta in a beach bar nearby. I'll report back on that one.
It is so good to be here - a dream come true.

On the Spanish Atlantic Coast....

August 24, 2008 Sunday
I know that I never really appreciated the fact that Spain has a lot of coastline on the Atlantic between Portugal and Gibraltar. Well, we've been sailing along it. We stayed two days in Ayamonte because it was a really charming little town with friendly people who acted Spanish. You'd think that acting Spanish would be natural, but there are places on the tourist coastline (Costa Brava, Costa del Sol) where the Spaniards that you meet are used to waiting on Brits, Arabs, Swedes, and other miscellaneous tourists. To do this, they have lost the qualities that we love in Spain. Of course, even on these horrible coastlines with their high-rise hotels - go a few miles inland and you are back in Spain again. Anyway, Ayamonte was very nice, but we needed to move along because we found about some flamenco happenings on Tuesday in Sanlucar de Barrameda. We are going to try to connect with some friends there for what will be the beginning of real flamenco activity.

We went to a flamenco show in Ayamonte, but it turned out to be two young men who sang very nice rumbas, but all night - nothing but rumba. To this old dog, that is not quite flamenco!

So today, we travelled from Ayamonte to Mazagón. Light winds made us use the motor again. Instead of going into the marina, we anchored outside it in the Rio Tinto that leads up to Huelva. If we had gone into the marina, we would have spent 31 Euros there and then, because we were close to the town, we'd have gone out for tapas and drinks and spent another 15 or so. But, we just defrosted the freezer and are eating up some food that we bought in North Carolina. We really need to get through all these foods so that we can buy some new freezer food. We have having a baked chicken tonight and saving a bunch of money anchored out in the river. Tomorrow early we will start for Sanlucar - only 34 miles. We'll anchor there if possible. Sanlucar has some of the best seafood in Spain and that is where we'll spend the bucks.

For those of you who wrote, thanks. It was good to hear from you!

Spain - at last!!!

Friday, August 22, 2008
We arrived in Ayamonte in the Rio Guadiana today and took a slip in the marina. We just love it here. It is a charming little town and best of all, Spanish. We can talk to them and they have Cruzcampo beer and jamón and all the things we love. This is so good I can barely stand it.

Yes, I am glad to be here!

Here is Saeta in her first Spanish marina, flying the Spanish courtesy flag upside down (oops).

Here is the main plaza in Ayamonte.

And from a different angle.

A typical street.

On our way to Faro/Olhao....

Thursday, August 21, 2008
We left Portimao this morning after a day in the marina in which we took on water, charged the batteries all the way up, washed all the salt crust off the boat, and hopefully fixed the genset (we'll know more tonight when I have to use it). For the first time, we washed the boat and found that last night's southerly winds had brought some of the red dust of Africa. We have heard that boats in this part of the world are accustomed to getting red dust in their lines (ropes).

And we managed to do a little sightseeing as well. But I came away with the same reaction that I get on most tourist coastlines - there are too many tourists and too few locals not involved in the tourist business. All the sleepy little villages have become condos and high-rise hotels. If we had a car, Portugal is just a few miles inland. But we didn't.

Spain is the same. I have no love for coastal Spain (for the most part). But at least there I can talk to people and that makes a very big difference.

We are headed for a salt marsh that has rivers through it leading to the two towns Faro and Olhao. Each of them has a different channel leading to it. We are going to anchor since it is getting late in the day. Perhaps we'll take the dinghy up and explore one or the other - stay tuned. At the very least, this anchorage is only 24 miles from Spain!!!

Late flash: We are anchored at Olhao among a very large group of European sailboats - no Americans and only one Canadian. It is mellow here. Since it is high tide, it looks like we are in the midst of a very large body of water, but I understand that much of it will be exposed when the tide goes out. We won't know until tomorrow because the sun is going down. We could stay and explore the local cities, but we are so close to Spain that I don't think that I can restrain myself.

Here we are in Portimao...

August 19, 2008 Tuesday - Portimao, Portugal
We still don't have regular internet so you still don't get any pictures. And you are missing the ones from Lagos where we took our dinghy and explored the sea grottos. There were about 20 caves that we could take the boat into. Apparently many of the local fisherman have given up fishing and are now using their boats to take loads of tourists into the caves - so it was a bit like a freeway out there. On the other hand, we could tell where all the good caves were just by following the other boats. One of them got grumpy that we weren't paying to see the caves, but the rest were fine. This trip was better than Disneyland and at some point we'll have pix and video.

We hung around Lagos for 3 days and although it is a historic city, it seemed a bit ordinary and dirty after the Azores. The wind hooted every afternoon which kept us on the boat for a while. Finally we decided to move along toward Spain - only about 80 miles more to the border. For 3 days, we tried to check in with the officials. Nada! We couldn't find any bureaucrats. I guess that on the mainland, the government employee to civilian population is much lower than the Azores. If we had stayed at the marina, the marina staff would have filled out the papers, but since we didn't it didn't get done. They told us not to worry about it - we were officially in Portugal once we hit the Azores. I hope they are right, but we'll stay at the marina in Portimao for a day to get the papers filled out (assuming that it is less expensive than Lagos). The Lagos marina is priced like the West coast of Italy - the megayachts have spoiled it for us working folks (or former working folks).

This entire coast has lots of sailboats because it is a sailors dream - flat seas and good winds on the beam. This morning when we decided to come to Portimao, we just unrolled the jib since the trip was only 7 miles. We are getting SOOOO lazy! In short order, we were here. We'll go into the marina tomorrow to go shopping, take on water, and use their electricity. Hopefully they will have free wifi so that we can put up the pictures. For now, we are anchored. Since this is a river, there is a tidal flow up and down the river and when the tide is against the wind, the tide often wins which results in the boat pointing in some strange angles - not into the wind like usual. Life is good.

Lagos, Portugal

Sunday, August 17, 2008
We are anchored in Lagos Bay, just outside the marina. We wanted to go into the marina to wash the crusted salt off the boat (in places it was sort of like a pretzel). But the marina charges 53 euros in high season plus tax, all of which would have brought a night there up to around $90. I'm sorry, but for those kind of prices, I expect a change of bed linens and a chocolate on the pillow. So Andi threw buckets of salt water over the boat to get the salt crust off and finished up with a fresh water wipedown, so who needs them.
I meanwhile am engaged with trying to find an air leak on the supply side of the fuel for the genset. It hasn't worked for 3 days and so we are having to use the big engine to charge batteries. Not good for the engine and it uses a lot of fuel.
It is much cooler here than it was in the Azores (which were as close to perfect weather is I've ever seen). As we approached the Portuguese Coast, we noticed a change in the water color from the indigo blue of the gulf stream to a kind of brownish-green. We had sailed into the Portuguese Current that comes down from Northern Europe just like the California Current comes down from Alaska and keeps the California coast cool. So the water here is cold and I'm not looking forward to swimming in it. Andi is though because she has become a dedicated snorkeller.
So today we are going to take the dinghy and explore some caves and beautiful rock formations along the cliffs nearby. Then we'll go into town and report to the authorities and do some shopping. Sorry to have no pictures, but we have no internet still. This is coming to you by radio through Belgium.

Here is the point of land that shelters Lagos. You can see where the sea caves are.

We took our dinghy and went out to the grottos. There were a lot of tourist boats doing the same thing so we just followed them.










And here is a video of the caves. We really loved this.

We made it!!!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Yesterday evening at 5:30 we anchored in the lee of Sagres point. The wind was blowing a lusty 25 knots when we came in, but the anchor dug right in and we celebrated the completion of our voyage of discovery. I suppose now we should claim these lands in the name of George Bush and introduce the inhabitants to the joys of flamenco. Well, maybe not.

It is nice to be level again and tidying up after our crossing. We celebrated breakfast with crepes filled with Azorean cream cheese and topped with Jeff's North Carolina blueberry moonshine jam.

We came from the Azores in 5 1/2 days, not at all shabby for a 41 foot boat, especially considering the light winds the first day. We don't yet have internet, but when we do, we'll put up some pictures and write more. For the time being, we are safe and content. Hope you are too.

Here is the computer screen when we were crossing the traffic zone where all the shipping in the Med comes around the corner of Portugal. It gets crowded out there. This is our AIS system showing about 14 ships. It tells us their exact speed and heading so we know if there is a danger. Cool, huh? The little red boat headed for the point is us.

And here is Cabo Sao Vicente - our first part of continental Europe.

Here is the fort at Henry the Navigator's lookout at Sagres. The square building is the chapel that is about the only part that may go back to Henry's time.

Here are the happy couple sitting on the steps of the chapel.

And here is the interior - very simple.

Here is Henry's compass rose laid out on the ground. Or then again, it might be the compass rose of anyone with some rocks and a day's hard labor...

This is a replica of a caravel - the kind of ship that Columbus used for his smaller vessels. They haul tourists around.

Almost there - and glad of it!

August 14, 2008 Thursday Day 6 37d10.6'N 10d14.5'W
For the past 2 days, we've been riding in a washing machine - and it wasn't always on the gentle cycle either. The winds were just forward of the beam (about 60 degrees off the bow) which is a fast point of sail. And we have been going fast. For two days we have averaged more than 171 miles per day - that is not at all shabby for a 41' boat. The cost to all that speed has been discomfort. It's not as bad as if we were going upwind - there the boat slams into every wave and slows down on each impact. Our course takes us across the waves at a gentle angle; sloping up the face of a wave and then sliding down the back side. But with the strong winds, the waves were up to 8 feet high. The waves weren't so bad, but the wind chop on top of them was really a nuisance. The crests of the chop would break from time to time and if one of those breaking tops happened to occur just as we passed, it broke against the boat, throwing water all over the place. Now this boat is better than decently watertight, but days of flying water can start to show places where the water forgets it's place - outside!
But we only have 60 miles to go and are tearing along at almost 8 knots, so we are enduring the punishment. We could have reduced sail and gotten the speed down into the 6's at which time the motion and spray would have been much nicer. But we want to be there! We've just been sleeping and reading - moving around has been an effort. Andi gets high marks for cranking out good food under these conditions.
For those of you who thought we were crazy to be out here, the last two days are your "I told you so". For land folks, its like a very bad dirt road.
We've been seeing some ships that you don't see at the Panama Canal or normal harbors - the supertankers. These guys run from Ghana or the Red Sea up the Atlantic. They are huge! One passed us that was 250 meters long - that is 1/4 of a kilometer!
With luck we'll be anchored at Sagres before sunset. Send mail. Here is a video that Andi shot before the waves got too big. These were nice conditions.

Life on the slopes....

August 13, 2008 Wednesday Day 5 6AM 37d25.9'N 14d8.14'W
Well, up until now we have had the wind generally behind us, which meant that we were sailing along pretty flat - which meant that life was pretty normal. Now we have reached the Portuguese Trades (so named because the old Portuguese navigators could rely on these steady winds blowing down the coast of Portugal). These winds are coming from the front of us which means that the sails are sheeted in close and the boat is heeling. So now life is on a 20 degree angle. Hmmm, this could aid weight reduction - having to jungle-gym your way UP to the refrigerator is something of a deterrent.
On the other hand, we are moving along rather smartly. We only have 250 miles left to go with 550 behind us. We should arrive sometime tomorrow. For the sailors among you, we are finding that GRIB files have proven quite accurate in this part of the world. GRIB files are highly compressed weather data files that we can download and then overlay right onto our electronic charts and see little arrows showing predicted wind strength and direction.
This part of the ocean seems like a desert. We haven't seen fish or birds working - no dolphins - no seaweed - nada!
Every once in a while we see shipping. When we do, we are on our toes until they are safely past. But when we reach the lower corner of Europe at Cabo Sao Vicente, all the worlds' shipping is rounding the corner there bound for the Med or upcoast to England or France. It will get busy for a while. Fortunately, we have AIS which shows each ship on our electronic chart with it's true course and speed (and a lot of other interesting facts).
So we are well and decently rested, so now that the sun is up I am going to wedge myself back into a corner and go back to Tom Clancy.
As always, we love hearing news from YOU when we are out on passage. Use our Sailmail address.

About half way to Portugal

August 12, 2008 Tuesday 7AM 37d43'N 17d27'W
The winds are behaving as predicted and have have swung around so that they are slightly in front of us. This is good because it is faster. We are doing more than 7 knots and eating up the miles. We have 407 miles to go.

Andi keeps worrying that I am not getting enough rest, so last night she took a 6 hour watch and let me sleep. I was grateful, but really am getting enough rest anyway. In addition to my sleeping, I finished another book yesterday. Glad I brought a good supply.

All is going well for us - hope it is for you too!

Day 3 - roaring along....

August 11, 2008 Monday - Day 3 - 1 AM - 37d49.2'N 21d25.18'W

The winds have steadily increased until they are between 14 - 17 knots now and that is giving us a speed of close to 7 knots. We are sailing almost a direct course for Cabo Sao Vicente, the lower corner of Portugal. Since there is a current running down the coast, we are aiming more for Lisbon at the moment to keep from getting swept right past our destination. We only have about 596 miles to go now.

Andi was a bit worried about making this part of the passage without extra crew. But it has been totally mellow with small waves and good progress. Both of us are well rested and doing a lot of reading. Ocean passages are actually a lot more relaxing than coastal passages. And in the middle of the ocean, the winds are very steady. You set up the sails and then leave them for days at a time. So I think that she is reassured. This is delightful sailing! Much nicer than the first leg.

We've seen a few ships - in plenty of time to miss them. But there has been very little sea life. No dolphins, no fish boiling on the surface, few birds. It is kinda lonely out here. Every once in a while, a jet passes overhead. Tonight there are clouds and so we can't see the stars. Last night the milky way was so bright that it left a "path" in the water.

At times I am just amazed at how well this boat works - charging through the night, holding a course that keeps the sails trimmed. All kinds of mechanisms and systems are working together to make this miracle possible. I'm sitting here typing away while it all goes on around me. We are both very glad to have the boat we do. At the moment we've gone 11,629 miles in her!

At sea again....

August 10, 2008 Sunday 37degrees 51.16' N 23degrees 26.16' W

We left Ponta Delgada yesterday morning and it was absolutely windless outside. So we motored the entire length of the island since we were in the lee of it. When we got out beyond the end, we turned off the motor although the wind was barely making ripples on the water. We drifted along and for a while 3 knots was grounds for celebration. As the day progressed, it very gradually increased until by sunset we were doing 4+ knots. Of course, the seas were completely smooth and so it was certainly mellow. A few nights ago I saw a shooting star and wished for a mellow and safe voyage. Sure can't deny the mellow part. We are reading and of course, eating really well.

This morning our speed is up to 5+ knots and we made 100 miles in the last 24 hours. That is really slow for us, but we only used about 4 hours of fuel, so thanks for the wind anyway. Today should be better. We have the jib out on the spinnaker pole and the boat is steering dead downwind. Portugal is 695 miles away. We slept well last night. For me, the first day is always the hardest because I am too keyed up to sleep. As the routine of standing watches settles in, we get more rest. All the weather faxes suggest light winds for the whole passage, around 10 knots much of the time. But mellow is OK. Who ever got scared by mellow? This is really pretty nice!

You can write by using our Sailmail email address.

Last pictures from the Azores - we're off!

August 8, 2008 Friday
In Ponta Delgada, we went to visit a cave of lava tubes. Lava flowed through these underground pipelines to the sea. There we quite a few separate flows, each one modifying the cave a bit.

There are "stalagmites", but not the usual kind. These result from hot lava dripping from the ceiling.

Here is one of the big churches.

We went out to dinner with a fellow Santa Cruzan, Moose (right behind Andi)and his friends from the Caribbean. They were delivering a catamaran to Portugal and will probably leave in a day or so.

Here were two bus drivers having a major argument about "right-of-way" because they couldn't get their buses past each other. They finally stopped yelling, started driving, and soon got it worked out.

We will write you from the high seas.

Last pictures from Praia da Vitoria

August 8, 2008 Friday
Here is the guy who made us the best Pina Colada we have every had. Ever since Mexico, we've been on a search for the best one. It's dirty work but someone's gotta do it!

Here we are enjoying them - made with Azorean pineapples, just juiced in the blender.

The kids were playing soccer on the beach and every once in a while, really got into it.

This is a public bathroom - shows the amazing cleanliness and the fact that nobody bothers to steal the wastebackets and chair!

American culture can be found everywhere!

Quick report from Sao Miguel

August 7, 2008 Thursday Hi folks, We haven't had internet on the boat here and so have had to walk over to a bar with free internet. So far we haven't got our photos organized for an upload and hopefully we'll have that done tomorrow. But, there is a weather window opening up for Saturday and it looks like we will be heading off for the Portuguese mainland. It is pretty much due East to Cabo Sao Vicente for some 800 miles. Along the Portuguese coast the Portuguese trade winds blow (down the coast just like California). Here in the Azores, the winds will be westerly and hopefully there will be no holes in the wind as we transition from one wind field to the other. In the good old days, we would just turn on the motor, but since continental prices are over $6/gallon, we will be reluctant to do that. We will continue to send text to the blog over the radio and can still receive email the same way, assuming you know our Sailmail address. It comes through a station in Belgium and is very reliable. Tomorrow we will be provisioning, so I can't guarantee how much I will write, but at sea, I always have lots of time. Write back - we love to hear from you. OK, it is now tomorrow and here is a video for you. We went to a folkdancing performance on the 3rd day of the Praia festival. We shot a lot of video, but we liked these guys the best. See previous post for instructions for loading video.
We never saw Portuguese or Azorean dancing until this trip. Folk dance experts will probably see lots of distinctions that go right over me.

On the way to Sao Miguel....

August 5, 2008 Tuesday
It is dark outside and we are half-way to Sao Miguel. This is just a totally fabulous sail; not a drop of water on the decks, no waves, and we are averaging better than 6 knots. Of course, that is not an accident. These days sailors have the ability to plan their passages to maximize comfort and speed and minimize wet and scared. Let's see how that is done: first, we have so much weather information at our fingertips now. In addition to weather FAX charts of the whole North Atlantic, the internet has staggering amounts of weather data. To make this trip, I used a webpage called WeatherGURU that gives wind speed and direction for all the islands in the Azores (as well as everywhere else in Europe). So I was able to see what the predicted winds were at our departure and at our projected arrival. For the last 3 days, we've had winds so strong that at times we were unable to go ashore, so finally it lightened up and we saw that, if we left today, we would have winds of the perfect speed and direction. And so we are! We're loving it.

It wasn't always like this. My first boat was made of wood and had little electricity aboard. You cranked up the diesel by hand; you lit the kerosene navigation lights after dark; you figured out where you were by keeping track of how far you had gone and on what course by the compass. Right now I am sitting at my desk typing this out and the boat is steering itself - the autopilot is heading for a waypoint that I set off Ponta Delgada. If a current comes along that carries us off course, the autopilot automatically corrects for that. When we arrive at the waypoint, an alarm sounds. All I have to do is be sure that the sails are trimmed to the winds and make sure that we don't hit anything hard. So I'll go up and look around now.

OK, I'm back. A little adjustment to the sails and the speed is up 2 tenths of a knot. Great. So I was talking about how planning and modern equipment have made voyaging safer and more comfortable. But there are still some old salts out there - the "arghh, matey" kind who like to sail just like they did in the old days. You throw some groceries in the boat and when you are done with that, you cast off and go out to take what the sea dishes out.

I ran into a guy in Horta who had done just that. He had lovingly rebuilt and old classic boat and when he was done, he drew a line on his chart from the Chesapeake to Bantry Bay, Ireland and started out. Unfortunately, a straight line took him directly over the Grand Banks, an area where the cold Labrador Current meets the warm Gulf Stream with exciting meteorological consequences. In other words, there are lots of storms up there. This guy got beat up for days and days. He finally decided that he couldn't take it any longer and headed South for the Azores. It took him 40 days to reach Horta. When he got in, he was so exhausted that he had to have the marina staff move his boat into a slip. He learned that a little route planning and weather research makes a big difference.

We have a lot of pictures that we took in Praia da Vitoria and we'll put them up when we have internet in Ponto Delgada, our harbor on Sao Miguel. This will come to you via ship-to-shore radio. Cheers.

Festas in Praia da Vitoria

August 2, 2008 Saturday We arrived in Praia just in time for an 11 day series of fiestas. There are some big pavilions near the marina where the leading restaurants here and in Portugal are competing in a competition of "Gastronomy of the Atlantic". We have yet to visit one of them because we eat so very well here on the boat. My feeling about restaurant food so far is that chefs here (and in North Carolina) should be required to spend a month in San Francisco to see the level that average cuisine can reach. There is a lot of average food around here. But it's nice for a change. I mean - who wants to pound an octopus at home?

So we went out to see the big opening day parade. Unfortunately, the camera batteries hadn't been charged and we shot the following video and then discovered that we were out of business. Click on the video and then wait for it to load itself on your computer.


These folks were singing together and dancing while leading the parade through the streets. After them came 5 floats celebrating various aspects of Praia's history and culture. After the parade, we all drifted back to the waterfront where there was a Dixieland Band and rock bands for the young folks. We came back to the boat at 1AM and the locals were just getting started. The whole town was on the streets. We loved the people-watching. It's hard to generalize because the people are very diverse genetically, so there is no standard look.
We'll put up more pictures later. Don't be afraid to write.