Kay Chung
Posted in Atlantic Islands, Caribbean Islands, Sailings, South America
We are about to set sail today for Suriname (Caribbean Island). It will be the longest sailing for us, about 1900 nautical miles. We estimate it will take about two weeks.
Sending you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Wish us fair winds and following seas.
A Lyric of Cesaria Evora’s Song Translated in English in the Maritime Museum
Mar Azul (Blue Sea)
O… Sea, quietly lie down and let me go
Let me go and visit my homeland
Let me go greet my mother… O sea
Blue Sea,
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Kay Chung
Posted in Atlantic Islands, Sailings
Fish price here is excellent. Price is set by supply and demand. If the weather is bad for fishing, the price goes up. If fishermen bring lots of fish, the price goes down. We bought Sushi Grade Yellowfin Tuna yesterday for 3500 Escudos (USD4) for one kilogram. It is about two USD for a pound. It is cheaper than eggs or canned tuna.
Our next stop will be Suriname. Sailing from Cabo Verde to Suriname is downwind sailing with the trade winds.
After monitoring the weather forecast, we postponed sailing to Friday. The wind forecast looks good throughout the days.
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Kay Chung
Posted in Atlantic Islands, Internet Abroad, Sailings
(December 2017) There are many stores selling Unitel SIM Cards in the Cabo Verde Islands. I purchased a Prepaid Unitel SIM Card from a small local electronic store in Espagos Town in Sal Island. It cost 100 local money ‘Escudos’ (about USD1.1) and it came with a balance of 50 Escudos (about 55 cents/USD). I put 1,250 Escudos (about USD14) to purchase 5GB data (Good for 31 days). After the store person activated the 5GB plan, I tried to access to the Internet but I was not able to connect. They didn’t know about the need of the APN setup and told me where the Unitel store is.
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Kay Chung
Posted in Atlantic Islands, Internet Abroad, Sailings
(October to November 2017) In the Canary Islands, I purchased a Prepaid SIM Card from a Movistar store in downtown Arrecife in Lanzarote Island. It cost 15 Euros (about USD18) for a SIM Card. It came with a balance of 15 Euros so the physical SIM Card didn’t cost anything.
I activated the 2GB data plan by deducting 15 Euros from my balance in my account. 5GB data plan was not available for a prepaid SIM Card. After consuming all of the 2GB data, I went to a supermarket to put more money on my account. I was told from Movistar that 2GB data renewal is not an option for a Prepaid SIM Card.
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Kay Chung
Posted in Atlantic Islands, Sailings
Sailing from Nicolau Island to Vicente Island was rough and tough because of big waves. Autopilot, our favorite crew worked hard! We let it drive the boat and stayed inside of the boat keeping us dry. Periodically, John went to outside to check the sea and the surroundings.
A couple of hours into the trip, John asked me to come out to see a small local boat with a homemade sail (smaller than the size of the waves) sailing alone in the heavy weather, far away. At first, I thought it was a sailfish. OMG! I was uneasy seeing such a small boat sailing alone in the big waves,
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Kay Chung
Posted in Atlantic Islands, Sailings
On Boa Vista Island, we experienced big swells at the beautiful sandy bottom anchorage (Sal-Rei Anchorage). Wanting to see the island, we went to shore carrying up our HEAVY HOMEMADE HARD dinghy to the beach.
Departing from the beach back to the boat, lots of children voluntarily came to push the dinghy into the water. Once the dinghy was close to the water, a couple of kids were already on the dinghy for fun.
With waves and the motor running, John was worried that someone would get hurt. A local swimmer/fisherman helped the situation telling the kids get off from the dinghy and towed the dinghy to waist depth water.
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Kay Chung
Posted in Atlantic Islands, Sailings
(December 3 – 8, 2017) On the first day at the Palmeira fishing port, many children wanted to watch our dinghy during our outing on the island. Not knowing what language to speak to me, the children tried to speak in simple French. I responded to them in English and assigned one child to watch the dinghy.
Cabo Verde used to be under Portugal; however, in 1975, it became independent. The official language is Portuguese but some people speak Portuguese-based Creole (Kabuverdianu). If heard, I wouldn’t know the difference.
On the street, vendors sell secondhand clothes.
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Kay Chung
Posted in Atlantic Islands, Sailings
(December 4, 2017) We left the Canary Islands on Monday and arrived the Cabo Verde on Sunday. This trip is the third longest trip for us. It took 6 days and 10 hours (154 hours total) at sea, seeing and talking to only one human (John) and two cats. The distance was 764 nautical miles.
The arrival time was good. We had enough time to anchor and organize everything before sunset. After all was settled, we grilled fish for dinner and enjoyed it. We thanked that we had no boat issues during this trip. Maybe regular check/monitor, routine preventive maintenance,
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Kay Chung
Posted in Atlantic Islands, Medical Service Experiences, Sailings
(November 26, 2017) After seeing a reasonable weather forecast, we decided to sail to Cabo Verde on November 27th. This is the island I first got to know by listening to a CD about 20+ years. At that time, being a music lover, I frequently visited a bookstore to find new songs. One day, by listening to a sample CD at a bookstore, I bought a CD, “Cabo Verde” by Cesaria Evora. It was love of songs at first listen. Without knowing the lyrics and language of the songs, I listened to them over and over. Back then, we didn’t have Google Search.
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Kay Chung
Posted in Atlantic Islands, Sailings
There is no friend as loyal as a book. — Ernest Hemingway
La Gomera Island is a small and very steep island. On the first day that we arrived here, I wanted to stay here as long as I can. Nature is all around and children play at the park in the evenings. Grandfathers are seating on the bench with friends talking, playing cards, or just watching waves on the beach. People do their own things peacefully. Many tourists from the cruise ships visit for a day. Some long-term tourists seem engaged in their own spiritual activities.
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