Living on the Water and Dinghy Parking in Cabo Verde

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.

We walked in Boa Vista Island for only a half day: seeing the center of the town, visiting a fish market, buying some fruits, and having a lunch in a local restaurant. During lunch, I finished all of my lunch faster than John finished his, not wanting to share my food with the flies.

We sailed 94 miles overnight from Boa Vista to Sao Nicolau Island. Sao Nicolau is a mountainous island and we already like this island even though the Tarrafal anchorage (Sao Nicolau Island) is a bit rolly. We need to clear our visit from the Police Nacional. By looking from the boat, we are not optimistic on the dinghy parking situation (dock), or at the shore. Not having a dinghy dock is like not having a parking place on land. Is it going to be another challenging day bringing our dinghy up on the shore?

All the worry about dinghy landing turned out to be nothing. As we went into the harbor, two sets of children whistled at us to come and land at their spot. One set of kids was on the beach, the other near the port which we ended up choosing. Neither John nor I likes carrying the dinghy up a sandy beach, and the opportunity to tie to a dock with rubber tires was too good to pass up.