He writes this on his blog, leaving from Guinea-Bissau.
Bubaque is a pleasant town on the island of the same name. You can see a lot of rasta here and hear music, which was nice after Gambia, which is Islamic with all the restrictions that result from it.
Already bought some supplies for the crossing, but there is really very little for sale, vegetables are sold per – bad – tomato or per small onion. There is also garlic and white cabbage, that’s where it ends.
The living room-sized (super)market carries general household goods and canned food in tins that have been oxidized. I also bought 18 eggs. At the adjacent bar I filled as many drinking water bottles as possible and also refilled one of the three drinking water tanks.
My plan was to buy vegetables such as potatoes and carrots in another village.
I have been to two more villages, but no shops: people came to me asking for painkillers, detergent and soap, fish hooks and medical advice for a sore eye.
A man climbed the tallest mango tree to bring me fruit, which he smashed with a stick.
Getting into the trade winds was tough: the first 14 days I averaged 54 nautical miles, with so much engine use that I worried if I had enough gas oil. Caught a nice fish, the long thin one in the photo was not great to eat… the other one all the better!
The fourth day, nice wind and I thought I could make a tortilla. A menacing sky came up and I started reefing: the mainsail had just dropped a bit when the wind came, and a lot! It shrieked through the rigging, flapping mainsail, flapping genoa that had to be rolled up and massive rain, hearing and seeing perished: with eyes closed and all my strength genoa turned in but the clew was already completely torn out. The sail is twenty years old and a total loss.
The next day I had another shower, but this time in the dark. I was there earlier and got the hunter or yankee in, but that broke the coil line and as a result it rolled out again and also lost the clew angle.
With the little wind I always had, it was necessary to set the half winder the next day: only I couldn’t manage it and when he had to go down for the fourth time to untangle tangled lines, he scooped water and tore out too! All my great lightweather sails to the buttons! I still have a new spinnaker lying around, but I won’t risk it!
The fifteenth day I got into the good winds: steady half wind Bft 2-3 with daily distances around 110 NM (Nautical Mile=1852 meters) now 20 days at sea, two more to go!
Oh yes, that tortilla didn’t work either: all the eggs were hard-boiled!