Mindelo, Cape Verde, to St Anne, Martinique

19th January to 15th February 2026

Mindelo marina is much enlarged since I last visited over ten years ago, at least twice as big. The boom in long distance sailing means it’s pretty full. The office is more efficient and bar a lot busier. The city is scarcely recognisable. It’s cleaner, more touristy and full of cars. 

There are many more boat hitchhikers too, mostly youngsters bright and willing, looking for sailing trips to the Caribbean or Brazil. Most are doubtless interesting, lively, friendly and adventurous, often with an environmentalist aversion to aeroplanes.

There were dozens of such hitchhikers in the Canary Islands too. I trifled with the thought of picking up some company (and enjoyed being with mermaids as described in previous post) but, having now crossed oceans many times on my own, I decided not. I don’t like people all that much (just joking!); especially confined in close inescapable company for up to three weeks, together with all the anxieties and responsibilities that go with keeping them safe, nourished and happy!

Nowadays Mindelo has big cruise ships too. This monster, Cunard’s ‘Queen Anne’, over 1,000ft long and resembling a Soviet-era apartment block, was in port as I left, it’s 3,000 odd passengers ambling and shuffling the streets. 

I’ve now crossed the Atlantic seven times on my own, four times from east to west, three heading back to England from west to east.

Now isn’t the time to explain why I prefer being alone on oceans. Just accept that I find it’s the only way to feel truly connected with nature, with life, with the planet; and as a teeny weeny happy organism in timeless space. 

This crossing was a typical Trade Wind mix of rough and smooth, turbulent and windy to start, rolly and gentle along bits, some squalls. A handful of ships and one other sailing boat were all I saw. Chartplotter finally gave up the ghost (it had started to go wonky in Senegal) so I couldn’t see AIS targets (for non-sailors, AIS shows you vessels that are often well beyond visible distance). It took 16 days to reach Martinique. The genoa is torn, chartplotter useless and a few bits need fixing. 

You cannot do such a journey in a small boat without thinking of the Atlantic Slave Trade.The most gruesome part of this triangular trade route was certainly the westbound Atlantic slave transport crossing from Africa. No one knows how many perished, but every mile of the ocean floor will be scattered with the bones of those who died. It’s a terrible thought.

In the ten years I’ve sailed this bit of sea, there has been a big increase in the amount of sargasso weed and, this year, a big decline in the numbers of flying fish. (The weed is troublesome as it gets caught on Hydrovane rudder and it’s a precarious business going to the stern to clear it with a boat hook – several times each day and night).

I’ve had an informative discussion with ChatGPT about the weed/fish business. It  seems there has been a vast increase in Sargassum growth and it’s distribution has shifted from the area of Sargasso Sea which I learnt about in 1950s geography lessons. Weed can now cover big swathes of tropical and subtropical ocean. Flying fish numbers have declined too. Causes are not clear and as ever in the world of science, especially marine biology, more studies are needed.

There are several very good reasons for sailing to Martinique. Firstly, the French who run the place have the world’s most user-friendly yacht clearance/immigration set-up. No traipsing from one bureaucratic office to another, no grumpy officialdom, no exploitive permits or visas, just a few minutes on your phone (or their computers), a smile and €5 and you’re in! 

Secondly, there are lots of chandleries, experts and yachtie folk. So I already have a new chartplotter, sail being repaired and some welding done.

And though it costs a bomb, you can buy the same sort of goodies as you’ll find in France; good coffee too.

There are of course literally hundreds of sailing boats all over the place. Is this the busiest anchorage in the world? Oh! There’s Carnaval too. Pictures another time.