Cape Verde

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DavidKremer

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Hi I am going to Barbados in December this year via the Cape Verde Islands. I have heard that getting water and supplies can be tricky. Can anyone give me the benefit of some recent experience? Recommendations for chandlery, supermarket etc would be great as well as any other advice much appreciated.
Happy New Year!
 
We're in the Cape Verdes now...

... currently at Mindelo on Sao Vicente.

Provisions - Other than gas refills and tinned vegetables, just about everything is more expensive and offering less choice than the Canaries, so do the bulk-shopping there if you can. Shopping in Mindelo is OK and I'm told Porto Praia is better still (we've not yet been there) but otherwise the shopping is very limited. No doubt, like ourselves you'll be obliged to get fresh fruit & veg here; how you get on will depend on your luck on the day - I've bought a kg of fresh tomatoes today and they're lovely; however, these are the first decent tomatoes we've seen on the market since before Christmas.

Chandlery - CV Yachting in Mindelo are very helpful, but not much is 'in stock' and so getting stuff is a 4 week wait minimum. I understand Kai Brossmannis currently trying to arrange a new shipping company which he's hoping will improve on this. Once again, if you need something and know it, source it in the Canaries, if it breaks enroute, head for Mindelo and CV Yachting.

Water: We got water in cans from the public tap in Sal and it was very nice. We've recently filled up the tanks in Mindelo Marina (€0.02/litre) with water which I understand is de-salinated; it's not the best we've had, but it's drinkable - it's certainly better than the water we got in the Balearics, or indeed most that we got in the Canaries too.
 
There is a market on the right of the main street which had a great selection of fresh veg & fish when I was there in 2003. There was also a fish market on the waterfront.

Kai Brossmannis was there way back then, ripping off the cruisers in every way possible. Unless you have very deep pockets, may I suggest you avoid dealing with that rude, germanic pr*ck. Oh, did I mention that he is a complete t*sser and he will....(takes a deep breath). He and a few of the tea leaf locals are the reason that I prefer to call the place Cr*p Merde
 
Agree with BobnLesley. The water's fine to drink; fresh food (fruit and veg) is of poor quality and doesn't have lasting power but it's OK. There seems to be no big supermarket that stocks everything so you've go to shop around.

Totally disagree with stingo. Excellent, helpful marina at Mindelo, fairly priced, no crime, safe to walk the streets.
 
My 2005 experience in Mindelo, before the marina, was similar to Stingo. There was a real rip-off merchant offering "yacht services". The supermarkets were not too bad by island standards but only expensive bottled water was available. Like Stingo we took full advantage of the excellent fish market.

People were reasonably friendly in Mindelo, indifferent in Praia, but actively unpleasant in other CV islands. We got sick of people blocking our path and demanding money. In one place taxi drivers prevented us from taking the bus and demanded the equivalent of £40 for a five-mile ride. We walked. In another the children threw stones at us when we ignored their demands for money. We needed only a little local currency but there was no ATM. The bank clerk insisted he would have to make a "security call" to England before changing euros. For this he charged us €30 euros to change €50 - without receipt.

We kept hearing of cases of pilfering among other yachties and tourists. Our only loss was a bottle of Camping Gas - taken to be refilled, the guy came back with a dented old bottle of uncertain make which he swore was ours. Not only did it look unsafe with no datestamp, it didn't match any of our fittings so we had to throw it away.

When coming ashore, someone invariably offered to "look after your dinghy" for a considerable tip, and you refused them at your peril - we watched what they did to one dinghy. The heavy security bars and aggressive dogs of even the most humble shacks seemed to echo their distrust of one another.

It's one of the few countries I have been that I would not want to revisit.
 
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DavidKremer said:
Hi I am going to Barbados in December this year via the Cape Verde Islands. I have heard that getting water and supplies can be tricky. Can anyone give me the benefit of some recent experience? Recommendations for chandlery, supermarket etc would be great as well as any other advice much appreciated.
Happy New Year!
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We were there in 2009 and it was fine at Mindelo. Markets had lots of food albeit we did get ripped buying fruit and veg in the main market. The supermarkets are OKish but not a place for major grocery provisions - fresh food yes. Water in the marina was OK - you do have filters???

Main piece of advice is to take the ferry to Sao Antao and organise a guide and driver to take you over to the north side, stay at B&B. It's magical.

One problem we encountered was the ATMs kept running out of money ..

Check out this: http://www.morganscloud.com/
 
cape Verde

I spent a month in Marina Mindelo October 2010 before cruising through Islands and on to Brasil.Marina is safe,hassle free with water/internet and electricity[220v] to be paid for.Fuel is clean.Good discounts for longer stays and away from ARC week.Kai is very helpful and to me was very friendly.
Major proviosioning not good but plenty of fresh fish and fruit but you need to be there a while to find where things are.
Do bring your provisions with you and carry spares.
Gas bottle filled on harbour.
Recommend e mail booking in advance to get best rates.
Some crime on anchorage.
On reflection spending a month in Mindelo was too long
 
Both times we went to CV was Mindelo. Both times we engaged a 'boat boy' soon after arrival for not a lot a wonga. We had no trouble at all and really good visits including watching a major European football match in a bar stuffed with happy locals.

Enjoyed everything but the manly fuel we picked up from the fishing boat berth.

Would go again.
 
stopped off in 1987 thought the islands ****,the locals make the mafia look like
choirboys.gave em a miss in 95 went straight across,good decision,rather sit in st lucia bay with a rum cocktail than be ripped off.;)
 
LadyInBed said:
Why such differing experiences?
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IMHO it invariably happens with less visited places, fewer crews visit, and as the places themselves often have a strong flavour interacting with our taste, some people strongly like them, others strongly dislike them


honestly, I think the only way of making an opinion about one place is to go there by yourself; one may describe the number of pontoons or the phone number of a taxi... but as soon as one talks about themes like "security", "cheap/expensive", "good" food etc etc personal impressions and experiences become overwhelming :o

best thing, find someone having *exactly* your own tastes and follow their advice :D
 
BobnLesley said:
... currently at Mindelo on Sao Vicente.
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You've a Legend 45DS maybe a day or 2 away from you - according to position on mailasail (boat agua on mailasail) - inbound from Tenerife.

Name of yacht "Agua Therapy"; Glenys and Don are owners + 3 crew. presumably aiming for your port; pop along, say hello, give them the benefit of your advice, and say "Steve/Seraph says hello too"
 
We are in Mindelo Cape verde at the moment.

Provisioning not as good as Canaries but OK

Friendly people, plenty of culture everone here is enjoying themselves

Any specific questions just ask
 
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Cape Verdes

LadyInBed said:
This thread isn't exactly encouraging yachts to visit :eek:
Why such differing experiences?
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I'm with Roberto & Tommy on this one. For most people the Cape Verdes are their first port of call beyond 'Europe'; the Canaries are still european and the CVs Africa and despite their being a very civilised/well developed part of Central Africa, there's still a very diffferent vibe here and that requires a change of mindset to cope with it.

We've found the locals in general to be very friendly and helpful. Yes, you need to be aware of pickpockets/sneak-theft and the central market & tourist/flea markets seem to be the worst places; we avoid both (the veg in the central market is no better and twice the price of the street market just inland from the fish market anyway), but the problem is certainly no worse than in Las Ramblas in Barcelona or in Naples/Athens.

Similarly, there are areas of Mindelo that I wouldn't wander around in after dark (just like any/every other city/town in the world) but provided that you're sensible and don't flaunt your wealth - even the most budget concious livaboard is wealthier than the locals - you'll have no trouble.

In the three weeks we've been here, we've not heard of any security problems with boats/dinghies in either the anchorage or the marina; again its common sense, anchored boats either hoist the dinghy or lock it on at night, when you go ashore leave it on the secure dinghy dock in CV Yachting's marina (€4/day or €14/week)

The provisioning is certainly no match for the Canaries, in either price or availability, but similarly, that charge could be applied to the Scilly Isles when compared to Plymouth; economics preclude a huge supermarket to cater for a few hundred yachties passing through three months of the year.

Other than fast moving stock, chandlery bits are in short supply, but CV Yachting can and do try there best to get them from europe asap - but other than small/postable stuff, you're looking at weeks, not days for it to arrive and prices freflect those additional shipping costs. That said, they've just built us a new forestay and bottle screw for about 15% more than we paid for a similar one off Jimmy Greens last summer, which given the location and lack of any 'competition' we thought was pretty good.

There's not loads to see and do here and if we were passing this way again we might well sail directly from the Canaries, but if you've not been, it certainly worth visiting once.
 
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