Finding Dory - Webinar 7: A transatlantic pit-stop in Cape Verde. Or Not?

"Finding Dory", is a social community of cruisers who plan to cross the Atlantic (East-West) next winter (2025-2026 season). It is "free-to-join" adhoc group of yachties, bonded by one common goal: to cross the Atlantic safely. "Finding Dory" is organized in collaboration with "Noforeignland" (NFL). You can read about the background, purpose and setup of this group, and planned free webinars in this post on Noforeignland.

As an almost full-time sailor, I did six East-West transatlantic trips in the past years. For five of those, we had a pit-stop in Cape Verde (CV). And I have grown fond of crossing the Atlantic this way: Four-five days to sail from southern Europe to the Canaries. Pause. Another five-six days to Cape Verde. Pause. And then the big transat hop. Party!..

In this webinar, I want to share my experience in following this route, and why I like the "CV pitstop". Mind you, I only have experience in visiting two of the 10 larger CV islands: "Sao Vicente" (with Mindelo as its main port and the only marina in CV), and neighbouring "Sao Antao". But those are also the most popular pit-stops for transat cruisers.

I know the approach (and its challenges) to these two islands pretty well by now (including a tricky night approach to Mindelo, without any working instruments on board). I think I moored at every pontoon of the marina by now and anchored in different spots in the large bay off Mindelo. I toured most of Sao Vicente and San Antao. And visited most restaurants, bars, and pharmacies. I shopped for electrical plugs, fridge cooling elements, fresh tomatoes and spare halyards. And have used most of the available marine technicians :-) ...

So, it is time to dive through some of these details, so you can make up your mind, if a Cape Verde pit-stop is something for you! So, join our 7th free webinar on Monday Sept 29th at 20:00 Rome time (18:00 GMT).

Our webinar will be held on “ZOOM” and consist of +- 60 minutes of presentation, followed by 30 minutes (or more if needed) of open Q-and-A/discussions/shared experiences amongst the participants.

Our webinars are free for all “Finding Dory” members. We will record the session and publish the link to the recording afterwards to all members of our community.

The instructions on how to join this webinar, are distributed to "Finding Dory" members only, rather than widely distributing the link via social media, mainly to avoid spammers to join in, and disturb our webinar.

So, if you want to participate in the webinars, first join the "Finding Dory" community. Via our flotilla's Whatsapp group, we will send you details for each webinar. Instructions on how to join the growing "Finding Dory" flotilla on Whatsapp, you can find in this Noforeignland blogpost.

About Peter:

I am the "house keeper" for the "Finding Dory" flotilla community.

I like both "slow" and "fast" sailing.
I love to hang out in a protected Greek anchorage for a couple of days, but also like to skim the sea-surface while planing at 35 knots on an open ocean semi-foiling trimaran in Bretagne.
I like lake-sailing near Geneva on a small skiff, but also get my thrills being part of a 16-person crew, sailing a big monster, off the coast of Antigua...