The Road to the Horizon: Should you schedule a transat pitstop in Cape Verde? ("Finding Dory V"

Each season, our "Finding Dory" flotilla, assembles cruisers planning to cross the Atlantic (East-West and/or West-East), under the motto: "Crossing the Atlantic by yourself does not mean you cross alone!". Our flotilla is free for all skippers and crew to join, as long as one actively engages with the community.

Apart from our lively Telegram chat group (our main coordination tool), we also organize regular webinars to help our fleet prepare and plan their crossing.

We are now ready to present this season's 6th free webinar about "a possible transatlantic pitstop in Cape Verde (CV)" on August 17 at 20:00 Rome time (18:00 AM GMT).

In this webinar, I am joined by fellow "Dorians", Sandrine and Hervé, sailing on SV Malu. They have been cruising in CV for the past 8 months, and are eager to share their experience as a live-aboards, cruising the CV islands.

In my part of the presentation, I'll focus on two islands: Sao Vicente (which has the only marina in CV) and Sao Antao. I've passed through the area six times by now and know the approach (and its challenges) pretty well - including a tricky night approach to Mindelo, without any working instruments on board - ... By now, I moored at every pontoon of the marina and anchored in different spots in the large bay of Mindelo. I toured most of Sao Vicente and San Antao. And visited most restaurants, bars, and pharmacies, shopped for electrical plugs, fridge cooling elements, bags of ice, fresh tomatoes and spare halyards.... And have used most of the available marine technicians :-) ...

Let's dive through some of these details, so you can make up your mind, if a Cape Verde pit-stop is something for you! Join our 6th free webinar on Monday Aug 17th 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 Telegram group, we will send you details for each webinar. Instructions on how to join the growing "Finding Dory" flotilla on Telegram, you can find in this Noforeignland blogpost.

About Sandrine and Hervé:

Sandrine and Hervé have been living aboard their catamaran, SV Malu, since 2024. French by origin but long-time travellers, they have lived in South Korea, Denmark, and the Canary Islands.
They were part of the Finding Dory IV fleet last season. After spending a year in the Canaries, they decided to make the most of 2026 by cruising throughout Cape Verde before considering a transatlantic crossing.
Few sailors spend such an extended period in Cape Verde, so they are eager to share their impressions and experience of sailing among these magnificent islands, both in the north and the south. There is only one island they have yet to visit: Maio.

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 regatta crew on a maxi, off the coast of Antigua...

"Finding Dory V", is a social community of cruisers who plan to cross the Atlantic (East-West and West-East) during the next season (2026-2027). It is the 5th year we organize this "free-to-join" adhoc group of yachties, bonded by one common goal: "to cross the Atlantic together, safely". In the last season, we had over 400 yachts participating in our flotilla.
"Finding Dory" is organized in collaboration with "Noforeignland" (NFL). How to join the Finding Dory flotilla and get the details of our webinars? Join our Telegram chat channel - details in this post on Noforeignland. That post also has all details on the background, purpose and setup of our flotilla.