After a good day of solar charging we tried Starlink again. As before it took a long time - an hour plus to connect and also as has been the case since the passage from Pasito Blanco to San Sebastian the dish has not re-orientated itself in search of Satellites. It rather looks like there is a communication problem between the router and the dish. The connections are known to be fiddly but we have double checked them and they seem OK. Also, the dish does try to make a connection with the satellite network, which eventually, it does and updates on its progress are received on the App and so there must be some communication between the router and the dish. My best guess now is that the software update that automatically kicked in during the Pasito Blanco/San Sebastian passage may be the cause of the problem. Once we get a stable connection (both in a physical sense and therefore a comms sense) I'll try a factory reset of the system.
Back to the solar charging topic. I awoke from my morning snooze to discover that Mick had been checking the performance of the solar panels and had discovered somewhat surprisingly that our new panel is not performing as well as the old ones which we suspected were knackered! We have also decided that we need to relocate our two side panels further forward because they get easily shaded by the top panel. That's probably a job to do in Mindelo because we may need to buy some extra bits.
The factory reset to Starlink was not required. The dish re-orientated itself on its own. Presumably the much more stable platform we are enjoying at anchor is the reason.
From a home/family/friends perspective, I've really picked the wrong year to do this trip. I'll miss Daniel's funeral, Anna my Step Mum is not well, Sharon's been left with two domestic disasters to manage - the failure of the underfloor heating pump - now fixed thanks to Neville and the leaking pipes in the shower room, which again thanks to Neville, are no longer leaking but the shower room is out of action until the tiles are reinstated. But what are the chances of finding the same tiles? I'll also miss a flying visit by my friend Tom and his wife Nina from the USA, which of course Sharon will have to host on her own. On that front though, there is at least a reasonable chance I'll be able to video call home on Tuesday when they and all the family will be together.
During the daylight hours of Monday 27/11, we continued to make good progress towards our now confirmed destination of Porto da Palmeira on the island of Sal. The winds cooperated beautifully allowing us to squeeze by the north west coast of the island ....
... without having to gybe and we arrived off the harbour entrance around 1615 GMT, and so we covered the 806 nautical mile passage (nm's over the ground) in 6 days and 2 hours; an average of 130 nautical miles a day and an average speed of 5.5 knots. We had quite a slow start which I guess explains why the exhilarating sailing of most of the last three quarters of the passage did not result in a higher average speed.
Our Pilot Book (guide) describes the anchorage here as "somewhat bleak" a phrase that the Mate rather latched on to, indeed, he went further and described it as a "shit hole". Personally, I think that is rather over stating the case for the prosecution, especially given we haven't even got off the boat yet! I think it has a rather battered charm of its own.
We dropped anchor close by Aura who left San Sebastian two days before us. There was no one home at the time but Lasse and Birgitte arrived back a couple of hours later. It turned out that despite only arriving yesterday they were about to leave for Sao Nicolau about 80 miles to the west. Perhaps Porto da Palmeira is a bit of a "shit hole" after all! Mind you it was Lasse and Birgitte who had received and relayed to us, positive reports about Sal in the first place!
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