São Pedro Bay

From: Mindelo, São Vicente, Cabo Verde
To: São Pedro, São Vicente, Cabo Verde

We spent a few days anchored in São Pedro bay, on the south side of São Vicente. Sailing between the islands was a very pleasant experience, with the wind at our back and no waves to speak of. The moonlike rock faces unfolded as we sailed south.

We arrived in the late afternoon, anchored without a problem in the sandy bottom and watched the sun go down in a hazy, Sahara-sand filled sky.

Next morning, Antoine’s excited shouts woke me up: “Manta ray!!!” A curious manta ray, about 3 meters wingspan, was slowly gliding around Vite & Rêves — no doubt checking out her gracious curves. She made a few elegant turns and our morning.

In the afternoon we went to the beach. The surf was quite heavy, but with the right timing and a bit of luck we surfed onto the sand. Everybody was so excited by the more or less dry landing that we forgot about the next wave, which filled the dingy about five seconds later. We got thoroughly soaked.

The third day, we heard whistling outside when we were eating berakfast. Some fisherman were floating nearby and were offering to sell us fish they just caught. We haggled a bit and bought ourselves a 2,6 kg bonito for about 700 CVE (about €6).

We prepared it in the evening with onions, lemon, garlic and some white wine. Best fish I’ve ever eaten. I also discovered it’s not easy at all to cut the spine of a big fish like this. And this one was already dead. Something to remember if we ever catch a live one.

The last day was the highlight of our stay in São Pedro. We knew there were turtles in this bay. Local entrepreneurs take out tourists in little fishing skiffs and throw dead fish in the water. The turtles love this free meal and gather around the boats. We parked our dingy strategically near the feeding spot and dove in. It’s quite impressive to have these curious beasts swim up to you so close that you can touch them.

We spent the rest of the day on the beach, snorkeling, building sand castles, exploring the little village. We found a store in someone’s living room, where an old, moustachioed lady sold us some bread, eggs and shots of grog.

São Pedro bay is fully recommended. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ would anchor again.