Tuesday 16th January. Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands and mixed fortunes

There are several people on board that are part of the “Passenger Enrichment Program”.  There is my Peter, with his art classes, Peter Counsell, who provides paint, designs and wooden boxes for people to decorate.  Then there is another Peter, Pete Crush, running ukulele classes every morning and Christine Robinson runs creative writing classes every afternoon.  The two lecturers on board (there should have been three, but one couldn’t make it), are Lena Mookerjee and Ian Butterfield.

We did have another crafter lady, Jan, but she had to leave the ship at Madeira.  She fell a few days ago as we crossed the Bay of Biscay, and x-rays in Vigo confirmed that she had broken her shoulder.  She’s had to have an operation in Madeira and isn’t able to continue the cruise.  Both her and her husband are very disappointed, and I am sorry for them.  My Peter, and Peter Counsell will now both run their craft classes every sea day to fill her schedule.

We’ve had a couple of uneventful sea days with Peter running his classes in the afternoon.  And then yesterday we learnt that Jan was not the only person to leave the ship at Madeira.  Lena one of the Shore Excursions team also had to leave because of something at home. 

And today we are in Mindelo.  We arrived much earlier than scheduled, because there was a medical emergency on board, and the Captain had put his foot down to get the ship here as quickly as possible.   We seem to be having a lot of medical situations at the moment.  Hopefully whoever it was has been treated, and is back on board ship.  But, if it was that much of an emergency, there is a good chance they would have had to remain in a hospital in Mindelo. 

View of Mindelo and the Magellan from Mont Verde, the highest peak on Mindelo.

Peter and I were asked to escort “A glimpse of the island” tours, so this morning, we were on the quay at 8.30 waiting for the buses.  It’s quite a good tour, you get to go to the top of Mont Verde and see the fantastic views, as well as a little truckle around the sights of Mindelo.   The excursions had finished by 12.30, so Peter and I decided to go back into town to get a few more photographs, particularly of the fishing boats, as Peter wanted to paint them.  Whilst in town, I messaged my oldest daughter, asking about an interview that she’d attended, and it turns out she’s got the job.  I was feeling pleased for her good news as we got back on board.  Not the case for Peter Crush and his wife.  We met them as we walked back to our cabin and unfortunately the news they’d received when they contacted home was very different.  So much so, they were packing to leave the ship immediately.

After hearing this, Peter and I sat in the cabin drinking tea, mulling over how easy it is to have the tables completely turned as you travel through life.  Jan and her fall, the emergency medical cases, messages from home........   It could so easily have been us, one minute chatting and laughing at the dinner table, looking forward to the adventures of Brazil, and the next, rushing home to face whatever trouble that had come about.  We are resolved to appreciate our good health and good fortune and enjoy it while it lasts. We also sincerely hope that everything ends well for our friends and colleagues.  Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow is a sea day, the first of four before we reach the mouth of the mighty Amazon, we expect flying fish, and I will make a concerted effort to photograph some.   Watch this space.