On the way to Dakar

We have arrived in Dakar! When navigating, our shifts tend to make it hard to figure out which day is which and what happened on what day. So in general, we had the wind in our back at about 10 knots or less and we had a sail on each side. We also did about 50 hours with the engine to cover the times with no wind. We only got some stronger winds on the last night. Bidule reacted like a horse that wants to head back to the stables! There was way too many Cargo ships on this heading for our taste and enough dolphins to satisfy. Speaking of dolphins, if you like them, you will love the new movie I added on the web site (the one on Gran Canariais has also been added). A lot of ''First'' happened during this crossing; my first complete crossing of the Atlantic (Gaston's third), the first time we both set foot in Africa, the first time we use our hydorgenerator because the windmill doesn't work when the wind comes from the back and the solar panels where in the shadows of thesails, our first flying fishes (and they really do fly!), the first use of our new GPS since the old one was dying and it would of cost too much to repair (it was about 15 years old), catching the first dorados. Gaston caught a second one which was 43 inches long and weighed 14 lbs. Since then, that is all we have been eating. We have made grilled dorado, dorado cooked in lemon juce and served in coconut milk, dorado in the oven, dorado in coconut milk and curry, dorado in a paella, dorado in a soup and we froze some dorado... Don't I sound like Baba with his shrimps in Forest Gump?So far, we had a first impression of Africa but I will not share it just yet. Bec
ause I'm a bit shocked and would like to live the experience more fully before I start sharing. In the mean time, some people have asked me how we can update the blog from the boat when we do not have an internet connection. It's magic you see. Ok, it's not magic but it's not very complicated either. We are amate
ur radio operators and we can send emails thought the high frequency radio using a special modem. However, it doesn't go faster than 1400 bauds. Kind of reminds us of the old days about 20 years ago before the internet when we use to BBS (bulletin board system). Wow, that was geeky! We also use blogger.com (Google blog) and this site let's us update by sending an email. So in short, we send an email to a special google address from our HF radio and voila! The only down side is that considering the very slow transmission speed, I can only send my witty comments, the pictures have to wait until we get back on the ground.