Grand Africa Cruise - Mindelo, Cape Verde

Cruise Day 63

Sunday, December 11, 2022

"I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine.”  -- Caskie Stinnett

Today we are still in Cape Verde but have moved on to Mindelo on the island of Sao Vicente. Here is a quote from Google describing Mindelo: "Mindelo is a port city on São Vicente, an island in the volcanic archipelago of Cape Verde. It's known for its music, nightlife and lively, Brazilian-influenced Carnival celebrations. Colorful colonial houses line the shores of Porto Grande harbor, which is set against a backdrop of rugged mountains. The Torre de Belém, by the harbor, is a scaled-down replica of a centuries-old tower in Lisbon." .

A map of Cape Verde.  Yesterday we were in Praia (blue marker at the bottom) and today we are docked in Mindelo (red marker at the top).

The island of Sao Vincente.  We are docked in Mindelo (the red marker at the top).

We docked around 8:00, but we had no reason to rush out as we had nothing planned for the day.  We had originally signed up for a Cruise Critic Rollcall tour, but when I had some stomach problems a couple of days ago we had decided to cancel the tour.

We planned to take the shuttle from the ship and wander around a bit, but neither one of us was very enthusiastic, so we decided to just stay on board for the day.  The harbor in Mindelo was pretty much an industrial port like most of the other ports we have visited, but it was much smaller, and the bay and the surroundings were very picturesque.

We sail into the Mindelo harbor.

As usual, we are the commercial port, but at least the views are better.

This maybe the first time on the cruise that we are in port with another ship.

We ended up spending almost our entire day out on the balcony enjoying the mild temperatures and our surroundings.  It was a beautiful day and we never regretted not going ashore.  In the afternoon we did talk to someone who taken the shuttle into town and said there really wasn’t much to see where the shuttle drop off was and many of the stores were closed because it was a Sunday, so I guess we didn't miss much.

There was a big sail away party planned in honor of leaving our last port in Africa and heading back across the Atlantic towards home.  We had been reminded of the sail away several times by Kristine, our Neptune Lounge concierge, to be sure and be there as there would be a big surprise.

It started at four and when we arrived there was already a big crowd enjoying complimentary wine, soft drinks and hors d’oeuvres.  The ship band was playing, and things were already getting lively.  We found some seats next to another couple and talked to them for a while, but then decided to walk around and see what was happening.

After a while there was a pause in the music and then the band started playing and a flash mob broke out led by none other than Kristine.  It was all crew members including the whole Neptune Lounge staff and was organized and choreographed by Kristine herself.  It really livened things up and the party was really on (helped of course by all the free wine that was flowing).

The flash mob was made up of crew members and they were all around the deck so the action was everywhere.

While all the partying was going on, we actually did sail away and started our journey towards home.

The party lasted until almost six and a great time was had by all, it was the best sail away party we had ever attended.  We returned to our room and relaxed until dinner time.  On our way to dinner we stopped by the Neptune Lounge to congratulate Kristine and she told us that the flash mob crew involved met in the theater at 10:00 PM for several nights to organize and practice the dance moves.  These are people who routinely have to get up very early in the morning so they did a lot to help make this a special sail away.  Kristine also told us that she choreographed and taught everyone the dance steps so obviously she has more talents than we were aware of.  She was very excited about the whole thing and was very happy that her “guests” had shown up to support her.

With the excitement over, we had dinner and the casino as usual (not quite the usual as I did well again in the casino) and then it was off to our room.  We set the clocks back an hour tonight and will do it another three times before we get to Fort Lauderdale.  We will gain back all the hours of sleep we lost on the passage east.

We have five straight sea days ahead of us before our final port stop in Puerto Rico before returning to Fort Lauderdale and the end of our cruise.