Boa Vista Cape Verde Islands Jan 17,08
Woke up this morning to find that the wind had increased to a steady force 7 directly offshore into our anchorage, that is the lower end of Gale force. There is not much wave action which is good although the odd swell does sweep in from the Atlantic.
Spent the day doing ship work that included splicing and whipping a couple of lines. Some “sailorizing” stuff that 
In the morning the Alexandre Humbolt steamed in and anchored as well as another freighter making a total of 2 tall ships, and 3 freighters in the anchorage. The wind has been steadily pushing us back so we have both anchors out and a lot of chain to go with them. Leaving this anchorage on Monday will be a real workout!
About mid afternoon I came up from my splicing to see that the new freighter had been dragging her anchor and was now about a ship length away from the Humbolt. Apparently the Humbolt radioed her and said “you are dragging” to which they responded “no we aren’t” !?!
The freighter shortly thereafter fired up their engine, hoisted anchor and steamed ahead back to where they were before and dropped anchor again. It appears two hours later that they are still dragging but much slower now.
We appear to be holding OK although we are “plowing” a bit downwind at the moment, but we are on notice that all hands may be required sometime during the night if conditions change.
Tomorrow I should be able to go ashore again so hopefully I can find some way to send this so you can read it in a bit more timely manner.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
P.S. It is now 8:30 in the evening and the wind has moderated a bit but is still near gale force. Deb came down a few minutes ago and mentioned that both the Humbolt and the dragging freighter have up anchored and headed for sea. I can see the lights of the freighter h she seems to be standing off and on just off shore but there is no sign of the Humbolt.
On the plus side I used John’s cellphone to call the mysterious Internet provider and now have a place to go to get access when I get ashore (if I get ashore) in the morning.