Oscar de schaetzen says:
Jan 19, 2019 01:34 PM

We went to Praia in Nov 2018 and we moored alongside a grey motor vessel in the fishing harbour – just at the port side when you enter the small harbour.

This grey motor vessel is used as a mechanical workshop and Pinto and his son Quintino live onboard. They are very helpful and trustworthy.

When you leave your boat, they’ll keep an eye on it and thanks to them we felt very safe even though Praia has a very bad reputation.

Here are there contact details : Quintino & Pinto, port of Praia, mail : joselinopinto145@gmail.com, WhatsApp : +238 9983 099

Cruisers report January 2018 that visiting yachts must now accept to have an armed security guard on board overnight, or, the Captain must sign a disclaimer that they have chosen not to have security on board at their own risk. It is unclear if there is any charge for this service.

We anchored here at the end of June 2017. We took the dinghy to the fuel jetty (14 54.81N, 023 30.13W) and turned right for a short walk to the gates of the port for immigration (14 54.79N 023 30.07W) -they were at the airport. Then took the dinghy to the Maritime Police (14 54.86N 023 30.64W) putting the dinghy on the beach as neither of the quays is suitable for dinghies.

They kept the ship’s papers and did not need anything else. They called immigration and arranged a time for them to be at the office so it might be better to go there first? The fuel was still 0.60Euro/L and easy to refuel. A short walk from the Maritime Police is the Telecom Building where you can get a SIM with 5GB for 13Euro and airtime for 8Euro.

They speak good English in there (Most people only speak Portuguese) They put me in touch with Clovis (GadaLomba) who acted as a guide and organised security (for a fee) I organised security as the only other boat in the anchorage had been broken into twice in the last week by people swimming out, breaking a substantial padlock and taking all electronics and money. The last time was in the 3hours between 6 pm and 9 pm.

This is despite being anchored in front of the Maritime Police. We anchored a long way out (14 54.75N 023 30.43W) and had a swimmer on our boat the very next day at 1 pm as we napped. He jumped off when he realised we were on board and was not a kid. We only stayed for 3 days. There was no charge to check out. Holding seemed to be good, Water was not clear but we swam. I would not use a watermaker in here.