Mindelo Beach
Last updated 26 May, 2005
This is the name for a rocky creek right in front of where we live.
Being called a beach does not mean there is sand
every day, certainly not on Christmas' Eve, 1997, when the picture was taken
by afreitas@pasteur.fr. The lighter
spots between rocks are foam.
Nevertheless, sand can be seen at specially
low tides, and we can swim. In early
September, 2000 the sea was calm and also
in late February, 2001. Indeed, since 14 January, 2001 - when appropriately
enough I had just returned (courtesy of the NBER) from the
Islamorada in the Florida Keys where the sea is very calm, I have been regularly
finding a large beach area - allowing for superb swims on February 17 and
23, 2001 around 5 pm and on February 24 and 25 around noon. Local mussel catchers
confirm that they never saw such a "grande praia" (click for
meaning of big beach) there!
The phenomenon continued from 13 April (Good Friday), low tide around 1
pm throughout the week, low tide on 18 April around 5 pm, when I returned
from Lisbon. On 5-6 May, there was no sand, but it reappeared on May
26 around noon and again on June 2 and 3 late afternoon. This time the sand
appeared towards the southern tip of the beach. The same pattern was apparent
on June 23 around eleven, June 24 around noon. On July 2 around 9pm,
on July 3 around 9 am and on July 7 at the same time less and less sand was
visible, but swimming was still possible....
On 14 February, 2004 around noon there was again enough sand to swim.
a pleasant surprise on Valentine´s Day!
The same happened on 26 May, 2005 (Corpus Christi) around noon but I pressed towards Azenhas do Mar and with Whoopy
we managed to reach Aguda always close to the
waves!
Sand spreads
On 3 January, 2002 Apple Beach was over 1 meter
higher and extended some 200 meters North in the direction of Mindelo, which
was back to its normal appearance.
On 29 March, 2002 (Good Friday) beaches
from Mindelo to Aguda were extremely large at low
tide around 9:30 am, and the same was true of Grande
on 30 March and of Mindelo on Easter Sunday.
The day the music died
The Mindelo convent was torn down on 2 August, 1999.
A couple of years later, a new road was built,
making Mindelo Beach a mere 100 yards from the new entry, which we call camino real.
See memories below
During a World Bank conference in 1985, as we were walking towards an Apple
Beach restaurant, and meverybody was in awe at the view, one of the organizers
mumbled: "but we have this in Bombay!". The story was told many times since
then to visiting groups, sometimes with attribution.