2200, 28.3°C, 04°52S, 035°24W, Wind: SE very variable, at the moment 10 -15 KN, Speed: 6 KN, Average Speed: 5.7 KN, LOG: 200 NM, Course: 301°
Still not the best propagation here, so do not worry if you do not hear from us for a day or so...
Axel
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With 2 million people, Recife was much bigger than we expected but after our busy 10 days we got to see quite alot of the city and learn very little Portuguese. Olinda, a 16th century neighbouring, town was our favourite place with its many beautiful old buildings, churches, little cobble streets & lots of colour. Its been hot with lots of heavy rain showers (its their rainy season) so at least our water tanks are full. We sampled many Caipirinhas, a Brazilian drink made with Pitu crushed lemon & ice, with sugar. At less than 2 Euro a bottle, we stocked up on lots of Pitu!
Now we are sailing alone, north bound along the coast towards Sao Luis which is around the northeastern Cape of Brazil, 765 nm away then on towards the Amazon. Dream Catcher left 3 days ago heading straight for St Lucia, Caribbean. Cisnecito left Salvador last Friday and are heading in our direction so perhaps we will link up with them soon. Our 6 months sailing with Texan Ben on Gypsy Soul has ended as he has opted to stay longer in Recife.
Ciao for now!
xx
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The theory: The unit uses an air rudder that you feather into the wind and lock it. As the apparent wind angle changes, it heels the air rudder over one way or the other. This movement is transmitted to a steering oar which is pivoted on its vertical axis in the water. Since the oar is moving through the water, this change of angle makes it veer to port or starboard. Lines attached to the oar, which run to the steering wheel in the cockpit and is steering the boat on course.
That sounds complicated but its one of the best inventions ever made on a sailboat.
We sail 24h with the windvane in almost every weather condition. That gives us time to do all the other nice things on passage, other than steering.
...but the windvane cannot make any energy!
Axel
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1230, 12°56S, 19°19W, 33°C, sunny with 30% cloud cover, wind: 5-8 KN, speed: 4-4.5 KN, 962 NM to Recife, Log 820 NM, av. speed 6.2 KN, course: 286°
All sails are up, fully main on the starboard side, together with the cutter, the genoa boomed out on the port side.
Axel
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We have now under 990nm to go (from 1774nm)- nearly half way. For the last couple of days the wind has been quite consistent; sometimes however, like this cloudy morning, the wind dies for about an hour or so and we bob along at 3-4k, resisting to put the engine on. Unlike alot of the other boats we dont need to run the engine (or a generator) once a day in order to keep our batteries charged - the solar panels and windvane have been making enough energy for us, even with the new fridge running!
We had a beautiful sunrise and sunset yesterday; the cloud cover varies greatly day to day. Ohh and a ship passed us last night - 1st one since we left Cape Town!!
Axel has spent the last 3 days writing up his Curriculum Vitae and a job application, in English, so with a little help from me. We´ve been aiming to do little jobs each day - I serviced 2 winches yesterday and today we´ll probably polish the brass lamps.
Can you believe two fish got away yesterday - one from each of our lines! Now there´s officially a ´fish famine´ onboard; we havent caught one since leaving St Helena! Yesterdays menu below is looking pretty boring but on Thursday we had a very nice Chinese stirfry.
Yesterday´s (Fri) menu:
Big breaky: Egg & beans on toast
Lunch: Cheese & chutney toasties
Evening: Fresh (still a few pieces left) & tinned fruit with custard (yum!)
Come fishy fishy fishy...!!!
PS Propagation isn´t good around here so not so easy for us to email.
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What an amazing adventure this trip has been; full to the brim of so many surprises, delights, highs & lows, survival & discovery, crazy & new experiences, different & ancient cultures & tribes, fun & adventurous people, excellent fishing, amazing far-away places & remote islands, lovely & challenging sailing, high seas romance ;-), lots & lots of fun times and very very fond memories. I would highly recommend it to anyone!
A huge thanks to all my family for their endless support and encouragement during my trip.
We´re saving the bottle of bubbly for when we make landfall in Brazil...
Em x
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1200, 32°C, sunny, 14°31S, 12°02W, Wind: 10-15KN SE, Speed: 6-7KN, Course: 284°, 1398NM to Recife, Log: 379NM, average speed: 6.3KN
Yesterdays menue:
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Cheese & salami sandwich
Dinner: Pizza (tinned tuna)
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1430, 15°08 S, 09°40 W, 31°C, Wind 10 -15 SE, Speed: 6 KN, Course: 283°, 1541 NM to Recife, Log 235NM, Average Speed (since St. Helena): 6.2KN
Yesterdays menue:
Breakfast: cereals with milk, coffee and tea
Lunch: cheese on crackers
Dinner: Peas, carrots, pumpkins and rice
Evening snack: -
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What a wonderful time we had in St Helena. We arrived early last Friday and checked in with Customs, Immigration & Harbour Master in the morning after which we explored the lovely little town of Jamestown and climbed up Jacobs ladder - a very steep (not far from vertical) old rail cart track which has 699 big steps; our leg muscles are still sore!
That afternoon by VHF we called the captain of the ship Arctic Lady which is at anchor in the bay waiting for their next job, to see if we could have a tour of this huge & impressive looking Norwegian owned Natural Gas tanker, the biggest in the world at 288m long. At 6pm they collected us and we didn´t leave the ship until 10am the following morning! The chief engineer gave us a fascinating 2 hour tour of this steam turbine ship which has 4 gigantic spherical gas tanks on deck, each 60m in diameter. This was followed by drinks & snacks in their bar with captain Knut and his officers, Irish dancing(!) and lots of fun until the early hours, after which we were shown to our big ensuite cabin for a very comfortable sleep (the anchorage in St Helena was very rolly because of a particularly big swell so we were very happy not to be sleeping on Freefall!!).
Saturday was our day for exploring as much of the island as we could but we had a bit of a late start after our leisurely big breakfast on Arctic Lady consequently missing the only morning bus, so we decided to hitchhike. There are not many cars on the roads but a very nice chap in the 2nd car to eventually pass us, picked us up and ended up giving us a 4 hour tour of the whole island! The island is only 10k x 17k but because its so hilly the distance travelled is much greater. We had a great day out visiting Napoleon´s house - a nice large rambling cottage which was his ´prison´, the Governor´s mansion where the oldest St Helenian resident, 170yrs old Jonathan the tortoise resides (given to the Governor as a present 150 years ago!!! Axel), and driving through the islands many hills and valleys, some lush green and others barren and desolate - a stark contrast!
Saturday evening we returned to Arctic Lady with 4 loads of laundry which all fitted in their industrial washing machine, followed by a lovely steak dinner with the captain & officers and then all ashore to listen to an excellent live band in Donny´s pub. After another comfortable nights sleep onboard Arctic Lady we said our goodbyes, loaded with ship souvenirs (mugs, shirts, hats).
Sunday we spent a few hours on rolly Freefall doing a few essential jobs in prep for the next half of the Atlantic. Two of our friends had sailed in that morning, Cisnecito & Gypsy Soul, so we all ate Gypsy Soul´s catch of Tuna & Mahi Mahi on Sun evening before saying goodbye & weighing our anchor at midnight...
Em x
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We have bad propagation here, what means its difficult to send e-mails via our HF-Radio.
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