directly in line with Fortaleza. Fernando Do Noronha and 50 miles
further Atholl Das Rochas. I changed our course a bit to give these two
beautiful features a wide berth. It resulted in us sailing on a broad
reach closer to a beam reach and our speed has increased considerably. I
have been to those these places before and both are awesome beyond
words. We did a night entry into Fernando Do Noronha and the currents
were very tricky. We will pass them some time tonight but no stopping
this time. They have no ferry service there and to get water to the boat
is nigh impossible.
Looks like we will arrive at Fortaleza on Tuesday night late, or perhaps
we will slow down just a bit and make an early morning entry. I have
done a few night entries there and there are millions of lights ashore
and hundreds of little fishing boats bobbing about at night. Depending
on what speed we maintain I will make a call when we are much closer.
Steven will get a change to take us into the marina and learn how to do
this Mediterranean style mooring. You drop your anchor and the go
backwards towards the walk-on. When you are close enough one of the crew
jumps off and the other crew passes the mooring lines.The anchor chain
must be tight by this time and you have to drag the anchor a bit to
position your stern and tie down. Sounds easy enough, but the tricky
part is that the wind normally is blowing from the side and pushing you
off. Which means you have to come in at an angle to counteract the
windage. One of the most difficult manouvres to pull off. I will be
standing by his side to guide him through the process.
Last night we had some visitors on board, a noisy bunch until they
settled in for the night. Five sooty terns if I have the name correct,
medium sized black birds with webbed feet,scavengers of the ocean. The
normally follow scholls of bonnies or tuna and when the fish are feeding
on smaller fish these birds pick up the morsels floating around. They
are fairly tame birds and you can get real close to them before they
start getting a bit wary. They enjoyed our company so much that they
stayed till about 8 o'clock our time with the sun long time up already.
They normally fly away as soon as it gets light again.
Nicks turn to cook tonight and he is becoming a master at doing magic
with chicken. He probably would have preferred fish and who knows, the
day is still a puppy. Eduan nearly had a mishap last night. Busy tying a
gybe preventer on he was leaning over the safety rails when the boat
lurched a bit as a wave went through under us. He got a big fright and
fortunately he learned a very valuable lesson. Always respect the ocean
and always expect the unexpected. I had a few gentle words with him and
the other crew this morning, just iterating the rules of safety on board
a yacht. And the main one is to stay aboard.
Our position at UTC - 2 this morning, 2 pm SA time was 04*04'S/031*02'W.
We are 440 nm from Fortaleza.
Hope you have a superb Sunday.
Captain Paul
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