Happy Anniversary by Satellite

08/31/02

    The run only lasted a couple of hours yesterday.   The winds were light and the waves were rocking the boat back and forth faster than the wind, which was beating the hell out of the mainsail.  We went back on a reach and have been there since.  Overnight the wind picked up to 12-15 knots and this morning it was starting to push 20, so we tied two reefs in the main.  We are going great now, averaging 6.5 knots and gently rocking side to side.  If we can only keep this up (HA!).

    Today is Sue and my anniversary, and I called her on the Iridium phone this morning.  The Iridium phone is the greatest thing.  To be able to make a phone call from a boat in the middle of the South Atlantic certainly takes away a lot of feelings of isolation and fear.

It's a Beautiful Day

08/30/02

    So far this is a great day.  We are on a broad reach with a mild wind sending us in just the right direction, the seas are moderate, and the water maker is working.  After lunch we are planning to put the jib out on the pole and go on a run.

Back on Port Tack with Light Winds

 Painted Petrels

08/29/02

    We finally had to tack last night after supper, so we are back on port tack.  The good thing is that the seas are calm and winds are light, so we are not heeled and bouncing around so much.  The bad thing is that the winds are light, and we are not making much progress.  The wind died altogether a few times last night, and we ended up starting the engine for a couple of hours.  We won’t be able to motor over 2000 miles to Cape Town, though, so we need to pick up some wind real soon if we want to make it on schedule.  The bulb on the shaft generator burned out again, and we don’t have any more spares.  Now that the water maker is running, we can’t really use it without the shaft generator to replenish the batteries.  Eric wants to see at least 30 gallons from the water maker before we rescind our water saving measures.

    I’ve actually been sleeping better with the colder weather.  The problem is it’s very difficult to get out of my bunk for watch when I’m so warm, and it’s so cold out there.

    The auto light bulb setup with the shaft generator blew out this morning (the bulb burnt out), and since Eric does not have any spare headlight bulbs left, he spent the morning rigging a new arrangement, using a number of lesser bulbs connected in parallel, so that any one bulb will not take too much of a load.  He hasn’t been able to properly test it since the boat hasn’t gone fast enough to get a substantial amount of output from the generator.  Eric is making fresh bread again, which is a great thing.  There’s nothing like an egg/spam salad sandwich on fresh bread for lunch.

    I may have seen an Albatross today.  I didn’t get a good enough look at it, but it was a big bird.  There has been quite a variety of bird life on this leg.  I particularly like the painted petrel, which has this mystical white pattern on the top of its wings.

Starting to Lose the Summer Weather

08/28/02

We were going pretty well through yesterday, maintaining a reach with the NW wind and staying on the rhumb line.  During my 2200 watch the wind veered (shifted to the South.  Veering is the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere than it is in the Northern Hemisphere), and I found us sailing close-hauled twenty degrees off course.  At least we were off course to the east, so we could live with that, as it is more important to make east progress than south progress at this point.

On my 0400 watch the wind went wacky, heading us up north before dying altogether and leaving us rocking in the swells with the sails flogging.  I furled the jib and Eric awoke and started the engine.  As of 1100, the boat is back on a reasonable, course, sailing, but not going very fast.

Eric pulled the watermaker apart this morning and found a broken spring.  Unfortunately when he reassembled and tested it again it was leaking around the shaft seal, so he has to take it apart again to find where the seal is not sealing.

Since we left the tropics, the weather has become progressively cooler.  I am starting to use my sleeping bag at night, and whenever we use the engine we turn the heater on, which basically blows hot air from the engine room into the cabin.  I forget that it is mid-winter now in the Southern Hemisphere, and the farther we get from the sun the more we feel it.  We won’t be going too much further south, so I hope it won’t be too bad.  I am still able to wear shorts, at least.

Eric’s third attempt at fixing the water maker appears to have been successful.  He will be running it for three hours a day, and it (should) produce over a gallon an hour.  Until we see a satisfactory accumulation of fresh water from this, we will continue our austerity measures.

I am getting used to being on starboard tack.  Although it is much better for me to sit and sleep in my bunk and to sit in the head, there are other things which are more difficult, such as washing dishes.  I am happy to be on this tack, and I hope it continues.  I already had a situation today where the wind veered and was heading us to 075 degrees, a situation where we would need to tack to get on a better course.  We  backed off a little though, and we have been headed around 110 degrees, which is still not so good, since the true course is heading a little north.  The wind is blowing at us directly from Cape Town.

A Favorable Wind At Last!

08/27/02

We motored through the night with no wind.  Eric made one attempt to sail but that only lasted a half hour.  Later this morning we got a favorable wind, and as of 1130 we are sailing with a nice 14 knot SW wind, on STARBOARD TACK!!!  It is a great thing.  We are on the correct course, on a reach so we are not heeling so much, and what heel we do have is in my favor, meaning I can sit in my bunk without bracing myself on the compression post, I can sleep without being mushed up against the lee cloth, and I can sit on the head without constantly bracing myself against the wall.  This is the first time in about a month that I have been able to do these things.  It is a beautiful day!!

Eric has been unable to get the water maker to work, and is doubtful he can, as it operates under very high pressure (800 psi).  We have only 75 gallons (estimated) remaining for the next three weeks, so we are taking steps to reduce water usage.  We are eliminating the fresh water rinsing of our dishes and reducing coffee and tea consumption.  We don’t have a crisis situation yet, but we want to address the problem before it gets to that point.

A Calm Day!!!

08/26/02

The wind is down around 10 knots this morning, and we are gently rocking.  We will shake the last reef out of the main if this keeps up.  It is nice to be able to stand and sit in the cockpit for extended lengths of time without worrying about getting hit by a wave, which has happened to all of us several times in the past two weeks.  I can not think about anything but getting to Cape Town at this point, and to see Sue.  I would much rather be taking the trip with her than these guys, as they both get on my nerves in different ways.  Unfortunately, we still have almost 2300 miles to go, and will be lucky to make it by the 13th of September.  It will be so good to get away from this boat for a while.

I just finished reading the book “Cold Mountain”, and all I can think about is breakfast at Cracker Barrel, with country ham, eggs, biscuits and gravy, and grits.  I’m pretty sure that stuff can’t be found in Cape Town.

We are still waiting for the wind to swing around to the west.  Maybe the drop in wind is a precursor to that.  I hope so.

As of 1700, the wind has still died and it is trying to pick up again.  I noticed a small tear in the jib, and due to the lack of wind we were able to drop the sail and patch the tear pretty easily.  We had happy hour on the foredeck since I was sitting on  the sail and couldn’t move until the glue for the patch dried.

Eric has been trying to run the water maker today, since we are getting low on fresh water.  It ran for a few minutes and produced half a cup of water before the water stopped coming out.  He is cleaning the membrane to see if this will solve the problem.

It is nice to have a calm day for once.  I was able to trim my moustache and relax a little.  It is like having a day off.  We have also tacked over to starboard tack, which doesn’t mean much since there’s little wind anyway.  We are currently heading dead east at 2.5 knots.

Radar Reflector Down Again

08/25/02

We have had drizzle off and on today, and the waves haven’t been so bad until this afternoon, when they started bashing us again, just in time for happy hour.  We have made it back across 30 degrees W, but we still have 45 degrees longitude more to go.  Eric’s re-rigging of the radar reflector broke again, so we have once again lowered it and are thinking about how to fix it this time.

More Second Thoughts

08/24/02

We are still sailing close-hauled, but the wind is down to 15-18 knots and the seas are considerably more moderate.  This morning we re-rigged the radar reflector, and shook one reef out of the mainsail, so now we have one reef instead of two.  We also wrapped the jib furling line around the drum a couple of times, as it had tightened up with the high winds.  This required taking the furling line out of all the fairleads and running it around the drum, which was a real pain in the ass.

I have been having some second thoughts about continuing through the Southern Ocean.  I am not sure I can stand up to the rigors of sailing in the Southern Ocean for so long.  I am having enough trouble just in the South Atlantic.  I keep going back and forth on this.  This trip does seem like it is taking a large chunk out of my life, and it is hard to make this big commitment.  I haven’t spoken to anyone else about this yet.

More Things Breaking

08/23/02

We are continuing with the same fucking conditions.  Through the night the wind would blow 20 knots, drop to 10 for a few minutes, then go up to 25-30, then down to a steady 20 again.

We turned the clocks forward an hour to GMT yesterday, because it was getting dark too early.  The problem is that we are really 2 hours behind GMT, so the sun may not set until 2000, but now it doesn’t rise until 0800.  It is our own twisted daylight savings time, and since we are in the middle of the ocean, we can keep whatever freakin’ time we want.

We had a nice full moon showing last night, which really brightens things up.  I saw a very unusual falling star.  It looked like it was very close, like fireworks or a flare going off, and fell very slowly and brightly.

When I woke up this morning for my 0800 watch (in pitch darkness), I heard a new banging noise on the port side.  When I got up, Eric informed me about what it was and what we would have to do about it.  The halyard that holds the radar reflector was wrapped around a shroud, banging against another shroud as the boat heaved in the waves.  What we would need to do is drop the sails and head downwind while Eric goes up the mast and reeves a new halyard.  David and I got up, put on our foul weather gear, and went on deck.  Eric had on his long pants and padded jacket in preparation for going aloft.  He also had a bicycle helmet he was going to wear.

After we dropped the mainsail and were headed into the wind, we saw that the radar reflector was starting to unwrap itself from the shrouds.  After allowing it to unwrap completely, we were able to get it lowered properly, and saw that it was not the halyard that was broken, it was the wire pendant that attached the bottom of the radar reflector to the halyard that was broken.  We tied off the halyard, disconnected the radar reflector, and stowed it down below.  We had thus avoided the necessity for Eric to go up the mast.

Dreaming of Home

08/22/02

    Last night things were less bouncy and I was able to get some good sleep, the first in a while.  I always have dreams that somehow the boat has stopped back home before continuing the voyage.  I often think about all the things I’m missing back in Long Island, and that I’d rather be doing the trip with Sue instead of these two guys.  I think I would be having a lot more fun.  As of this afternoon, the seas are back up again, and I am struggling just to sit at the table to write in this log.  At this point we have about 2700 miles to go to Cape Town.  I have to learn to be patient.  Maybe I’ll feel better in a week or two, especially if we ever get off this FUCKING PORT TACK!!!

    The last couple of days I have had a bothersome twitching vein in my left temple.  I hope it’s nothing serious, probably just the effects of sleeping on a steep decline for a week and a half.

Rigging Failure - Bye Bye Turnbuckle

08/21/02

We continued to get our brains bashed in through the night, with the winds between 20 and 30 knots.  I had the dawn watch this morning, and the first time I went up in the cockpit to look around after day break, I first looked to starboard to study the horizon for ships, then looked to port.  As I looked to port, instead of seeing the horizon as I expected, I saw a wall of water looming over the boat.  It was quite alarming, but really harmless, as the wave just passed underneath the boat, gently lifting us up and setting us down on the other side.  The wind continued to increase to a steady 30 knots this morning, and since we had already reefed the jib as much as we could, the next step was to furl the jib altogether and set the staysail.  Eric offered harnesses if we wanted to use them.  Both David and I opted to try them out.  I’m not sure I felt any safer wearing it.  The conditions weren’t so bad once we got out there.  I didn’t even get splashed.  Of course, now that we have rigged the staysail, the wind is back down to 20 knots.  We are expecting to make it to 20 degrees S latitude today, which, according to the pilot chart, should get us out of the trade winds and into the “variables”.  I don’t have a lot of faith in the pilot charts at this point, so I’m trying not to think about it.

This afternoon, towards the end of my watch, Eric came out and suggested pulling out a little jib.  We went into the cockpit, unrolled the jib a little, and I went forward to pull the port jib sheet down around the forestay, to prevent chafing, and found to my horror that the turnbuckle had broken cleanly at the screw, and the entire forestay was hanging on by the wire pennant.  I exclaimed “Holy Shit!!  The turnbuckle’s broken!”  I turned back to Eric and said we would need to get the staysail down right away, that the turnbuckle is broken.  He came forward and confirmed, and we got David and furled the staysail.  Eric then went down below and found a spare turnbuckle that he had purchased at a nautical flea market in the Caribbean, and we started the process of replacing it.  The seas were still pretty heavy, and I had to hand steer downwind to reduce the effects of the waves.  This failure does not give us a warm feeling, as the turnbuckle that broke is the same turnbuckle as on the rest of the standing rigging.  If this had happened to any of the other turnbuckles, the results could be catastrophic.  All we can do is be glad they didn’t and hope for the best.

Living in a Washing Machine

08/20/02

This motion is really starting to fray my nerves.  Last night I spilled hot noodles and gravy all over the table and my leg when eating dinner.  It was hard enough dealing with the problem of keeping my plate level, but the addition of cleaning up the spill was almost too much.  It is a major frustration to eat dinner from a moving plate.  Then, after dinner I was in the head, and was tossed from the toilet seat, breaking off the seat lid.  I felt like the boat was against me for my every movement, and I am losing my will to fight back.  The problem is apparently that the wind and the current are at odds with one another, and the results are these confused, choppy seas.  Last night the crashing of the boat was quite intense, and we rolled the jib down past the third reef to slow the boat enough to reduce the crashing.  On every crash, I was expecting for something to break, as every fixture on the boat was being strained.  Later in the night, things got better, and I was able to get some semi-quality sleep when off-watch.  Although I seem to have stopped the dripping with my t-shirt dams, my sheet has been permanently saturated.  I figure the fabric is now 65% cotton and 35% sea salt.

It is now 1600, and the wind and waves have gotten worse again.  The wind has increased to 25-30 knots and the waves are all over the place, constantly hammering the boat, and throwing it around.  I tried to take a nap this afternoon, but the body slam action was too much.  Eric estimates we have seen some waves up to 15 feet.  He unfortunately decided to serve soup for lunch today, before he realized how hard it would be to eat.  Luckily there were no mishaps, but as I ate it, using one hand to adjust the bowl and the other to eat, I had one leg on the galley table seat and the other on the armrest.  The boat continues to make scary noises as it pounds the waves, and I expect some catastrophic failure in the rigging, but I need to have more confidence in this boat.  I have to stop complaining about the weather, as I am learning that the sea does not take kindly to complainers.

The Wile E. Coyote Wave

08/19/02

    Things are still going pretty much the same.  We are continuing to have our brains bashed in by the waves.  As I sit here, we are feeling a succession of serious crunches, each accompanied by a loud crash.  You can feel every joint on the boat flex and creak.  I expect the whole thing to fly apart any minute.  At night, when lying in my bunk, I can only imagine what the boat must be doing by the motion I feel.  Occasionally I experience what I call a “Wile E. Coyote Wave”.  It feels as though the boat came off the top of a wave, suspended in mid-air momentarily with nowhere to go, then dropping several feet with a crash into the trough of the next wave.  The worst is to experience a Wile E. Coyote while sitting in the head.

    At this point we are about 15 degrees S latitude – less than 500 miles from our arbitrary waypoint at 23 degrees S.  We are hoping to get some more favorable winds to drive us east at some point.

Crapping on the Back of a Wild Bull

08/18/02

    The GPS outage was only temporary as it turns out.  As I sit here this morning, braced sideways on the galley table seat, the boat is being pummeled by steep choppy waves, and the boat is on a steady 20-30 degree heel.  Both the boat and us are taking a tremendous amount of punishment.

    Last night, we experienced a series of rains squalls, which resulted in varying wind effects, from calms up to 30 knot winds.  All morning the wind has been blowing 20-25 knots, and the motion is unbearable.  Using the head is not easy when the toilet seat suddenly drops five feet below you.  My description of sailing close-hauled is “sleeping in a washing machine and taking a crap on the back of a wild bull”.  There is nothing we can do but hold on and stick it out.

GPS on the Fritz

08/17/02

    The wind conditions have continued the same since yesterday, winds around 20 knots creeping up to 25+ sometimes.  The waves continue to be big and choppy, resulting in frequent pounding of the boat, accompanied by loud crashes occasionally.

    At the end of my watch this morning the GPS made a loud beep.  I went and looked at the display and there was a pop-up message that said “No Fix”.  We turned the unit off and back on, and it did not properly register the course or speed, indicating that there was still a problem.  We turned it off again for a few minutes, and when we turned it back on it was working again, but only for a minute or two, then went blank.  Eric brought his handheld backup unit, turned it on and propped it in the cockpit.  After several interminable minutes, the handheld finally located the satellites and gave a proper reading.  I fiddled with the main GPS for a while, unplugging and re-plugging the antenna, to no avail.  The only suggestion the manual could make was to check the ground connection on the antenna, a job which will need to wait for calmer weather, as the GPS antenna is mounted on top of the radar mast.

More Drips

08/16/02

    The drips didn’t stop last night, but seemed to be localized to my feet and ankles, so I threw the sheet over my feet and persevered.  The wind conditions have continued the same, and I am getting used to it a little.

The Party's Over

08/15/02

    I had a horrendously miserable night last night.  Everything that could go wrong went wrong for me.  To start, the wind increased to 20 knots and the seas increased along with it.  This meant the return of the body slam in the bunk routine.  Also, I discovered that the dripping problem was not corrected by the caulking we did in Fernando.  It is now back, worse than ever. 

    At the start of my 0000-0200 watch, Eric told me to call him if the wind exceeds 25 knots and we would all reef the main.  I was nearing the end of my watch, looking at the wind speed to decide if I should wake everybody up, when the steering lines went slack on Victor and the boat started heading up into the wind.  I was trying to figure out what was happening, and didn’t notice Victor yet, when Eric sprang out, very upset that I had not taken any action yet.  I went out and hand steered while Eric checked the lines.  We decided to reef the main after the steering lines were fixed.  This time, when I raised the halyard after reefing, I did not have the halyard winch brake engaged all the way, and the sail dropped back down shortly after I raised it.  I could do nothing right.  At this moment, I feel quite discouraged with myself, as low as I have been the entire trip.  My bunk is soaked with seawater and I am sitting here dripping with sweat, for we have had to close all the hatches, and Eric is talking about putting another reef in the main, as the wind is exceeding 25 knots and doesn’t show any sign of letting up.  I am wondering if I am really mentally fit to continue the trip into the Southern Ocean, if I am having so much trouble holding up under these conditions.

    We just put the second reef in the main, and that procedure went smoothly.  We are still taking quite a bit of spray, and I have three shirts arranged across the shelf over my bunk, in an attempt to stop the dripping.  There are drips coming in all over the cabin today.  The waves have been beating the hell out of the boat.  Dampness is the word for today.  I can only keep telling myself that this is a temporary condition.

    We put up the dodger this afternoon, to prevent us from getting spray into the cabin, which happened all too often, even with the companionway hatch closed.  I am thoroughly soaked, even though I put on foul weather gear to go out.  The problem is that the foul weather gear is so warm that I sweat enough to soak myself as much as I would have if I wasn’t wearing it.  I generally am caked with salt, as is my bed sheet, which prevents it from ever getting dry.  As of 1700, things are calming down just a little.  The wind is between 15 and 20 knots and the waves aren’t hitting the boat quite the way they were before.  With any luck I can avoid drips tonight and sleep a little.

On the Seas Once Again

08/14/02

    Things are going very smoothly so far.  We have a nice consistent 12-15 knot wind from SouthEast, and very moderate seas, almost perfect sailing conditions.  The current has been going against us a little, but that effect has been decreasing.  We set a waypoint for 23 degrees S, 32 degrees W, at which time we will think about working our way east.  Our eventual goal (Cape Town) is 35 degrees S, 15 degrees E.  We gave the wife of the South African, Robin, 30 Reals to make four loaves of bread for us before we left, and they are quite good. 

    The Perseid meteor shower was supposed to be peaking last night, but I did not see more than two or three falling stars during my watch, which is about average.  I have seen other nights that have been much more active with regards to shooting stars.  It is one of the things that makes night watches bearable.  Now that I am getting into the southern hemisphere I am looking for new constellations.  I only know of the Southern Cross and the Magellanic Clouds.  I am not sure where I am supposed to see them and what they look like.  I think the Magellanic Clouds don’t show up until further south, but I am keeping my eyes out for them.

Happy Birthday, Fernando!!

 Birthday Cake for an Island

08/11/02

    Yesterday was the 499th birthday of the island, and there was a festival at the Porto.  They had live music, and people selling food.  I had a couple different kinds of desserts, all very good.  We met a nice couple who spoke English.  He is from Italy and she is from Sao Paulo, but they met at school in Berkeley, California. 

    Later on, they brought out a birthday cake for the island, with dolphins on top.  Of course, I got a piece.  The dolphin is the symbol of the island, and everything you see has a dolphin on it.  During the cake cutting, there was a minor tragedy.  A man appeared in front of the cake, obviously drunk, holding a roman candle in his hands.  He held the cylinder up in the air and lit the fuse.  The cylinder sends up fiery balls that go up in the air and explode with a loud bang.  He was not watching where the cylinder was pointed, and as a result the fiery balls hit the overhang of the roof on the bandstand, and shot straight down into the crowd of people gathered around the cake, exploding as they hit the ground.  There were screams and general pandemonium for a minute, but nobody appeared to be seriously hurt.  At once, a crowds of guys accosted the drunk who was responsible, and an altercation started between two groups of people.  Luckily cooler heads prevailed and a volatile situation was avoided. 

    There had been a fishing tournament that day, and a great amount of time was spent giving out trophies.  There must have been at least 20 trophies, including three trophies that were sardine cans encased in Lucite, given for the smallest fish.

    The next morning was spent recaulking ports that were suspected of leaking, including the aft port over my bunk, and two of the big windows on the galley, as there had been leaks in the galley too.  In the afternoon we took the dinghy to the next beach over and went snorkeling.  There were many colorful, brilliant fish.  Eric spotted an eel.  After that, we went to the local snack bar at the beach for a beer.  While we were there, we saw the couple that we had met the night before and invited them over to join us.  We talked to them a while, then invited them to come in the dinghy and see the boat.  They came along, and were quite impressed, as neither of them knew anything about sailing.  Afterward, Eric took them and David ashore and left me on the boat. 

Our New Friends at the Beach Cafe

    David and I went in for lunch, and ate at a “self-service” restaurant, which is a buffet.  The food was all quite good, with a good variety.  From there I took the bus into the village of Remedios and found a gentleman who was renting bicycles.  He rented me a mountain bike for the day for 10 Reals ($4), with no deposit required.  I neglected to check the brakes on the bicycle before I took it, and they were a bit loose, which made me nervous when going down some of the very steep hills.  I was at least able to climb up the hills, with the low gear, but it was very strenuous.  I drank several bottles of Gatorade.  I explored the main road and some of the back roads, where goats were feeding all around.  There are beautiful beaches everywhere.  On my way back I stopped by the Dolphin Hotel and checked my e-mail again, then headed back to the village, returned the bicycle, and exchanged more money.  I walked around the lower part of the village, near the beach, and went into a nice café that was filled with native paintings and sculpture.  On my way back up the hill I noticed a Pizzeria that looked interesting.

A Deserted Beach on the Other Side of the Island

    I then took a bus back to the Porto, and had a beer at the snack bar while waiting for everyone else to show up.  David had gone scuba diving in the afternoon and Eric was still on the boat, as I could see by the dinghy trailing behind FIONA in the harbor.  David came along and the South Africans also showed up, the doctor, his wife, their two young children, and one of the crew.  They joined us for a beer, and I talked to the crew member.  His prior experience had been working on large motor yachts, mainly as service, not related to sailing.  Both he and the other crew member had only dinghy sailing experience, so everybody on the boat was quite new to offshore sailing.  He said it was very tight to have six people on a 36 foot boat, but they were getting used to it. 

    When Eric showed up, I bought him a beer too, and the guy from the dive shop found David and took him back to the office to re-swipe his credit card.  Eric and I weren’t sure when he was coming back, so we started walking towards town.  Soon after we left he came with the dive shop guy in a truck and gave us a ride into town, where we ate at the pizzeria.  The pizza was quite good, though the bathroom was unusual.  There was only a toilet in a room, with a filled laundry basket in one corner.  I could not figure out for the life of me how to flush the toilet, as there was only a bowl on the floor with water in it, but no tank anywhere.  I looked all around outside but could not find a lever or a chain anywhere.

    After dinner, we went and got an ice cream and were waiting for the bus, when we saw our Italian/Brazilian friends again.  They were also waiting for the bus, and though we were going west, decided to get on the Porto bus with us, so they could talk to us one last time.

    The next morning we went produce shopping, taking the bus to the Supermercardos.  The produce there was not very good, but we did get some good onions, pears, and local pineapples.  After we took the stuff back to the boat, we went back into town so Eric could change more money, looked around a little more, and found a museum which showed the history of the island.  It was all in Portuguese, but I was able to figure out that the island was discovered by Amerigo Vespucci on August 10, 1503 (this was the day that was being celebrated).  After that we took a shortcut back to the Porto and arrived at Elda’s Cantinho just as they were opening, for our last lunch at Fernando de Noronha.

Cantinho del Porto

    We were back at the boat by 1330 in the afternoon and packed up everything quickly.  We were lifting the anchor by 1430.  After we left the harbor, we raised the sail and went on starboard tack to clear the island.  During this time Eric noticed that the jib sheet winch on the starboard side was frozen and wouldn’t turn.  This is a big problem, as we need that winch operational before we go on port tack, and we will be on port tack for the first 1200 miles of this leg, at least.  Eric disassembled the winch while we were on starboard tack and fiddled with it until it started turning, applying winch grease and WD-40.  After going another hour on starboard tack, we tacked over to port tack and have been there since.

Fernando de Noronha

 View of the Harbor from Cantinho del Porto

08/10/02

    We arrived in Fernando de Noronha yesterday morning.  There were five other sailboats anchored in the wide, open harbor, and one mini-megayacht which seemed completely out of place.  Overlooking the harbor is this gigantic rock formation which closely resembles a pointed head. 

    The harbor in general provides little protection from the wind, and the boat was rocking the whole time we were here, with 15-18 knot winds from the south (the harbor is on the north of the island).  It really is a pretty place, with a multitude of colorfully painted wooden boats moored in the harbor.  Tourism is a large part of the business in Fernando, and a major attraction for the tourism is skindiving.  There were numerous dive boats, all loaded with people.  The vast majority of the tourists are Brazilians, so there is little allowance for English speaking people. 

    We have found one very helpful woman who runs the restaurant at the top of the hill overlooking the harbor, named “Cantinho del Porto”.  Her name is Elda, and she has only had the restaurant open for less than two months.  It used to be owned by her ex-husband, but she took it over as part of the divorce settlement.  It is an unusual restaurant, as you wouldn’t think anything was there to look at it from the outside.  There is no interior, only a concrete patio overlooking the harbor, and a small area that is covered with a roof, has a few native paintings and fish sculptures hanging on the wall, and a hammock, which often had somebody sleeping in it.  The food was quite good, though Eric was disappointed that he couldn’t get fish and chips there, which had been served by the last restaurant (the one that was run by Elda’s ex).  Elda was able to direct us to the internet place, and to exchange money for us.  I found that when I exchanged dollars for reals, I ended up with a number of fifty real notes, and nobody could make change for these, so I would end up paying for stuff in dollars anyway. 

Elda, Proprietress of Cantinho del Porto

    When  we first arrived on shore, we went to the nearest official looking place, which turned out to be an office for charter boats, and told them we had just arrived by yacht from Cabo Verde, and needed to check into customs.  After telling us to wait a few minutes, they had Eric speak to someone on the VHF radio, then they had us climb in their VW bus and took us into town.  One of them took us into the red office building, at the bottom of a steep hill in the town, and we wandered to a couple of offices until Eric spoke to someone who said it is not necessary to have any clearance to visit Fernando.  It is as if we were never here, as far as they’re concerned.  After that, we went to the local dive shop to exchange money.  I got 260 Reals for $100.  We had a beer at a local bar/restaurant, then decided to walk back to the port and eat at the Cantinho.

The Official-Looking Red Building

    After lunch, we went back to the boat, and I wrote 18 postcards while the other two were taking a nap. 

    We had spotted a yacht from South Africa, on our way in, and had stopped by to say hello.  It was a retired doctor, Daren, and his wife, Robin, sailing with their two young children and two hired crew members.  He had only been sailing for five months.  He had taken a sailing course, bought the boat (named “Dream On”) and took off.  Their intention was to go to the Caribbean and work their way to Florida and take the ICW up to Maine.  We invited them to come by the boat later for happy hour.

    It gets dark at 1800 here, so  it was dark when we went for dinner.  We decided to take a taxi into town.  All of the taxis in Fernando are dune buggies, which have a front passenger seat, but the rear seat is not big enough to seat an adult.  Additional passengers are thus accommodated by having a bar on the rear of the roof that they can hold on to, so we are sitting on the trunk with our feet in the back seat and our heads sticking out over the roof.  It is a fun ride, as long as it is not raining.  It has only rained a total of ten minutes, and fortunately that came right after I went swimming, so I got a little fresh water rinse.  It was not enough  rain to make a difference, and I got splashed again with sea water on our next dinghy ride anyway.  There are no shower facilities here, which is bothersome, as it will be at least a month before my next real shower, but I guess I’ll get used to it.  My big problem is an underwear shortage.  It appears I only have one pair of clean underwear to last until Cape Town, and no place to do laundry here.  I guess I will have to make do.

The Taxi Stand