Feb. 23, 2006
Lat 04 13.2 S
Lon 037 13.5 W
Off the northeast tip of South America)
Heading: 316 degrees
Distance to Trinidad: 1667 nautical miles
Distance to Fortaleza, Brazil: 82
Local Time: 1330 (1530 Zulu, I think)

Fortaleza, you say with a question mark??? Yep, we're proving another old cruiser adage: cruising plans are cast in jello. As I wrote yesterday's log, the wind was dying and it has stayed that way. About 5 to 6 knots, so we've been motor sailing, making about 130 miles in the last 24 hours. So, Karen and I started talking about options this morning. One thing we both agree on is that we have no desire to be sailing purists, so if the sailing boat speed drops below 4 or 5 knots, we're putting on the engine. Running one engine at low rpm's, with the main sail up we can maintain about 6 knots without burning up too much diesel. Diesel was another part of our discussion. We also agree that we are not out here to rough it; we want to be able to run the refrigeration and freezer, listen to the stereo, make fresh water and take showers. And that takes battery power and that takes diesel in the generator. So, I roughly calculated that, after deducting for fuel to run the generator 4 or 5 hours per day for 14 days, we had enough other fuel for about 50 hours of motoring. Probably enough, but why chance it? The last modern, hospitable city before Trinidad is Fortaleza, and it's barely out of the way, so we're making a pit stop. Gas up, get some fresh veggies and fruit, maybe a restaurant dinner, and back on the road. It's supposed to be a very nice city and somewhat of a vacation place for Brazilians. We should arrive there tomorrow early a.m. From Fortaleza, Trinidad will be about 1600 miles.

So here are a couple of other firsts for the voyage:
* Yesterday we made water for the first time; about 35 gallons in 2 hours. The watermaker truly is "pushbutton" simple. Push one button, it flushes itself, makes some water and tests it, if it checks out OK it begins putting the water in the tanks and at the end of the cycle flushes itself again. No too long ago, all of these were separate operations that someone had to perform manually.
* Sea Life: lots of flying fish, dolphins playing in our bow waves, and Karen saw a large ray jump several times clear out of the water.
* Score: Fish 1, Wanna' be fisherman 0. Got our first bite this morning on the short rod (the other line is a hand line). By the time I got to the rod, the fish had half of the 80 lb test line off the reel, and 10 seconds later it had about 90%. I had no choice but to tighten the drag all the way, and at that point the fish took off with a $30 lure and spinner. Just snapped the line. Lydia said she saw a fin before the fish took off and it was BIG. I'm not sure what I would have done if I had actually gotten it to the boat. I've switched to smaller lures for now. Hopefully, smaller lures mean smaller fish.

Not much else going on. After the busy night watches night before last, last night was completely uneventful. Only one large tanker, no fishing boats, calm seas, clear skies, the Southern Cross, Milky Way and a very large Jupiter rising at about 3:00 in the southeast sky. Wow!

Rev. Dickleman, if you're listening, how about putting in a word with the big guy upstairs for some more wind, but not too much!

On to Fortaleza.

Feb. 22, 2006Lat 05 04.8 S
Lon 035 10.0 W
(Off the northeast tip of South America)
Heading: 325 degrees
Distance to Trinidad: 1810
Local Time: 1200 (1400 Zulu, I think)

Well, as you can tell from our heading, we've made the turn around the corner of South America and have set a waypoint for the northeast tip of the island of Trinidad!! Yesterday's sail was awesome; between 0900 yesterday and 0900 today we covered 172 nautical miles. Unfortunately, the wind died during Karen and Caitlin's 0300 to 0600 watch, so our speed went way down, Nevertheless, a very respectable day of sailing. Only disappointment is no bites on the fishing lines. The winds have now started to reappear (at 1200), so out went the screecher and we're moving along at between 5 and 6 knots in 9 to 10 knots of true wind, basically on a broad reach. It's nice to have the engine off, but at this speed I have fewer excuses for not fulfilling my primordial role of hunter and providing fresh kill for my family.

I know you're probably tired already of hearing my reports of roam's speeds, but I have to relate one more bit. Last night, as we were cookin' along at 10 to 12 knots, we were hailed by the Brazilian Navy from a boat we couldn't see. Apparently they were tracking us on their longer range radar and then spotted us with some powerful binoculars. Anyway, after George reported (in Portuguese) back with our particulars (boat name, country of registration and number of crew), they wanted to know if we were a racing catamaran!!!!!!!

Headin' toward the equator and it's hot, but not any worse than a hot August day on Lake Michigan (minus the black flies!).

02/21/06
Lat 07 20.1 S
Lon 034 38.2 W
(Off of Joao Pessoa, Brazil)

I LOVE MY SCREECHER!!!!!!!! Sailing conditions have been phenomenal today, but I'll get to that in a minute. We left Recife this morning about 9:00 after getting all repairs made and everything functioning yesterday. The generator problem was a clog in the fuel line, so we brought aboard two empty 250 litre fuel barrels, drained the fuel from the tank, cleaned the tank and put the fuel back in through the fuel filter (Baja type filter) I lugged down here in my suitcase (glad I did). By the way, when I say "we", I mean I observed and retrieved tools and parts when needed, and left the heavy lifting to the mechanic. At least I'll have some idea what to do when it's no longer a warranty item. (Patrick e-mailed us and provided some helpful suggestions about getting warranty work done, based on his experiences with some choice homeowners. He suggested that we swear a lot, call the Dolphin people liars, use the phrase "but you promised me......." a lot and threaten lawsuits. Thanks for the help, Patrick.

After the repairs were done at about 7:00 last night, we decided to head off to find a restaurant. We took a bus to the
"center of town" and knew instantly we were in the wrong part of town. The five gringos and their Portuguese captain found the first cabs we could (the cabs are all sub-compacts with a capacity of 3 at best) and the drivers were kind enough to recommend a restaurant in a much better part of town. However, no one speaks English, so we were lucky to have Georges with us. Had a great dinner, did some last minute provisioning and returned to the boat for a good night's sleep prior to shoving off this morning. We decided yesterday to skip Fernando and sail directly to Trinidad, a decision we probably will regret, but one we'll live with. The sailing conditions the first two days were not great, with us sailing northeast into a swell from the same direction, the wind from the east and an adverse current. It is possible to have the same conditions sailing to Fernando (minus the current), so we chose the easier option.

Anyway, on to the sailing. Other than one brief period of light winds and rain, the sailing has been great and we have a very happy crew getting into the cruising/passage making mode. If you look at a map, you'll see that we have now "turned the corner" of South America, now heading in a north direction instead of northeast. The swell is now with us and the wind has been on the beam or abaft (I think that means behind), and the current which runs south down the coast is starting to peter out, to be replaced with a favorable northwest setting current all of the way to the Caribbean. With the wind coming from the side or behind, those are screecher conditions and the sail has worked perfectly. As I said in past logs, the screecher is basically a very, very large genoa on a furler with a rope luff. The winds have been pretty steadily in the 12 to 13 knot range, and we've been moving along at a speed over ground of 7 to 8 knots, occasionally touching 9 (and just hit 11 SOG!!). The speed through the water has been 1 to 1 1/2 knots faster. For a brief period this morning, the winds were in the high teens, touching 20, and our speed through the water topped out at 12 knots!!!!!!!!!!!! Best of all, the ride has been incredibly smooth. Between when we left at 0900 and 1500, we covered 46 miles. If that could be carried on for a full day, we'd be close to the magical 200 mile day, one not often achieved on cruising sail boats.

Well the generator is on, the ice maker is making cubes and we have two lines in the water, hoping for Mahi-Mahi for dinner (but I think we're going to fast for catching fish!). Life is pretty good.

 

Feb. 20, 2006
Lat 08 04.8 S
Lon 034 53.4 E
(Recife, Brazil)

Recife??????? Yep, an unexpected stop for repairs. Glad we had an option like this and glad this can function as a "shakedown" cruise. The generator stopped working yesterday and was diagnosed as not getting enough fuel. The most likely suspect: bad diesel. This apparently has been a recurring problem for Dolphin, as another new boat stopped here a few months ago with the same problem, except it had affected the engines. Without a generator, no way to charge the batteries adequately. So, we called the shipyard yesterday afternoon and they sent a man to meet us in Recife. We got in last night at about 10:00, and the guy was waiting on the dock at 7:00 this morning. And as long as he's here, we're going to have him fix the port engine hose as well. We also had a problem with the freshwater system, but that was just a clogged filter. I recall that I had the same problem on my Catalina when it was new: construction debris getting in the tank and lines and it gets caught in the filter. I'm staying on the boat to observe, while Karen, Lydia and Bridey decided to catch a cab to the old downtown part of Recife to sightsee and shop. As we came in last night, we passed that area, and besides being filled with beautiful old buildings, bands were practicing for Carnaval. Quite festive.

Georges tells us that Recife is also a city filled with history as it was one of the first cities in Brazil, founded by the Portuguese some 20 years after Salvador, in the early 1500's.

Our plan at this point is to have the repairs finished and head to Fernando tonight or tomorrow morning. It's about 300 miles to Fernando, so should be a 2 day sail.

I'm staring to believe the cruiser saying that cruising is really just doing boat repairs in exotic locations.

2/18/06
Lat 10 41.9 S
Lon 036 03.4 W
(About 125 miles NE of Aracaju, Brazil)

It’s a little after 1:00 in the afternoon, local time. We left Aracaju yesterday around 4:30 p.m. (1630 hours for you military and nautical types), trying to time the ebb tide to avoid the large chop that extends from the river mouth to quite a ways out in the ocean. We started out sailing pretty well, but as always seems to happen we wanted to go ENE and the wind was coming out of the east. So, we spent quite a bit of last night tacking to get offshore and off of the shelf that extends quite a ways off the coast of Brazil in this area. The shallow water creates really crappy conditions, and that’s what we had last night. Much of the crew was feeling quite shitty, and questioning the captain about his promises of smooth, tradewind sailing. While we sailed most of the night (slowly), we had to turn the engine on at about 0900 this morning as the wind has held pretty steady at about 6 knots!

We have had two firsts already. The water intake hose to the port engine has a small crack and was letting in water at a very slow rate. Jorge (our skipper) noticed that the port engine bilge pump was cycling on, so he investigated and found the leak. Unfortunatley, hose clamps were not among the spares I brought with me or could find in Brazil, so we patched the hole with a sailor’s best friend: duct tape, and it’s working, but not strong enough to use the port engine. So, all of our engine time is with the starboard engine. (When motor sailing on a cat, the typical practice is to use only one engine at a time anyway; the small extra boost from two engines is not offset by the added fuel consumption.)

The other first was an ocean squall. I found they’re no different than the Lake Michigan or BVI kind. Twenty minutes of higher wind (in this case 6 knots going to 15), and some rain to wash off in, and that’s it.

We adjusted course about an hour ago to a more northerly heading, and the ride smoothed out quite a bit. As Karen says, hopefully we’re now getting our sea legs on (she adds the “on”). The sun’s out and land is nowhere to be seen as we close in on our first 24 hours at sea. More tomorrow.

This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using OCENS.Mail software.

2/15/06
Lat 10 57 S
Lon 35 04
(Aracaju, Brazil)

I'll write more about our impressions of Aracaju (favorable) and of all of the people at Dolphin (VERY favorable) in a couple of days, but wanted to write a quick update regarding our timing. We sailed the boat yesterday and today (today with Georges, our skipper toTrinidad) and man, does it sail well. Yesterday was on the ocean, while today we stayed in the very large river, trying out the new screecher, which was just put on this afternoon. The screecher is a large downwind sail on a furler; not as big as a spinnaker, but much larger than a genoa, and easy to handle because of the furler. In about 15 knots of wind, we were clipping along at between 9 and 10 knots off the wind and 8 to 9 fairly tight to the wind. For any sailors reading this, you know that is fast! Only one big oooops; while furling the screecher we went into an area of shifting sand bars and scraped the bottom. I have to admit I was steering, but in the direction I had been told by Phellipe (he's the Frenchman who designed the boat and runs the shipyard, and a great multihull sailor). I noticed the depth sounder was down to 5 feet and, just as I was asking if the depth was set from the waterline or the bottom of the boat, the depth sounder went to 4 feet and I got my answer. Fortunately, the bottom is all soft sand, so no harm done.

Anyway, we were discussing our plans for leaving on Saturday with Georges, when the Dolphin folks let us know they had our exit papers fromBrazil, and the papers required that we leave Friday. So, despite the superstition regarding not starting a voyage on a Friday, we're going to ignore fate and heed the bureaucrats and go on Friday. That means a lot of running around provisioning tomorrow and Friday, and getting the last little things fixed and added to the boat, and leaving for Fernando de Noronha on Friday afternoon's slack tide. Lots to do in very little time! The general plan is to go to Fernando for a couple of days and then decide if we want to go straight to Trinidad or detour to Forteleza, Brazil. We'll go to Forteleza if there are things that break on our shakedown to Fernando and that can't wait to be fixed until Trinidad. Also, a side benefit of the Forteleza option would be that Carnival will be in full swing and Junior Pimenta (the owner of Dolphin) will be there and has invited us to dinner with his family. On the other hand, it's a little out of the way and would add about a day to our trip. We'll see.

So, we'll be quite busy the next few days so probably no updates. However, we should have plenty of time on the trip to Fernando to catch up with the logs and our travels. Adios.

2/10/06

Lat 13 00.6 S
Lon 088 31.9 W
(Salvador, Brazil)

As you’ve probably surmised, we made it to Brazil. Haven’t had time to update the logs as we’ve been doing a lot of running around looking for a few more boat items and trying to get the lay of the land. The trip down here was long: we left Monday at 4 am for a 6 am flight out of Charleston. Charleston to Washington to Miami (8 hour layover) to Sao Paulo (8 hour flight) to Salvador, arriving early afternoon Tuesday. Despite our fears and rumors to the contrary, immigration and customs in Sao Paulo were a breeze. No one even looked in our bags and no finger printing and photographing as we had been told. This really surprised me as we had 9 large checked bags and 2 carry-ons each, for a total of 19 bags!

Salvador is very interesting, and I like it more the longer I’m here. I had read about the large disparity between the haves and have-nots, but was not fully prepared for it. So far, everyone has been very friendly, regardless of economic status, except the drivers! We’ve learned that pedestrians do not have the right of way under any circumstances. Even the bus drivers are maniacs; with the speed at which they take corners, I’m surprised more don’t tip over! I wouldn’t come to Salvador for a vacation – for that, Brazil has places like Rio, islands off the coast, the Pantanal and the Amazon – but for an architectural and cultural experience this is pretty interesting.

Salvador at one point was the capital of Brazil and has a long maritime history. It’s now a large commercial port, has a population of over 3 million, and has become a popular stopping over port for several of the Around the World sailboat races. Unfortunately, there’s nothing that even resembles a West Marine. However, because fishing is still an important part of the economy, you can get any fishing equipment desired. I’ve seen more variety of lures in the little shops than even Bass Pro Shops!

This morning we headed to the “Old City” or historic district. We took lots of photos and I’ll post some in the gallery, but the old architecture was impressive. This is about a 10 or 20 square block area where they have renovated many old buildings and there are literally hundreds of shops, restaurants, galleries and souvenir stores. It really made us stop and think when we realized that many of these buildings had been built (1500’s and early 1600’s) before the U.S. was even colonized. The educational part of the trip has begun!