June 22, 2012-Colorful Sao Luis

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Sao Luis

Before leaving Brazil we visited the centro historico de Sao Luis, one of the oldest Portuguese towns in the New World. Just now we have posted a few photos from that visit.

Click here to see the photos of Sao Luis.

Not many cruisers visit this place, but we did.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Trinidad, W.I.

Click here to read the previous story on San Luis

May 9, 2012-Children of the Dune

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Children of the Dune

In April we posted a story from a place called Ilha Dos Lencois.

Ilha Dos Lencois is an Island in the state of Maranhao, Brazil. It is on the Rio Macuripana. The people there are of Portugese descent.

We could only stay for a few days but we fell in love with the place and the people.

Now we have posted the photos from that stunningly enchanting island.

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Wings at Dos Lencois

Click here to see the photos from Ilha Dos Lencois

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Trinidad

May 1, 2012-Leaving Dos Lencois

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Fishing Boat off Rio Macuripana

Wings left Ilha Dos Lencois on 28 April and, beating out of the mouth of Rio Macuripana against the wind and the tide driven chop, stood out to sea.

Seventeen miles and five tacks later the shallow banks and breakers of the delta were behind us and we cracked off for Trinidad, 1200 miles to the NW, making good time in a fresh breeze.

In the early morning hours of the next day the Equator was crossed (without ceremony as this was only the latest crossing of many) and for the first time in two years Wings returned to the Northern Hemisphere.

One day more, hundred and thirty miles to seaward but still on soundings, and we sailed past the mouth of the Amazon on a fast but wet close reach, with, at times, nearly two knots of favorable current, and carried on towards the Guyanas and the Caribbean and closer to home.

Reoccurring battery problems make it imperative that we get to Trinidad where new ones might be purchased and therefore we will skip stops in Cayenne and Surinam.

Meanwhile we are making over 190 miles a day, with easy sailing, and should be in Trinidad this weekend or soon after.

Other than the battery concerns we have a happy ship.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, On Passage off Guyanas

Note to the Volvo boys, whose paths we've crossed before during this iteration of their race (they passed us going opposite directions at Cape Agulhas in December) and are now again sailing the same stretch of ocean as we are, going, this time, the same way:

You've probably passed us in the last 24 hours and we didn't get a chance to say hello, but if you haven't, here's a tip, there is steady breeze along the coast here and very good, positive, current.

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April 28, 2012-Stories from Ilha Dos Lencois (Island of the Sheets)

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Dos Lencois

We’re anchored in the middle of the river, which is not a river but one of the many winding saltwater filled channels which separate the island of Dos Lencois from the other islands of this group, most of which are low, muddy mounds covered with mangrove swamps, behind the giant sand dune which dominates Dos Lencois. It is a maze getting into this spot in the delta of Rio Macuripana and, as usual for this part of the Amazon basin, the charts lack detail, however we had local knowledge, some of it wrong, but mostly right, which told us how to get here and here we are.

“A lovely spot,” we were told, and that is true. It is quiet, scenic, filled with bird life, and peaceful Portuguese fishermen from the village around the bend who seine the river from small wooden boats for Covina, eels, and prawns. We can see the surf in the distance, and hear it roaring on the miles of banks to seaward of this island but in this river, behind this dune, we are sheltered.

We’ve been here three days, and we are going to leave this morning with the tide. The only way out is back through the channels and we need 10.5 feet of tide, which happens today at 9:50 and not again until May 2, then into the main river, and a long beat out to open water, 17 miles. After that we can bear off and head towards Trinidad.
The village is between the dune and the ocean, and surrounded by smaller dunes and scrub brush. The people here are European, not Amazon Indians. Besides the family units which fish the river in small boats there are men who take bigger, motorized, fishing boats out the channels into Rio Macuripana each morning.

We watch their path and can see where the channel is so we are better prepared to follow deep water than when we came in here, when we were blind.

We’ve watched these villagers as they fish and otherwise go about their lives near this village. We saw a young man on a returning boat, one of four men aboard, wearing only a pair of blue briefs, who, as the boat got close to the village, reached into the cabin and withdrew clean clothes: a shining pair of long red shorts and a bright yellow soccer top with the number “10”. When the boat nosed up to the steep side of the dune this young man got off, well dressed, and carrying a large fish at his side, his day’s pay perhaps, and headed off towards home.

The fishing boat, having dropped off the crew member from the village, pulled back out and headed down another channel. As it grew dark other boats came in and anchored near the point, and left their lights on which we could see from Wings. That evening we could hear music from the boats or the town but we stayed aboard.

We also watch, every afternoon, several young adults appear on the top of the dune over our boat looking back into the delta, and holding cell phones! There is no cell system here but apparently, from the top of the dune, they can get a signal from somewhere. It is obviously a social event as well as a time for making a call to friends in the outside world, and they sit around in groups on the dune until dusk while the dogs and kids play nearby. Once a solitary caller sat in a bowl in the dune which directed her voice our way and we could hear her talking.

A man named Vas and his two boys came by and sold us a beautiful bowl of fresh prawns and the next day two more young men came by and sold us more. They were friendly and shy and Judy gave the second group some cold cokes as well as the 20 reals they asked.

Another afternoon a couple of men beached their boat on the shore and cleaned a fish, and it must have been a big fish, because they were quite proud of the fillets they held up as they sailed past Wings afterwards and a large group of vultures found the carcass and fought over it for a while, gorging until they could not fly. We watched several of big black birds hop up to the top of the dune with their wings outstretched where the winds helped them lift off. Others, not so lucky perhaps, simply flew away.

Now it is 7:00 AM and we are stirring on Wings, making a pot of coffee and listening to the fishing boats departing for the day’s work.

Soon we will follow them but unlike the boats of this village, we will go onward to the next port instead of returning afternoon to Ilha Dos Lencois.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Ilha Dos Lencois

Click here to see the photos

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April 23, 2012-Marina at Sao Luis

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Marina Aven at Sao Luis, Brazil

If it wasn’t for the bare-chested brown skinned man on the back of the beached catamaran emphatically waving us on with grand sweeps of the arm we wouldn’t have come here; we would have turned back like we did the night before when the water depth reached nine feet. That was low tide. This morning, at high tide, with 15 feet more water, we got half a mile further, and now it was less than nine feet again.

And why we let him persuade us I’m not sure; we were about to run aground, it was close to the absolute top of the highest tide for two weeks, and we had no idea where the channel was. A hard grounding would have been a disaster, but he persuaded us and we didn’t even know him. Some kind of Lorelie I guess.

Are we fools?

Maybe, but it had become an act of faith. Two other people, knowledgeable people, said we could go into the marina at Sao Luis. They said we would be in the mud and have to dig our way in with the keel, but we could do it. They said that at low tide we would be sitting in mud up to our keel. And they said it would be nice. I wouldn’t be kidding if I said we were totally skeptical. But we could see the marina just ahead. It it didn’t look like much, but Sao Luis was supposed to be a nice town and the alternative, to leave Sao Luis and head north wasn’t at all attractive either.

Then this guy urged us on. He really urged us on.

Yeah, we must be fools.

We went. We literally ploughed ahead.

And thirty minutes later we were tied along side another deep keel cruising yacht at what must be the funkiest little marina in the world: Marina Aven, Sao Luis, Brazil

And to top it off, for six hours out of every twelve, we are totally beached. This marina is subject to 15 foot tides and the water is only eight feet at high tide. So at low tide we are seven feet higher than sea level. And, because of these tides, we can only leave at 9:00 tomorrow, plus or minus one hour, or we stay here for two weeks.

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Oops!

Unbelievable!

However, the town is nice, the people here are really friendly, we already got water, food, fixed the mainsail, equalized our batteries (again), had dinner out, and today we’ll get diesel and do a tour of the town, maybe have a long lunch in the historic central district. It will be a quick visit, due, again, to those tides, but worth it we think. We wouldn’t have missed this for anything.

And tomorrow we’ll be ready to head north; at 09:00, plus or minus about an hour.

And, here, other than getting these astonishing photos, is the best part: We have a tip about another interesting place that nobody goes, and which requires another act of faith, but will be really worth it.

Tomorrow we head to Dos Lincois.

Click here for more Marina Aven photos.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Sao Luis, Brazil

April 21, 2012-Sailing to Sao Luis-Updated

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Sailing to Luis Corriea

We left Fortaleza.

You always knew we would.

We’re not ready to stop.

And anyhow, even if we were, Fortaleza is not the place, the marina is poor.

So we headed up the coast.

First stop, Luis Correia.

We arrived after dark, no fault of our own. We tried to make it by sunset, but the winds let us down.

Then we made a discovery: the charts for Luis Correia lack detail and what there is…is wrong. So we went in after dark with bad charts. Never mind, we did it on visual, and some fishing boats left their lights on so we could find our way. Thanks Guys.

Luis Correia was nice. There is a breakwater and up the river, a town. We never made it to town, the breakwater was just fine: Calm, protected, and quiet. All we saw of the fishing boats were their cabin lights except for the one closest to where we anchored where, under the glare of his foredeck light, I saw one of the crew pouring buckets of water over his head. He looked lean and muscular and clean as the saltwater poured over his body. All the fishing boats were gone in the morning.

We stayed three nights.

Then we sailed to Sao Luis.

You know, Sao Luis is supposed to be a wonderful city. From what we could see, it looks like it. But there is no marina or harbor for sailboats and we couldn’t get into the channel where the yacht club is due to low tide; no water. Instead we anchored behind a nearby Island.

We’ll try again tomorrow.

San Luis is, however, a major port for Brazil and in the anchorage there are about 30 ore carriers waiting to export Brazil’s commodities; waiting for a load. Probably a load for China. Not right now. There is a lesson in the world economy for you: when China stops buying, the world waits.

But that all misses the point of the sailing: it was good, then bad, then good.

That’s what the doldrums brings, light variable winds, brief periods of nice breeze, and sudden storms. Not bad storms mind you, but enough to reduce sail and go slow while you get drenched.

Yeah, we were in the doldrums. Finally I decided to keep the sails up and steer through it and in that way the sudden storms gave us sudden bursts of speed. Wet but fast.

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Waiting to Load



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Sao Luis

We arrived in Sao Luis speeding in through one of those blinding rainstorms with the automatic transponders of 30 empty ore carriers shouting at us. I turned off the AIS.

Now, we don’t know if we’ll get into the yacht club basin tomorrow or be back here behind this island. Either way, we’ll be getting ready for the next leg, further up the coast, and surely onward to some other new adventures.

We’ll let you know.

Update: Wait until you get the next post, you won't believe it!

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Sao Luis, Brazil.

April 14, 2012-Holiday in Fortaleza

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Fortaleza Yacht Club

We’ve had a nice holiday in Brazil luxuriating at one of Fortaleza’s finest hotels (aboard Wings in the hotel’s marina of course). We’re swimming each morning in the hotel pool, having wonderful meals in the great Brazilian restaurants on Fortaleza’s beautiful nearby beaches, taking endless walks around the old central district, and shopping everywhere. Yesterday we topped it all off with a beautiful lunch which turned into a whole afternoon, accompanied by a very nice bottle of Chilean white, at the Fortaleza Yacht Club.

A couple of years ago an old classmate of mine saw my photo of Judy having a drink at a beach hotel in Langkawi , and commented, maybe wistfully, “your whole life is like an unending vacation”.

Sometimes, like right now, it seems that way and we love it.

But there is no such thing as a free lunch. Mind you I’m not whining about it but to have this kind of life we have to work at it. We work at it by keeping this boat running, by sailing it through storms and high seas, from one third world country to another, and by dealing with about a million bureaucratic and cultural obstacles each and every day.

Still, we love it. It’s why we do this.

However, this holiday is now over and we have work to do. We have to leave the easy and enjoyable life we have in Fortaleza and get this boat up the coast and into the Caribbean, which means dealing with the routine of watch-standing, three on and three off, with officials and formalities in three new countries, with unknown boat problems (and there certainly will be some), with the doldrums, the shallow waters of the Amazon Delta, and god knows what else. It will be nerve wracking but we’ll get through it. And you know what? We love that part too; sailing is still great.

We leave tomorrow; it’ll take a month, more or less, and then we’ll have a Caribbean Holiday.

Click here for a few more photos from the day we checked out of Fortaleza.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Fortaleza, Brazil

April 8, 2012-The Amazon Dilemma

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Dilemma?

Six hundred miles northwest of Fortaleza lies the Amazon River Delta. Sailing into the Amazon has a lot of appeal to us. We would not have to go far, just a couple of hundred miles, and we could stop at some Amazon river towns such as Belem on the south bank and Macapa and Vila Amazona on the north shore, stay a few days, then return to the ocean and head further north. How can we sail past the Amazon River and not experience it?

But there are significant security concerns.

First of all, books we’ve read report that the two most risky places for yachts in Brazil are Fortaleza, where we are now, and the mouth of the Amazon, where we want to go. We know full well the security issues in Fortaleza and we know how to avoid trouble: we keep the boat in the marina and out of the main anchorage. But there is no marina at the mouth of the Amazon, just endless river channels with little population and no police presence. Anchoring in remote places within the river is said to be dangerous.

We know that four or five boats have been robbed in that area in last four or five years, some in the towns, but at least one while anchored in a remote area. Anchoring in these remote places is virtually required to avoid travelling at night, when hitting debris is a big risk, or going against the strong currents which reverse direction every six hours. That small number of occurrences does not seem like very many, but the fact is that only few yachts go there at all and maybe the odds are not as good as we’d like.

We were worried about this and as of yesterday had not made a decision.

Then we met a couple of boats which have just come down the coast. The crew of Mila, a South African yacht, was chased at gun point while in the town of Belem. The other yacht, a Brazilian flagged vessel, has just passed through the same area and told us that the first hundred miles of the river was very dangerous. They know some local people there who do not go through that area without armed guards. They said the coast is OK, but not the river.

OK, that does it. We are not going into the Amazon.

This is sad for us because we’ve already bypassed the Red sea and Europe due to piracy risks in the Indian Ocean and now it seems that we need to skip some interesting parts of Brazil.

Plus, the Caribbean itself has some problems and that’s where we are going next so the whole cruising experience seems less fun and more dangerous now than it used to be.

It’s something we don’t like but we have to accept.

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Fortaleza Centro

But in the meantime we’re enjoying Fortaleza. For the last week or so we’ve been exploring the nearby central area of Fortaleza and some of the beaches.

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Beach Volley Ball

And for the last two days we’ve been watching a beach volleyball tournament which has been fun and which reminds us of the many beach volleyball games we’ve played in years past.

These things take our minds off the unpleasant realities of the next few legs.

We’ve got to face them soon enough.

Click here and here for more photos of Fortaleza

Click here for more volley ball shots

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Fortaleza Brazil

March 31, 2012- Uma Noite Caliente via the Back Door

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Uma Noite Caliente

We’ve gone to hear music in many places. Last night the music came to us.

A Brazilian rock concert, “Uma Noite Caliente” (One Hot Night), which we could clearly hear from our boat, occurred overnight in a specially built venue on the grounds of the hotel where our marina is located. Chiclete Banana and several other Brazilian pop bands pumped out the amps until dawn and about five thousand young Brazilians danced and partied all night.

We might have wanted join the young crowd ourselves but the tickets started at $110 so we passed on that but I realized the day before, as the construction workers were putting the finishing touches on the stages, barricades and temporary walls, that we were already inside the perimeter. I thought it might be possible to walk directly from Wings into the concert grounds without passing any gate. They left us a back door.

Judy didn’t want to chance it but I thought I would give it a try.

So at midnight, when the music was at its loudest, I grabbed my Nikon and headed out. I expected to be stopped by one of the hundreds of security guards. After all not only did I look a little out of place but I also did not have one of the colored wrist bands showing that I had paid for my admittance, but no one gave me a second glance. I walked right into the crowd and right up to the stage.

I put up my big gun camera and banged off a few dozen shots, then beat a hasty retreat; I did not want a confrontation with these guards and most of all I did not want my camera to be confiscated. Anyhow, it wasn’t my kind of music.

During the early morning hours as the beat went on and on and the aid cars came and went there was a huge fireworks display right over our boat and a number of helicopter passes which we could hear from our bed. This was quite the event. We had prime seats but we didn’t get up. Let the kids party on, we’re sleeping.

At 06:00 I did another patrol: The kids were still there, the music was still going, but there was wreckage everywhere from the long night.

By sun-up it was all over.

Click here for more shots from Uma Noite Caliente.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Fortaleza, Brazil

March 30, 2012-Drinking with Russians

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Russian Sailors can sing too

Twenty three years ago, in July 1989, a group of six Russian sailors, who said they were the first sailors permitted to go cruising from Soviet Russia, and one translator, arrived in Seattle aboard a boat owned by their shipping company employer in Vladivostok. We found them circling outside Shilshole Marina on our return from Barkley Sound that late July afternoon. They had spent over 40 days crossing the North Pacific and they had just arrived in the USA and didn’t know where to go. We led them to the transient dock.

We were the first Americans they met and they became friends of ours.

We took them sailing on Wings a few nights later along with about seven other sailors from the Sloop. Lots of vodka was consumed on a tour around Winslow Harbor and the spinnaker reach back was a bit wild, the Russians sailing the boat and the rest of us riding. It turned out they knew how to sail and it was a memorable and fortunately uneventful trip, considering the chances we took with a few marks and navigation aids, all passed a bit close and one on the wrong side much to the consternation of Judy, who got quite frantic when they insisted on taking the inshore side of one of the green bouys in Eagle Harbor. “No Problem, No Problem” they said, ignoring her wild gestures to go on the other side of it, but we made it and with the pole on the headstay we reached hard into Shilshore Bay and stormed inside the breakwater with the kite still up, all hands to the takedown. Again, luckily, no incidents. Same for the “wodka “ drenched meal for 17 in Wing’s cabin afterwards, a record number of guests never since matched. My hang-over was also unmatched.

Those Russians were good sailors, good singers, good eaters and great drinkers.

Last night in Fortaleza we had a party with another bunch of Russian sailors. They had arrived in Fortaleza on a big inflatable multihull, bound for a round the world record for inflatable boats. There were also seven of them, (six official adventurers and one guest added here in Fortaleza) mostly scientists from Siberia, but the Captain, Anatoly, is a boat builder, navigator and the creative genius behind the trip. Given where they have been (they started in Thailand and expect to end up there as well) and their wild and exciting rounding of the Cape of Good Hope in 50kts of wind (they showed us video footage of it) and where they are headed, (Across the Pacific and back to the far east), we can presume that they must also be good sailors. Although we did not get a chance to go sailing with them we can say from our experience last night that that they are good drinkers, eaters, musicians, and singers. Judy and I joined six other cruisers and the Russians on the afterdeck of their vessel for a long night of “wodka”, sweet wine, warm beer and a lot of music. The Russians had a guitar and it seems like all of them could put it to good use. They serenaded us with Russian songs for hours. When they sang the Beatles’ “Let It Be” we all joined in and one cruiser, Robert, from the Dutch yacht, Mary Elisa, had brought his trumpet and also joined in.

I enjoyed the music and food but stuck to “wodka” for my drink. Remembering my previous experience with Russians and “wodka”, or maybe just being older and wiser, I paced myself and had no hang over today.

This morning the Russians headed out going north up the coast with a planned stop in Sao Luis, Brazil (where we plan to stop as well) for provisions and their next major destination is the east coast of Mexico. After that, the Pacific, Easter Island, and then on to finish where they started at Phuket, Thailand.

We wished them well.

Click here to see more photos from our party with the Russians.

Click here to read the log book page from our trip with the Russians in 1989

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Fortaleza, Brazil

Energy Diet HD, Departed March 30 from Fortaleza for Sao Luis, then Mexico, (port undecided)

Anatoly Kulik (Tola),
Evgenii Kovalevsky (Jack),
Yurii Masloboyev, (Gold Tooth)
Evgenii Tashkin (Video)
Oleg Blinov (Big)
Stanislav (Stas)Berezkin
Alexander Gainer (Professor)

Click here to go to thier web site

March 18, 2012- Fortaleza, First Thoughts

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Fortaleza

The Brazilians from down south say this is not Brazil; they say Fortaleza is not representative, for the real Brazil you must go to Rio or Salvador.

Maybe, but Rio or Salvador we won’t ever see, not from the deck of this yacht anyhow.

No, for us Fortaleza is Brazil, so what are our first impressions?

At a first look, we like what we see: Beautiful people, beautiful Brazilian Portuguese language, and a beautiful city with tall buildings and beautiful sandy beaches. There are old churches, cathedrals, and soccer fields everywhere. Also we see high prices, traffic jams, pickpockets and dangerous barrios, of course, but despite that there is a zest for life in this town which we picked up the minute we arrived and when we hit the streets of Fortaleza we started to see all sides of it.

On the sidewalk we saw the desperate young men from the barrio whose furtive eyes watch for an easy prey and for that reason, if no other, we know we need to pay attention on these streets.

On the other hand we also saw the upper class in the expensive restaurants and exclusive shops, or just riding in their motorcars, comfortable men of power and position with elegant women at their sides, so we see who is paying those high prices.

But most of all here we have been seeing the ordinary folks around the town, on the beaches and in the shopping malls and supermarkets, and we have seen taxi drivers and shopkeepers with ready smiles. Everywhere we see middle class Brazilians, of all ages, simply going about their lives.

In that way Fortaleza is like a lot of other cities.

But Brazil, unlike some countries, is a nation rising, one of the BRIC’s, the future. And we see both the dynamism that has earned it a place in that club, and its paradox. The paradox is that despite the fact that it is an economic powerhouse, where we see the hustle and bustle of businessmen on the move and construction everywhere there is the seemingly slow pace of everything. There is the daily two-hour siesta when shops close. There are the officials who, however polite and incorruptible, work at such a leisurely pace you want to tear your hair out, and there are the clerks in the stores who will happily spend twenty minutes or more with you while other customers are waiting. You can’t hurry these people.

We need to stay here a while and try to understand these things better.

So, we’ve signed up for a month at the marina and we’ve started a daily routine of swimming in the pool each morning, and we will go out on most days to try to get the real feel of the pulse of this enigmatic Brazil.

Which is why we came here.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Fortaleza, Brazil

PS: We arrived on March 16, Docked at Marina Park, Randy & Laura signed off, and we are on our own and settled in already.

March 15, 2012-Final Run to Fortaleza

We are now sailing the last leg of our Atlantic Crossing, the run from Fernando de Naronha to Fortaleza Brazil. This short leg, only 364 miles, is awkward for us because of it's short duration and the fact that we wish to both leave and arrive in the daylight. To do so we have to sail slowly otherwise we will be approaching the port of Fortaleza before dawn tomorrow. In fact slowing Wings down has not been easy. We have not set the jib at all, and the winds have been light, but our average speed has been over six knots due to a following current. Had we know of this we might have changed strategy and sped onward from the beginning to try to complete the passage in two days in stead of two and a half, but now we are stuck, sometime in the next twentyfour hours we must stall our progress for about three hours. We'll manage I'm sure.

So tomorrow morning we will arrive in Fortaleza, having sailed something over 3600 miles across the South Atlantic Ocean with Randy & Laura since leaving Cape Town. At this point it has been the definitive "good passage". We have sailed from Africa to South America, through thirty degrees of latitude and fifty degrees of longitude. We've gone from icy cold water to equatorial conditions. We have had five very nice stops along the way. We will arrive on schedule, healthy, and happy, with the boat intact, have had no storms or significant problems, and not too much to fix when we get there, however we will have a bit of laundry to do.

Fred & Judy (and Randy and Laura), SV Wings, South Atlantic Ocean

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March 12, 2012-Oy Querido (updated)

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Beach Bar

“Oy Querido, My Darling, I'm on the bus”, said the transvestite named Anderson into his cell phone as he plunked into the back seat of the bus between Randy and Laura. His friends on the bus thought that was hilarious.

This being the 6:30 bus and the beach bar having closed at 6:00, the bus was packed with locals going home after a day at the beach drinking cervesas and eating fried fish and listening to loud Brazilian beach music. We were there too and got some sand in between our toes now we were going out to dinner in town but nobody on the bus was really ready to call it a day; after all, it might be dark but it wasn’t even 7:00 PM. Even on Sunday and a small Brazilian town that is a bit early.

Anderson’s friend Kevin told us there was salsa dancing later but it might not be “appropriate” for us.

“I’m sitting next to the most beautiful man”, Anderson said into the phone, which by now everyone knew wasn’t even turned on and so they were rolling in the aisles. Randy, the object of his affection was just hoping he wouldn’t put his hand on his knee.

“But he has not got black enough skin!” complained Anderson. And the bus's passengers cracked up.

We were going to Ousodia Restaurant but Kevin told us about another good restaurant so when we got off the bus we headed that way instead and everyone on the bus stuck their heads out the widows and said, “No, No, the other way, Oy Querido.”

But Kevin’s recommendation was right on and we had a wonderful Brazilian dinner and Portuguese wine and too much food with friends from Avitar, Mark and Fiona, and finally we decided to skip the salsa dancing and go back to the boat at 11:00PM.

Fred & Judy (and Randy & Laura), SV Wings, Fernando de Naronha

Click here to see first photos

March 12, 2012-Photos Posted of Atlantic Sailing

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Sailing to Brazil

Click here to see photos of the sailing to Brazil from Saint Helena

As you will see it was an easy trip.

Fred & Judy (& Randy & Laura), SV Wings, Fernando de Naronha, Brazil

March 10, 2012-Fernando de Naronha

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Sailing Into Fernando de Naronha (Updated)

We sailed into Fernando under 3/4 oz kite, pole to the headstay and flags flying; we arrived in style. The anchor splashed down at 11:45 local time and by late afternoon we had completed our clearance, found an ATM and got a pocket full of Brazilian Reals, and we were having cool beers at a cafe overlooking the harbor.

So the Atlantic has been crossed.

They say there is no Internet here, or not any which you can use, so we might not be able to post photos yet, but they are coming. Stand by.

Fred & Judy (and Randy & Laura), SV Wings, Fernando de Naronha

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March 9, 2012-Motoring toward Brazil

It's the last night at sea in the South Atlantic Ocean.

The wind is gone, the sails are furled, and we're motoring at five and a half knots; we've got a clear sky, a full moon, and very calm seas.

The batteries are gone, good thing we're motoring, but we could make it sailing if we had wind; we can manage the battery problem.

We've got food, water, fuel, and a good engine, so we can motor for a long time if we need to but Fernando de Naronha is close, 65 miles, we only need to motor for 11 more hours.

Tomorrow Brazil, a new country, a new continent. We'd rather arrive under sail and if the wind comes up at all, we'll turn off the motor and rasie the sails.

No sign of that now; I guess I'll run a weather forecast.

Fred & Judy (and Randy & Laura), SV Wings, South Atlantic Ocean

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March 8, 2012-In Our Own Words

I asked each of our crew on this passage to write their thoughts. Here they are.

Judy:

When we crossed the Pacific Ocean to the Marquesas in 1998 I told Fred, "If all of our passages are as good as this one, I could cruise forever." Well, in the following 15 years we faced more challenging conditions and less benign seas, and often it caused us to ask the question, "Why are we doing this?"

Upon making each landfall we knew why: another culture, another country, another adventure, another Island to explore, and it made the difficult passages worthwhile. We became addicted to the new landfalls, but there have been some tough oceans to cross: The trip to New Zealand, the South China Sea, and more recent ones.

Our first attempt to cross the Indian Ocean was so daunting that we turned around and almost vowed to quit cruising. Since then we have crew aboard, always good friends, to ease the load.

With Pierre we crossed the most challenging of oceans, the South Indian Ocean. The ocean was dreadful but sailing it with Pierre was great.

John and Jennifer joined us for the leg from Mauritius to South Africa and helped us cope with days of 40+ knots of wind and huge seas. They were tough.

And after Fred & I sailed down the renowned South African Coast to Cape Town alone Randy and Laura, joined us for the Atlantic crossing.

The Atlantic, likely to be our last ocean crossing, has been the best ever. The sailing has been easy, with rarely even a sail change. In addition to the great sailing conditions our 2 hours on, six hours off, watch schedule, affords us much rest and plenty of time to read, play cards, and think about all the world's problems, and the friendship has been wonderful. Life doesn't get much better. What more can I say?

Laura:

Sailing across the South Atlantic Ocean has been windy and wild, mellow and mild. Night watches have been mostly graced by a full moon and a galaxy of stars & planets; nights so clear that I feel I could grab a star and tuck it away in my pocket.

Hours on watch thinking of this & that (all sorts of stuff actually) makes us realize that we are but a tiny speck on this vast ocean.

This trip aboard 'Wings' is really about the journey, not the destination, though the thought of wandering along a beach in the coming days is a welcome thought, as is a diet coke with heaps of ice, and a crisp green salad.

Randy:

The southern Atlantic has been the easiest of the three oceans I have crossed. 'Wings' has taken us across this ocean with speed and grace; our former yacht, 'Pollen Path' would have loved this trip.

Fred:

Each passage has a character, like each ocean does and each vessel. Some passages, however optimistically they are commenced, can turn out to be rancorous and petty, the tone is sour, based on the people aboard and how they relate to each other. On other passages, and this passage of ours is one of these, the mood and feeling is one of cooperation, accommodation, and generosity; it is a happy ship.

On this passage it has all has been about the crew; We are all seasoned sailors, exceptionally competent, and well used to the close quarters of life at sea, and knowing that on a small ship it is only kindness towards the others, acceptance of each person's individuality, and accommodation to their needs even when they don't coincide with our own, which keeps a ship a happy ship, as this has been. Judy, as ever, has been consistently cheerful, optimistic, generous, hard working, and easy going, and always, a back-up to me. We all rely on her judgment. Laura has been adaptive in the face of adversity and new surroundings, resourceful, helpful to everyone, also generous and uncomplaining (and a great cook). Randy is one of the world's natural born sailors and I think he now knows how to sail Wings, and fix it, as well as Judy and I do, and he is always willing to pitch in and do anything that is needed, whatever it is.

This is an exceptional crew and we have all worked hard together and worked hard to stay together. In this we have been very lucky.

And so, with an easy ocean to cross, a great ship to carry us, and a very special crew, the character of this passage is one of happy contentment.

It has been, so far, and I expect it to be to the final landfall in Brazil, a very, exceptionally, excellent passage.

Fred & Judy (and Randy & Laura), SV Wings, South Atlantic Ocean

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March 7, 2012-Race to Brazil

I've turned this passage into a secret race. Secret because neither I nor my competitors have openly mentioned it, but we all know. Not only do we all want to get quickly to our respective destinations but we each want to get the best of the others. So far on Wings we've been doing well but everyone is still in the game.

On Monday night we made our move; decisively.

We'd gone south for a week, we'd passed the imaginary turning mark on the chart, and we had successfully skirted the lightest of the winds around the low up north. We had gained a good slant on the boats behind which were stubbornly still sailing a direct course right through the low. But we were now over 150 miles to the south and that represented a lot of distance to make up and there was new wind coming; the South Atlantic High was rebuilding. If that filled in if we weren't clearly in front this would simply turn into a drag race which we could easily lose. We had to consolidate.

The wind was still light when we jibed over and at first going north wasn't easy. The breeze was fitful, the seas awful, and through the night we struggled. I swore at the gods of the sea as we put sails up and down and started the engine then turned it off, but we made some distance and in the morning it dawned clear and there was a cool, fresh, new wind.

I set the spinnaker and we pushed hard for another day; I was at the helm for the better part of ten hours working the boat through the waves and gusts, trying to find the best angle, determined to make another hundred miles. Judy asked me if I wanted to keep it up and I told her, "Don't doubt my resolve, I will get this done."

And we did. By Wednesday morning we were back on the rhumb line, 300 miles directly ahead of the next boat; between them and the mark. We'd sailed around the low and around the fleet. It felt good.

Now we can just take whatever line is best to Fernando de Naronha, our expected landfall. There may be more challenges, and I am still pushing the boat hard, but now we have the luxury of choosing our course.

Electrical Problem.

If only the electric issue would resolve itself that nicely. Like my sis' commented, we are the energizer bunny, we just keep going, but the power situation is grim: we expect to have to shut down all non-essential power either on our arrival in Fernando, or before that.
But we'll get there.

Fred & Judy (and Randy & Laura), SV Wings, South Atlantic Ocean

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