much cooler – wonderful.
But first Natal. Of course, not speaking Portuguese is a great
detriment here and even with the help of a map and instructions from
the yacht club and directions from a fellow yachtie, it still took 2
days to check in with the officials. However, that done, we were free
to go about our other business of finding stores, food (our tongues
were hanging out for bread, fresh fruit and veg), bank (that actually
accepted foreign cards) and internet cafe. Along the way we also
found a bus to take us way across town to the BIG hypermarkets. Quite
a bit cheaper shopping here than in Trini. At the yacht club we
managed to easily replace some of the diesel. Foreign vessels,
anchored in the river, are allowed 3 free days access to the yacht
club then it becomes a bit expensive just for a dinghy dock and a nice
clean cold shower.
Winds were against us on Friday night, so we left at low tide on
Saturday morning. Had fairly light winds, a few rain squalls which
brought wind, closed hauled a lot of the time, tacked a couple of
times but for the most part it was nice, slow, calm sailing, even flat
enough to stop for a swim at one point.
Stopped for 2 days at Cururipe, a quaint little fishing village behind
a long reef. Had to get in really close for protection from the swell
and had just less than a meter under the keel at low tide but still
pretty rolly. Nice long beach for a walk at sunup, restaurant right
on the beach front, some very friendly helpful hardworking fishermen,
but not much else.
Then for the next 3 and a bit days we again coasted along with varying
winds, seas mostly calm and only a few hard rain squalls. Since
leaving Natal we had been favoured with a current lift, sometimes up
to 1.3knots, and this only dissipated when we went off the continental
shelf. We had decided after we left Cururipe to stop at Ilheus as we
needed to go shopping for fresh stuff and in actual fact whether we
wanted to or not we got wind shifts that were making sure we actually
did go to Ilheus or direct out to sea, but then as we approached the
harbour the frequency of the rain squalls increases and the wind
finally settled in from the south and stayed there and the current
turned against us so after a couple of futile tacks we finally had to
motor into Ilheus harbour from abut 5 Nm out, once inside it was very
calm and protected but totally open to the north so when the wind
changes we will have to leave. This is a very small commercial
harbour with plenty of room for anchoring. Pretty little town, green,
hilly and only a couple of high rise buildings. The 'yacht club' is
actually just a restaurant with a swimming pool and we have free
access to the floating dock, showers and water - guess where we are
staying for a while - even a supermarket within easy walking distance
as well as open air market and internet.
Well we have been lucky as the southerly stayed for 12 days giving a
nice break, meeting German and Sardinian yachts and having a nice
social time as well as relaxing watching movies and going for walks
but everyone but us has left and the wind is changing so time to get
organized and drift further south.
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