The trip into HELL!!!!! We previously complained about our sail from
Christmas Island to Perth in 1998, can't say we would rather do that
again, but Julia thinks that this trip was worse. At least on that
trip we only had ocean and weather to contend with and no lee shore.
So here, will only give the, um, "more interesting" details.
When it is time for Phil to leave, it is time – so we left on a FRIDAY
(March 6) with our next planned stop Natal, Brazil 1900Nm away. Some
may say that is where our troubles began, but we are not suspicious in
that way (we have a green boat after all). We had pushed hard to be
ready as the weather files looked really good for the first few days
giving us N to NE winds from a gale passing thru the northern
Caribbean, after that you can't do much about it anyway. The new(ish)
Yanmar engine continues to amaze us, taking us out thru tide against
wind whirlpools very easily. For the first day we were able to use
the new roller furling genoa but after that, it was mostly, storm jib,
staysail and 2 reefs in main, with sometimes the working jib. Close
hauled at all times and OFTEN using the motor to get a better heading
closer to the wind. Experienced the normal tropical rain squalls,
occasionally bringing more wind than liked or direction change and
often leaving seas very lumpy. Also fighting adverse current flow up
to 2 knots causing us to be sailing 30deg off the course on the
compass, always towards to coast we were trying to avoid.
Thru all that, we did fairly well in that we made a lot of easting and
were just past the mouth of the Amazon and south of the equator and
3/4 of our way to Natal before we finally headed in to cross the
continental shelf this happening right on the Equinox and this time we
really did get a lot stronger and much worse tropical sailing weather
with very strong rain squalls lashing us continually for 48hours. We
had read that at times there is a counter current closer in to the
coast so we went looking for it. Ha! At least the waves were not so
big, and perhaps there was a little less current at times, but on that
first afternoon we really wondered what the heck we were doing there
and with less room to motor-sail we did a lot of just pounding into
the waves with the engine working hard. Also, we then had to contend
with oil rigs, fisher boats and felucas which are small lanteen
rigged boats, with a box to sit on from which they fish and are very
well sailed (wouldn't catch us on one).
So after two and a half weeks and totally exhausted, we finally
decided to stop in at Forteleza. Another mistake??? certainly didn't
turn out to be much of a rest. We didn't go into the Marine Park
marina immediately but anchored just outside and with their OK for
that day used their dock for the dinghy so we could go ashore to
officially check in. The next morning because we had not left at
sunrise we were denied access totally even though we planned to move
into the marina. This meant we had to go to the Fortaleza Yacht Club
anchorage which is not a secure area from crime and where we were
forbidden access to yacht club docks and facilities because we were
not members. The government officials were very nice and helpful but
because of all the non accessibility, it took 3 days clearing in and
out at the same time. Meanwhile, someone had to be on the boat at all
times, as well as awake and on patrol all night. Julia tried a surf
landing to put Phil ashore, not so bad in the low surf morning, but in
the afternoon, he got a ride back with one of the local boat taxi's
who made a better job of keeping his pants dry. Glad to be out of
that place, Totally. Arrived Monday morning and were gone by Thursday
evening.
Left with the motor roaring and kept it going for the next 2 days. At
one point we anchored for a few hours off the coast waiting for the
wind to calm down a little. Soon after we were underway again at
sunset we were passing yet more fisher boats and one of them started
getting a bit too close. Dark, not knowing what to think, we just put
on more revs and out distanced him (again – great engine) but he
followed for a long time.
Sure seemed to take forever to get to THE corner but when we arrived
it was calm seas and no wind – wonderful. Finally being able to head
south instead of east, we still had to motor but at least it was a
much more relaxed time. It seemed that rain obscured Natal for the
last 10 miles or so and we again, wondered what we getting into,
however that eventually cleared and it was nice, sunny and calm to
enter into the harbour under this magnificent new humongous bridge.
All we had to contend with was the full ebb of the river (good engine)
and once inside, we spotted yachts anchored just off the channel in
front of the yacht club.
Illawong performed marvelously sailing at 45-50deg off the wind and
doing 100nm+ day runs for days on end this time on the port tack the
whole way. The crew really decided that this IS the last time we go
upwind for such long hauls it really is not nice but sometimes you
gotta do what you gotta do. So in 3 weeks sailing, 2160Nm, we ran the
Yanmar for 96 hours to Fortaleza and 57hrs to Natal averaging 2.2L/hr
which is only slightly more than we used with the old smaller engine.
Again we came to realize just how big Brazil is and are very happy
that the Brazilian Consulate in Port-Of-Spain gave us a 5 year visa
with 90 days to arrive, it made arrival very easy without any extra
deadlines and allows us to return as we wish but still limited to 180
days in any one year. So here we are, once again on the east coast of
South America, looking forward to some nice leisurely sailing down the
coast, calling in frequently to little out of the way spots but moving
on till we can find some cooler places for longer stops. Looking
forward to Rio de Janeiro and the islands around there in a month or
so.
Please visit http://yacht-illawong.blogspot.com/ for our web page
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