Hello Brazil
11 December 2007
John
As you will gather, we made our waypoint off the Brazilian coast last night - actually the early hours of the morning at 00:15 local time. The approach was marked by a number of ships being spotted and the glow on the horizon of the port city of Natal. Also, the number of aircraft spotted was dramatic - I saw seven aircraft during my watch.
On the ship spotting side, the following are the sightings as at noon today: Shaheda: 1 Shaun: 6 Terry: 2 John: 1 I think that Shaun is steeling some of Shaheda's sightings for himself, just as he has done some 'spotting' on Terry's watch. We have a long way to go and the sightings will change as we progress up the coast.
Again last night we had a visitor in the form of another Common Noddy. He was on his perch when I came on watch at midnight and seemed quite content to snore away, marking his presence on the mainsail cover. Just another cleaning job for us when we get to the Caribbean.
The weather forecast for the next few days is winds out of the east or east-southeast at 19 knots. This wind strength is in a little 'window' where it is just too strong for the spinnaker but just not strong enough for the jib to push us along at a great speed of knots. So, at the moment we are averaging 7 knots but could be doing 8 or 9 knots. It is just one of those little quirks of nature that a person has to live with. An extra 2 knots in wind strength would have this boat flying on jib alone!
Thanks for the Cape Town Hams who have taken the time to have a chat with us on 14 237.5 KHz. Please remember that I am only on frequency on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 16:00 Zulu due to our battery problems on board.
All the best from Shaun, Shaheda, Terry and myself, John.