24 July 2016 | Ponta Delgada, Azores
12 July 2016 | Horta, Azores
11 July 2016 | Horta, Azores
07 July 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
02 July 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
26 June 2016 | Mindelo, Cabo Verde
17 June 2016 | Mindelo, Sao Vicente, Cabo Verde
13 June 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
09 June 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
07 June 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
04 June 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
31 May 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean (precisely!)
26 May 2016 | Cabedelo, Brazil
24 May 2016 | Cabedelo, Brazil
NE Trades
07 June 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
Ian
Winds of 18 knots from the NE were what we were always seeking when we crossed the Atlantic at the beginning of our trip, but we never got them. That was when we were going downwind. Now we are trying to claw our way upwind and such winds make for an uncomfortable ride. Still, we are moving ever closer to our destination.
Goodbye to the South
31 May 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean (precisely!)
Ian
We just crossed the equator for the fourth time since leaving home, and so are back into the northern hemisphere for the first time since the Maldives last April. The crossing was more peaceful than our last two, during both of which we were trying to dodge squalls. In the northern summer the ITCZ tends to move north, so for now we are still in the SE trade winds. The instabilities of the doldrums is 2 or 3 days ahead of us.
So far progress has been reasonably good, although a little slow. We were lucky when we left Cabedelo to be met with winds from the SSW which gave us good start in our attempts to gain some easting. Things tightened up over the next couple of days, and at times we had the wind from the ESE which meant a northerly course was all we hope for, but the wind has veered to the SSE over the last day, which helps. Days 2 and 3 were quite uncomfortable, as we were hard on the wind in stronger conditions, before we had a chance to get our sea legs, but all felt well this evening for our equator crossing party. The kids got into tributes to Neptune sharing some of the precious Coke with him (a can each is a rarity for them).
A passage wouldnât be a passage if we didnât have any technical problems, and this time it is the watermaker which is failing to produce any fresh water. So we have to make do with what is in the tank, and hope we get some rain to top up with. For most of the crew the âno showersâ regime comes as a welcome relief!
Up the Middle
26 May 2016 | Cabedelo, Brazil
Ian
Our plan when we arrived in Brazil was to spend a couple of weeks here, and then head on up the coast stopping in the Guyanas enroute to the Caribbean. As the engine problem drew out it became clear we wouldn't have time for the Guyanas, so we planned a direct route to the Caribbean with a couple of weeks island hopping from Antigua up to the Virgin Islands, which were to be our jumping off point for the eastbound crossing of the Atlantic, back to Europe via the Azores. The limiting factor was always the Caribbean windstorm season, so as the delays mounted our Caribbean stop got squeezed and squeezed so that had we been able to leave here a week or so ago we might have managed a week in the Caribbean, but even that option has now gone. So...we are going straight up the middle of the Atlantic direct to the Azores.
The direct distance is just over 2,700 miles, although for reasons I will come to, this is not a passage that can be sailed directly, so this one will certainly top our previous longest distance, the leap from the Galapagos to the Marquesas in the Pacific (3,000 miles in 20 days). It may even top our longest time at sea to date which was the westbound crossing of the North Atlantic (2,600 miles in 26 days), although we will do our best to let that record stand.
The passage is complicated in that we will pass through four separate weather regions. We start off in the SE trade winds, which were what brought us here from St Helena. Next is the ITCZ, or the Doldrums, which mark the meteorological boundary between the southern and northern hemispheres (a moveable zone currently located between 1S and 5N). Then we get into the NE trades (from 5N to around 20/25N) and finally we have to negotiate the Azores high pressure system before reaching the islands themselves at 38N. All of this means we do a couple of zig zags across the ocean, gong firstly to the east, so that when we hit the NE trades, we can ease the sails and head west of north, making for faster and more comfortable sailing, and then continuing to the west to skirt the Azores high pressure system, hopefully retaining wind in the sails; to go through the middle could mean several hundred miles of motoring which despite our almost new engine, we would prefer to avoid.
We did our final round of provisioning today – our fifth trip to Carrefour. The boat is most definitely full to bursting. Pineapples and melons hung from a net outside at the stern, bags of potatoes and onions on the saloon floor, baskets full of bananas on the aft cabin floor, and eggs delicately balanced on a shelf (hope we use them before we get a wave!). It is not something we normally obsess about, but shopping takes ages when you have to pay so much attention to expiry dates. I don’t understand why they produce so much with three months validity and then try to sell it in the last few days! Anyway, the boat is ready....are we? After so long on land it will take a while to get back into the routine of life on passage, but off we go. Next stop Europe (gulp!).
Last Days in Brazil
24 May 2016 | Cabedelo, Brazil
Ian
Once the parts finally arrived here it took the mechanics just a few days to rebuild the engine, and it appeared back at the marina, shiny in a new coat of Volvo green paint with all the expensive stuff (pistons, pumps, bearings etc) hidden away inside. Then the installation, and the nervous moments as 200kg of engine was swung up on board Evita by the boom from a raft in the water beside us. No disasters though, and the engine is now installed, and purrs into action at the turn of a key (maybe I am speaking too soon as we have yet to do a proper trial, but it sounds good anyway). The work was ably done by the mechanic we used at the start of the process, leaving me to rebuild the cockpit, seal up the floor so that we could reverse some of the chaos in which we have been living for the past few weeks.
The wait had been long, and frustrating. In the UK they say patience is a virtue. In Brazil it is a necessity. It has not only been the long wait for the parts; it is virtually every dealing we have with anybody in any official or professional capacity. Doing the paperwork to firstly enter the country, then to extend our stay and then to leave involves traipsing around three different offices each time, spending untold amounts of time sitting in waiting rooms outside empty offices, or sitting in offices, in front of the official who is playing games on their phone while we all wait for the boss to stamp a piece of paper. The temptation to shout at people is always there, but you know it makes no difference. In the end, the person you are dealing with is seldom has the power to make anything happen; there is far more deference to the hierarchy than there are signs of empowerment, and no signs that anybody places value on time, so that your time and theirs are there to be wasted. So a great place for a chilled laid back holiday, but a difficult place to get things done.
To overcome our feelings of impotence while waiting for Volvo to deliver, we sought a sense of purpose in the therapeutic world of shopping. We did wonder at one point whether it was really a good idea to be buying tons of food to load up a boat that might not go anywhere for a while (what if they send the wrong parts/the mechanics failed to order something crucial/the parts never arrive) but we fitted in four trips to the Carrefour megastore down the road (another one for fresh stuff before we leave). As always, some of our staples are hard to find: How will we manage without new supplies of pesto sauce? How to we choose from all these unfamiliar brands of pasta? We have taken on board some Brazilian specialities though - those delicious black beans and a few bags of tapioca. Protein is as usual the most difficult component of the diet to deal with - made all the more complicated by Raul's new found vegetarianism. I hope the fish are obliging on this next passage.
We have now been in Cabedelo for about 2 and a half months, which has given the little sea/river creatures plenty of time to build their homes on our hull. We have a lot of miles to cover, so figured a scrub was in order but after looking into the murk we were very pleased to find that the marina offers a bottom cleaning service. One of the guys spent an hour or so on the end of an air hose under the boat scraping off the barnacles and other little hitch-hikers. Hopefully that should give us an extra half a knot, which of several thousand miles can add up to days.
Since returning from the Amazon we have made one touristy trip, to a place called Inga some 90km inland. There are a number of curious stone carvings in the rocks by a river, and the archaeologists seem entirely unable to reach a consensus on who did them, and when. They have been dated to somewhere between 200 and 6,000 years (I would have thought the amount of weathering would narrow the range considerably, but hey what do I know?), and have been attributed to the Mayans, the Phoenicians, local indigenous people and of course aliens from outer space. The penultimate group, with an age of 200 years, seems to be winning but I guess a bit of speculation draws in the tourists (it worked for us!).
This watery land (4)
04 May 2016 | Santarém
Ian
Santarém is located about half way down from Manaus to the river mouth at Belém, at the point at which the Tapajós river joins the Amazon. It is a small city, with limited touristic interest. We did try a couple of the local museums, but not much there, and they certainly did not deserve the rave reviews they had on TripAdvisor (hope my comments there will bring some balance to the next lot of visitors).
The gem of the area is Alter do Chão, a beach town about 40km south down the Rio Tapajós. Some refer to is as the Brazilian Caribbean, and that's a pretty fair description, if you make some allowance for the absence of the turquoise water. The beach is beautiful sand, and the water is warm and clean, if cloudy and there are bars on the beach serving lunch and Caipirinhas. What more can you ask for? One difference between here and the sea is the the lack of tide. Through the day the water is largely at the same level, although here the "tide" runs on an annual cycle. In a few weeks time most of the beach will be submerged, and only the roofs of the bars will be visible, and between September and December much of what now has to be crossed by boat can be walked.
But we didn't come here only for hedonistic pleasures. Further up the river is the Tapajós Forest Reserve, a protected area that gave us the chance to see some proper primary forest. We rode down the river for and hour and a half at high speed in Kika's speedboat and arrived at Jamaraqua where we checked into our Pousada and slung our hammocks (at £2/person this was our cheapest accommodation yet). From there we did a four hour hike up into the forest to where the big trees still grow. And plenty of them. The sky opened on the way back, and there was no escape. The difficulty then is drying stuff, as the air is so damp that water just doesn't evaporate.
Although for the past couple of weeks we have been about as far from the sea as we have at any time since we started the trip, we have probably eaten more fish here than at any other time. Amazonian river fish is big, meaty and very good. Also served in huge servings. Brazilian restaurants often serve dishes for two or more people (enough for at least three of us), and now that we have two veggies in the party, fish is the logical choice. I do find myself craving meat and vegetables sometimes though.
This watery land (3)
29 April 2016 | Santarém
Ian
When the time came to return to Manaus the jungle sent us a downpour that gave torrential a new meaning. I don't think I have ever seen rain like that - not what you want when embarking on an open boat. Fortunately it eased at the right time so the short boat ride was only slightly wet. The next stage of the trip was along a dirt road that in terms of traction now resembled an ice rink. Part way along, the inevitable happened when our rear wheel drive VW combi van slewed alternately to left and right, the driver lost control and we ended up in the undergrowth. Our guide assured us that this had nothing to do with the driver being a woman (I wondered why he felt the need to tell us). Fortunately the undergrowth was soft and thick so no real damage, but it was a bit scary. Give me the sea any day!
We got back to Manaus to the news that our 10 day delivery on the engine parts would now be over 20 (groan!) so we decided to extend our Amazonian sojourn and are now riding the ferry downriver towards the town of Santarém, about half way to the coast. We will stay there for a few days before heading back to the boat.
These boats are the main form of transport between the towns in the Amazon, full of people and goods. Many of the people have obviously been on shopping excursions to Manaus judging by the number of TVs and other appliances being transported. The boat holds about 700 passengers, the majority of whom are crammed into the hammock room. I was on one of these boats 20 years ago and that's where we slept, but the softness of old age puts us into the luxury world of an air-conditioned "suite", with private bathroom. Mind you, it seems everyone has gone soft as even the hammock room is airconditioned now.
The river is wide here, and strewn with debris - floating patches of vegetation that has broken off from the banks of some tributary and huge logs. I guess these logs find their way out to sea and so are something we will have to watch out for when we eventually get moving again and pass the part of the Atlantic when this river empties