We were off to a good start with dolphins joining us for a while. It was rough though, and when we went to the bow to watch them we all got soaked with waves spraying through the tramps. Although it was a bumpy ride, we had good 15-20 knots which kept our mileage up. On Tuesday afternoon RatCatcher radioed us with a grib update which forecasted a swell and wind increase to 30 knots - we had to decide what to do. So we made the decision at 17h30 to gybe and get into Natal before the weather arrived. It was a good beam reach but the beam sea made the ride so uncomfortable. The wind also picked up to about 25knots and the waves crashing onto the side of the boat were big. The sound of a wave hitting you beam on sounds like you are hitting a wall and it also slows the boat down from about 5.5knots to 1.8knots. What is it that we can hardly ever make landfall during day light hours? We arrived in Natal, the port being up a narrow river, at 4am. The entrance to the river has a reef on either side - I just remember shouting at Leon from the bow that there was so much white water around - as the waves crashed on reefs. Our chartplotter software was a bit outdated and there is a new suspension bridge that has since been built which also totally confused us. During day light hours these sorts of things are completely different and you are able to decipher what is going on, but in the dark after a heavy 12 hour sail your wits are not what they should be. We got past the bridge and up the river about 1 mile where the Iate Club is. RatCatcher had just tied up to the jetty but the security guard told us that the jetty would not be able to hold us as well, so we anchored in 10m of water. While we made sure the anchor was set, we showered and cleaned up the boat a bit. By now it was 5.45am and the girls would be up soon. Leon crashed out for about 3 hours and I sat watching the sun rise at this unexpected landfall.