Land Ho! After 12 days at sea and a very long/tedious night we saw Brazil through the midst & haze at 1450 hours UTC (1150 local time)! Pretty exciting for all on board and brought a feeling of completion to the voyage. Two and a half hours later, we made our way in to the bay and docked Safari at Marina Gloria, near the heart of downtown Rio.
Unfortunately it was still very hazy and overcast as we made our way in to the Bay (you could barely make out Sugarloaf mountain) but the crew of Safari was excited to be in and proud of what we'd accomplished.

A paragraph written by the Danish author Carsten Jensen captures well what sailors experience mid ocean and I'd like to share it with you. Here he speaks of the Pacific but the words are appropriate to any long open ocean passage:
There comes a time in the life of a sailor when he no longer belongs ashore. It's then that he surrenders to the Pacific, where no land blocks the eye, where sky and ocean mirror each other until above and below have lost their meaning, and the Milky Way looks like the spume of a breaking wave and the Globe itself rolls like a boat in the midst of the sinking and heaving surf of that starry sky, and the sun is nothing but a tiny glowing dot of phosphorescence on the night sea.

Words well said and each of us on Safari experienced similar moments during our night watches crossing the Atlantic....

Safari will stay in Brazil for the near future to sample the delights of Samba cruising! The rest of us return to our lives and families ashore but the memories afloat remain until the nex time we pack our seabags and cast off for the next adventure!
Fair winds, following seas and thanks for sharing in our voyage!
Paul J. Reid
s/v Carmelita

What a long night it was closing in on the coastline of Brazil. We had to thread our way through a very large offshore oil field with lots of ship traffic and oil rigs. The seas were almost glassy and the stars overhead were lovely but the gas flares burning on the rigs around us gave a surreal atmosphere to the situation. Had two tankers pass within 1.25 nm of the yacht on my watch; Derek had four tankers surrounding him at one point, two of which passed within 1/8 mile of Safari. Thank heaven for the MARPA function of radar, which allows us to plot/follow each vessel and determine speed/bearing/time of closest approach etc. With many vehicles bearing down of you it is nice to be able to eliminate ones that don't present an immediate threat, while assessing those that do. Dawn brought grey marine layer overcast with a visiblity of a few miles at most. Mid morning had issues with starboard engine (low lube oil pressure) followed by a clogged primary fuel filter. Resolved the oil issue quickly but fought the fuel delivery problem for several hours. The primary tank was very low and we had to transfer fuel from our jerry jugs in to the primary tank, as well as change out filters/bleed air from the lines on both engines. Typical boat stuff! Cruisers have an expression: "cruising is working on your vessel in strange and exotic places"! And believe me, you do! Things are all sorted out now; we're motoring all happily (well not so happy, we'd rather be sailing-no wind!) and the marina is approximately 20 miles away. Sighted land at 1450 UTC and should be in before dark. Will do a final Landfall posting tomorrow!

Pretty nice sailing last night under chute and the stars. no rain and only one wind shift early morning that necessitated some sail adjustments. We did hook up two large fish last night as we were crossing the Almirante Banco. hard to slow the boat down while under the spinnaker and we lost both fish unfortunately due to broken monofilament leaders. Each was sawn through so we likely had hooked up wahoo, which have very sharp teeth! There are a pair of pissed off wahoos swimming around out there now with new bling: our lures hanging off their lips! hey Ralph, where'd you get the nice rapala?" Sunny today but wind has shifted to hard on the nose; we struck the chute at 1100 and went to main & jib but had to turn on engine two hours later to keep a decent boat speed up. 181 nm to Rio and the anchorage; the horse is smelling the barn. Final night at sea tonight!

Sailed all last night under spinnaker and dealt with shifty winds frequently, a result of squalls we passed through. Vigilance was required as with the squall one would often find a sudden major wind shift, collapsing the chute and prompt attention was required as the sail would be trying to beat the boat to death! Needless to say, the captain and first mate did not get a lot of shuteye last night.... Today has been totally overcast and rainy all day; much like the Pacific Northwest, only much warmer. Still sailing however and making good speed at 7 knots+. In two hours we'll pass over a seamount, Banco Almirante Saldanha, 328 feet deep in an area of depths exceeding 12,000 feet. We're trailing all lures in hopes of landing dinner! A beautiful horizon to horizon rainbow if off the stern of Safari as I type.... 260 nm to Cabo Frio, other 65 miles after that and we're in port.

Last night was one wild ride for 9-1/2 hours! Wind picked up to 14-16 just off our nose so up went the main/jib. Unfortunately the seas built up as well and had a strong beam cross sea. The ride was the rolliest/worst of the voyage so far and reminiscent of confused seas and the wild rides I get in my monohull at times! But we made good speed at 9 knots so we grinned and beared it! :) At 4 am the winds died down so we put the sails away and started up the engine again.... the seas diminished too, thank heaven! Thursday am is back to peaceful times again: mild seas, light wind, chute up again and winds dead astern. Not making fast speeds, 5-6 knots, but I think the crew is all enjoying the respite after last nights' sleigh ride! They're all dozing as I type! Saw a ship today, first one in a few days and provided brief distraction from endless waves rolling by! BBQ'd filet mignon tonight for dinner; I could get used to meals like this! One advantage of a huge freezer onboard.... 455 nm till Rio

The wind finally left us in the middle of the night; dropped the chute at 0400 and started motoring. Morning came as overcast but it burned off midday and turned into a very pleasant day. We're motoring in bright sunshine and somewhat glassy seas that have a long rolling swell to them. We hooked up a big fish and fought it for about 15 minutes mid morning. Never saw it but it stripped off line several times but finally managed to get free. Oh well! such is a fishermans life.... Just under 700 miles to Rio as of 1 pm.