We start our passage to Recife today. Although it is only about 400 miles, it promises to be slow going as the winds are predicted to be light but right on the nose. That’ll be lot’s of motoring then!
We start off at around 7.15 am and for a very short while, all seems quite good. Once past Morro de Sao Paulo we are able to put the main and genoa out, cut the engines and sail properly – for about half an hour! Then the seas become choppy and the wind drops. Mike pulls the genoas away and puts an engine on again. So much for sailing!
I go back to bed to get into our normal sea pattern but don’t sleep as it’s so choppy. The wind comes round so that it is just off the nose but so slightly that it makes no real difference. As we approach Salvador and are about 10 miles off shore, we start to pick up the adverse current – about a knot running against us.
Mike heads further east and out to sea, to try to get out of the current and to avoid the fishing vessels that we have heard are just in offshore waters without lights but with large nets – just right for fouling your propellers!
He sleeps in the afternoon but I have such a headache that I have to lie down again in the early evening. When I awake, he greets me with the great news that once again, the freezer is defrosting itself and its contents. Neither of us has the stomach for dealing with it tonight – tomorrow will do.
Through the day we have motor-sailed at just 2.5 to 3 knots, a pathetic crawl that will take us to the start line on he right day and bypassing carnival, Olinda and Recife altogether – not what we had planned. Looking at e-mails we have had from the other boats, it looks like the current disappears about half way to Recife and we might just make some time up there. In the meantime it is slow, slow, SLOW!
While we are watching TV I hear a noise coming from around the mast that sounds like one of the batons coming out again. Mike goes to investigate and sure enough, it is a baton, but coming from the sailbag and not the sail itself. Mike thinks it will stay in place but just after I go to bed he takes another look and decides it is definitely coming further out, and I get up and sit at the helm while he puts his lifejacket and line on and pulls it out completely, passing about 24 feet of baton through the cockpit to me. It is now lying down the port companionway and there it will stay until we get to port. Bloody boats!
Our position is: 12 deg 45 min S, 37 deg 50 min W
Distance so far: 22091 nautical miles
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