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Nexus - On our way to Fernando de Noronha



On our way to Fernando de Noronha, a small group of islands and national park off the the eastern shoulder of Brazil. We left Salvador Bahia about 7:30 and filled up at the fuel barge with ferries, pilot boats and fishing boats hovering impatiently nearby as our first credit card was blocked but the second one worked thankfully! We motored slowly out of the bay waiting for Ghost, Alpheratz, Saphir and Festina Lente to catch up, and we soon joined Polaris, which made a nice group to travel with. On our way out we headed south east to deeper water and a better wind angle, which was a bit out of the way but we were soon rewarded with a smoother sail and consistent though light winds on our way. Those who turned North sooner, found themselves pushed closer to the beach than they would have liked. We have had two days mixed with very nice sailing in light winds from the East, combined with periods of 4-6kt winds where we motored. We reefed down the first night and were glad we did, as we had spectacular large thunderstorms and squalls all night. Last night we double reefed down to get better sleep for the captain:-) and were rewarded with larger squalls and lightening but very light winds to no wind, and ended up motoring more than half of the night and this morning. There is an oil field right along the route, about 60nm south of Recife, where we passed several large rigs and drill ships, along with support vessels. They are well lit and indicated with AIS, but an imposing sight nonetheless. Importantly, during heavy squalls, we couldn't see them at all even though they were 5 miles to port of us, which doubles the emphasis on keeping an eye on AIS and Radar in this area. Best news of the voyage so far; we caught a delicious Black Fin Tuna yesterday, which became sushi and seared sesame steaks almost as soon as it stopped wiggling...the fishing drought has been broken!

Russ and Laurie on NEXUS 11:00 02/21/2015 at 9 50.4'S:34 54.1'W

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