Starblazer - 02/02/2016 – It’s good when a plan comes together!

Monday was a bit of an anti-climax because we had hoped to arrive by dusk.
The winds had slackened considerably, often dropping to 10 knots overnight
which in turn resulted in reduced boat speed. Straight after the 10:00 am
SSB radio net we rolled the genoas away, motored gently into the breeze for
a couple of minutes while I pulled up the mainsail, turned back on course
and cut the engine then set about removing the poles. Once they were safely
stowed we pulled up the cruising chute aka genniker or asymmetric. Some
boats have them rolled away ready to deploy but ours is hoisted in its sock,
the tack is pulled close to the end of the bowsprit and the sheet is fed
back to the winches in the cockpit. As I pull down on the sock line John
gently pulls the sheet so as the sock goes up and the beautiful big coloured
sail billows out. It gave us an immediate burst of speed! We had sailed
further north than the rest of the fleet because our twin genoa system
limited us in respect of the angle of the wind. This was, in fact, a bonus
because when we set a course for the finish line the wind was from just aft
of the beam which is probably our fastest point of sail.

The rest of the day was spent sailing at surprising speed in fairly gentle
wind. Certainly we would not have been able to maintain a 5 knot average on
plain sails alone. We took a gamble that the forecast was accurate and that
the winds would likely die but certainly not increase, so we left the chute
up after dark. At 0200 watch change I reported average speeds of barely 4
knots, by 0215 the wind was down to 4 knots so we took the sail down. We
try to avoid any work on deck after dark, however the seas were very calm
and the deck lights illuminate the area very well. I pulled the sock down
while John eased the sheet, then he came to the mast to lower the sail while
I folded it back into its bag. The whole job took less than 15 minutes
which, for us, is quite good going! We motored the rest of the way, 31 nM to
the finish line which we crossed at 0745 UT 0445 local time.

One of Monday’s jobs was to ‘butcher’ Sunday night’s 6kg Wahoo, vacuum pack
it into meal sized packs and try to find somewhere to store it. Against all
my expectations, I managed to place eight packs of two steaks and two
meal-sized tail fillets into the freezer, only needing to remove one
pre-cooked dinner in a slightly outsize foil container and the remaining few
prawns. Lunch on Monday was Tahitian Poission Cru with coleslaw. The fish
is cooked in the same way as in Ceviche, soaked in lime juice for an hour
letting the acid ‘cook’ the fish, it’s then mixed with tomatoes (if you have
any), grated carrot, grated ginger, garlic, onion and coconut milk. It was
delicious. It will probably not surprise you to hear that we had Wahoo
steaks with mashed potato and carrots followed by sticky toffee pudding and
custard.

Today has been very long, I’ve now been up for nearly 15 hours and it is
only 1640. John has only had one hour’s sleep since 2300 yesterday (in
Brazil local time). I suspect we will be in bed very early this evening!
We have done some basic boat jobs including: clearing the cruising ‘clothes’
from the saloon e.g. life jackets, jumpers, long trousers etc; removing all
the ‘stuff’ stored on the forward cabin bed for the passage (e.g. fruit bowl
& apples, spare cockpit cushions, saloon cushions, homeless items like the
large box containing the new diesel heater etc); fitting mosquito nets over
the hatches in the forward cabin and saloon and organising canvas sheets
above the hatches to keep out the rain and sun; trying to sort out the
problem with the electricity connection; making up a filter system to render
the tap water drinkable (too juch clorine)!

When the rain finally stopped we went to find a bank to get some local
money. We were recommended to go to the Bank of Brazil and be patient as it
is often difficult to get the machines to give you cash! Sometimes the
machines rejected the card immediately, sometimes we got very nearly though
to the end of the procedure when it came up with a message declining to give
us any money. I think we had 4 different messages using 2 different cards
in 2 different machines. We went back to the boat to get a different debit
card and my credit card which isn’t looking as worn out as John’s. We still
had no success so while John waited upstairs to talk to someone I went back
to the boat to collect US$100. By the time I reached the corner before the
bank John was standing on the pavement having succeeded in extracting 300
Reals, about £60, from a machine. Hallelujah. Our next problem was to break
a 50 Real note to give us change for the lift to the Pelourinho or upper
town. The lift is only 15 cents per person and they will only give limited
change. By this time it was way past lunchtime so we stopped for hamburgers
in a café. We finally managed to get a 50 cent coin in change when I bought
a bottle of water.

We took the lift up then wandered around the Pelourinho where workmen are
busily preparing it for carnival. We came across two troupes, one a group
of youngsters dancing energetically to the loud rhythms beaten out by the
drummers. The second group all seemed to be playing an instrument of some
sort. I videoed both groups. We stopped in a small café and ordered ‘Suco
de Naranja’, freshly squeezed orange juice with ice. The large cups cost 4
Reals each, about 80p. We decided we had had enough, we are both tired and
it is very hot, so we rode the Elavador Lacerda down to the port level and
returned to the boat.

Tomorrow will comprise more boat jobs plus some more sightseeing!

Joyce