Morning came early with clear skies, sunshine and very little wind. It didn’t take long to get the carnival goodies put away, the floors vacuumed, rugs rolled up and put by for coastal passage to Cabedelo, Knick knacks stored, galley secured, and lines ready to slip. We were off the dock at 07:13. I stowed lines and fenders while Captain piloted us out through the harbour traffic that included a crazy person way out on a stand up paddle board! Then we settled in drinking our coffee and eating breakfast. It took a couple of hours before there was enough wind from a usable quarter to even motorsail with. By mid afternoon we had 18 knots apparent wind 25 degrees off the starbrd nose. Slow going, even with the engine on. By 2200 it was positively sloppy, with waves smacking the bow and the boat galloping along like a hobbyhorse. It looks like our three day passage to Cabedelo is going to stretch into four. We had a little black seabird with a grey head come and hitch a ride for a few minutes. It appeared that he just needed somewhere to land and get his feathers all situated, for he spent a few minutes preening then flew away. There is enough boat traffic to keep the on watch busy; big cargo ships running up the coast, another sailboat going west, our bunch going mostly east by north, and various fish boats which do not have AIS signatures, but are well lit at night. Not a bad start for a short journey.
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