Diary 10 December - 4 February

Thursday 10th December 2009, 1930 UTC

Posn: 5deg49'.3S 29deg49'.8W

For the last few days we have been getting used to living on a hillside. You know, one leg shorter than the other. Yup we have been just off close-hauled since early on 7th December. We have freed up our course a bit to go for speed and (some) comfort, and we are looking forward to our next waypoint in 100nm when we will change course and be more on a beam reach. We have 10-12kts True wind and we are doing 6-6.5kts with full main and genoa. The Windpilot has been working well, and we moved the control lines to-day as there was some chafe.

We have kept our 2 On - 6 Off watch system and this is bringing benefits as we continue to head south since we now have 13 hours of daylight - we are approaching mid-summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Our typical day sees Norma taking over from John at 0600 when the fishing line is streamed. Norma has some breakfast and enjoys the dawn. Phil comes on at 0800 and makes his breakfast and coffee for both. The smell of the latter wakes John and Beth and we all gather in the cockpit and natter for an hour or so. We decide on lunch - today we had cheese-topped, grilled aubergine with tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, Serrano Ham and freshly baked bread. A tin of beer washed it down nicely. We do not have a formal watch system between 1000 and 1800, so we take it in turns to go below and rest, do odd jobs, cleaning, clothes washing etc. Time is also spent reading, chatting and doing Sudoko puzzles. Our evening meal is important and Norma, John and Beth are most involved in its preparation - Phil seems distracted by the burden of command (otherwise known as tweaking the sails).

The wind keeps the cockpit at a nice temperature - just shorts for the guys - though it gets quite hot down below. At night a T-shirt is required and we put away the bimini for better visibility and to be able to see the stars. Since we left Cape Verdes we have seen just five ships, but we have to be very careful as they can be on collision course - we called one up the other night when it was 8nm away and heading straight for us. We had the Sea-Me active radar transponder on and the ship, "Boran", said he could see us clearly on his radar. They passed 5nm away.

We are now two-thirds of the way towards Salvador - we are very content with progress and life onboard. The key though is not to be complacent and continue to be strict in our safety and maintenance regimes. They said "Enjoy". We do.

18th December 2009

Posn: Salvador da Bahia, Brazil

Well, we did it. There's a bit of a Groucho Marx moment about this - you know, "Any club that will have me as a member, I don't want to join". How was the crossing, really? It was not hard at all. The most wind we had was on the first on last days - about 22kts. So, no tropical storms, no being tossed about in maelstroms of 20 metre waves, no running before the wind, no sea anchors etc - in fact no drama. Well, there was but fortunately we were prepared.
The first couple of days out from Mindelo we had plenty of wind and reefs in the sails. We were trucking along beautifully at 7.5-8kts and decided to use the Autohelm rather than the Windpilot until John and Beth settled into Minnie B. Then we were doing a watch change at 0600 on day two when the alarm on the Autohelm started beeping and up came some fault messages. We checked them out in the manual and basically the Main PCB and the Control PCB in the drive computer had gone. Hm ... 2000nm still to go, but we had the Windpilot and four of us to hand steer. The Windpilot was brilliant whether downwind, reaching or close-hauled. We were expecting to motor through the ITCZ and we had been warned that the final 200nm might have very light/no wind. We headed West as the GRIB weather files suggested that the ITCZ was narrowest at around 28degrees West. This did benefit us as we were only in the ITCZ for about 24 hours when we hand steered as the Windpilot doesn't work with the engine on and the propeller sending wash over its rudder blade. It was a bit of a pain but each of us steered for two hours at a time. We kept the engine going for another 12 hours through the night as there was a north-going current and southerly winds. Then there was plenty of wind when we arrived near the Brazilian coast. So in the end we only motored for about 36 hours which was a lot less than many of the other boats. We did have a couple of days when boat speed was down to 3.5-4kts, but it's great for learning to be patient.
We arrived off Salvador at 0430 on Wednesday morning and decided to heave to so that we could see the city in daylight. It is a mixture of very high rise office and apartment buildings and 19th century Portuguese architecture. When we came into the marina there was a welcoming committee from the 10 or so boats that were in ahead of us, and Nicholas from the Rally who set off flares. As we stepped onto the pontoon there was lots of applause and hugs all round ... oh and Brazilian ladies with capairinhas and fruit for us.

The capairinha has been elevated to the ranks of gin and tonic (Plymouth gin please), malt whisky (Highland for her and Islay for him), and Timothy Taylor's Landlord (the best beer in the world).

After the capairinhas we opened a bottle of champagne (not DP unfortunately) and some Guinness. Oh, then we had a couple of beers ... this was nearly part of a tragedy. We almost ran out of beer - we had anticipated one can per person a day but in the end we had a beer at lunchtime and at dinner, so our consumption was double our expectations.

So, what about the numbers for the crossing - we sailed 2141nm in a total time of 15 days 21 hours and 30 minutes (including 4 hours hove to). Our average speed was 5.67kts. We motored for 37 hours and used just over 100 litres of diesel. We made water on 7 days and used around 1250 litres which worked out at 20 litres per person per day - we all had freshwater showers every other day. We drank 80 cans of beer, two bottles of wine, one can of Guinness and one bottle of Dom Perignon. We ate ... very well. Apples and oranges kept well, along with onions and potatoes. We bought green tomatoes and green bananas before we left and the former did well but despite keeping the bananas in the dark and only bringing out what we needed, they only lasted just over a week. The Serrano ham was (still is) brilliant - don't leave for an Atlantic crossing without one. We had quite a lot of unripened avocados and they were fine for nearly 10 days but the last ones didn't ripen properly. Our eggs were good and we did not turn them over regularly but it didn't cause any harm.

Apart from the Autohelm malfunctioning, we have one cockpit speaker not working and the HiFi/VHF automatic selector for the cockpit speakers has stopped working. We have a very small area of chafe on the main halyard where it goes over the block at the top of the mast. One of the control lines for the Windpilot chafed, as did the adjusting line. We had put anti-chafe protectors at the pulpit/life-line connections and these worked well, albeit we have a lot of chafe on the leech of the genoa which is probably three years of tacking rather than anything to do with the crossing. We used the cruising chute on about five occasions but never for very long and our most favoured sailing configuration was poled out genoa on the port side and main out to starboard. The genoa is being fixed by a local sailmaker.

We read a lot of books and we have become quite good at Soduko. We did some learning of Portuguese but could have done a lot more ... maybe the Rally should set language exams so that participants are more motivated.

Did we enjoy? Oh yes we did. Curiously the time did not drag nor were we anxious for the voyage to end - we had a routine and it worked. We even got the washing machine out one day and hung up the clothes to dry. Of course, just when they had been put out there was a windshft and we needed to gybe. One of the heads needed valves changing and this was done (thank you John).

So, after our celebrations on arriving we slept for a while. Then we discovered we had another problem. Now fans of "The Lord of the Rings" will be familiar with the scene where our heroes are fighting off Sauron's forces at Helm's Deep, and Aragorn goes with Gimli to attack some Orcs at one of the gateways. In order to get into position they have to leap across a wide gap - Gimli is height-challenged and says to Aragorn "Dinna tell the Elf yee tossed the dwarf". Well (pace Jill) we have had to do some dwarf tossing otherwise Beth was unable to get off the boat. Now this is fun for a while but ... So Phil and John hopped in a taxi and went in search of wood for a passarelle (that's French for gangplank) and whilst they were at it replenished the beer stocks and picked up some used tyres for mooring compensators. At the wood shop we were told we could collect the wood on Friday but a quick check in the Portuguese dictionary produced the word "agora" meaning now. Then the people at the wood shop fell about laughing. We compromised on an hour.

We ate at the marina restaurant that first night here - very fine capairinhas - and were joined by Malcom and James from 'Vita' - they will be leaving 'Vita' here and rejoining the rally next year so we will not see them after Christmas Eve. It will be a shame as they are very good company.

Yesterday was spent on shopping (Norma and Beth) and tracking down the electrical faults (Phil and mostly John). Francois from 'Pilhoue V' joined us for dinner and Beth cooked a superb Malay chicken dish. The marina restaurant supplied some ice and we had home-made capairinhas ... mmm.
John and Beth's daughter, Juliette arrives tomorrow and we think we will head off into the Bahia for a few days as there are some lovely islands and anchorages.

26 December 2009, 1600 UTC (1300 local time)

Position: Baia do Todos Santos – that’s All Saints’ Bay, Salvador

We are just on our way back to the marina in Salvador after a fabulous four days cruising in the Canal de Itaparica and Rio Paraguacu. But first, a bit about Salvador.

The marina is beside the Terminal Maritimo where the ferry boats ply their trade all over the Baia de Todos Santos. The marina is quite small and all the RIDS boats are on one pontoon. The marina is also close to the Mercado Modelo where there is a so-called artisans' market, but it’s basically a lot of tourist tat with a few not bad things thrown in. Then across a busy street there is the Elevador (lifts) that take you to the Centro Historico where there are palaces and many beautiful houses that used to be homes to sugar cane, mining and farming barons. This is also where there are churches galore and the cathedral. Adjacent to this area is Pelourinho, a pedestrian area made up of cobbled streets, bars, restaurants and lots of music – oh, and shops selling tourist tat. We were warned that it is dangerous to wander around these areas at night but we have done so (there were seven of us so maybe being mob-handed stopped the muggers). There are many fine buildings and a lot of restoration taking place. The main hotel and beach area is out on the Atlantic coast side of the city and it appears modern and not at all down at heel – clearly the economy is holding up and the city is vibrant and bustling. We have eaten out a couple of times (wine is not cheap and basically Brazil is not in the same league as Chile when it comes to wine-making). There is a lot of beef about and the seafood is good too, although we had a somewhat interesting prawn dish. Imagine cauliflower cheese, only delete cauliflower and insert prawns. Hm!

So, on Tuesday 22nd we set off for a short cruise – we first went to the entrance to the bay to get clean water and run the watermaker, then under cruising chute we sailed up the bay, losing the wind at the north end of Itaparica island, so then it was motor to Muta where we anchored in company with Mina 2 and Suzie Too. Our first attempt to anchor resulted in us just dragging the anchor through the mud so we went a bit further out – all was well ... until a dugout canoe with two fishermen on board came alongside. They were raising their fishing net and we had laid our anchor chain over it. So that would be marked by the bright buoys that weren’t there then!! Anyway, fortunately the anchor was not on the net and when we lifted some chain the net came free.

We had drinks on Mina 2 with Suzie Too that evening. We decided to stay another day so that we could replace some anodes and Mina 2 joined us for drinks – all very convivial. We had a quick trip ashore to the beach bar and then on Christmas Eve headed for the Rio Paraguacu and a muster of some twelve RIDS boats at Santiago do Iguape for dinner at a local restaurant. Now this was really interesting from a navigation viewpoint as no-one had paper or electronic charts that covered the last twelve miles. However, a British boat had done the trip last year and passed on waypoints for a safe course. This was where having an Ovni with the lifting keel came in – it was raised and the rudder folded but the depths only once got below 1.5 metres (our 0.68 draught was fine). The river was bounded by mangroves and palm trees, there are houses and holiday lets but it is not overwhelmed. We stopped for lunch by a beach near the entrance to the river and swam – a rope with a fender tied to the back of the boat was required as the current would have swept us away.

As we progressed up the river we passed old churches and small villages – it reminded us of the films “The Mission” and “Apocalypse Now”. The church of San Francisco do Paraguacu was just as we imagined and then we reached Santiago do Iguape with yet another monument to Christianity and the Catholic church. Our dinner was great fun as the place was not really a restaurant but more of a pension. We were greeted with the inevitably delicious capairinhas and then had a table with Sybille and Jean (Havanita), David and Suzanne, and Nicole and Francois (Pilhoue V) – the food was superb (fresh oysters, prawns, filet mignon) and washed down with the wine we took along.

On the stroke of midnight the British/American contingent struck up with “We wish you a Merry Christmas” and this led to some competitive singing between us and the French/Belgian contingent.
Christmas Day was lunchtime on African Seawing with Suzie Too and Mina 2 with foie gras, smoked salmon, pizza and finished with crepes covered in Mina 2’s orange gin. We spent the rest of the day just lazing with John, Beth and Juliette – no television! Christmas dinner was more foie gras and filet mignon!
So now we are on our way back to the marina, having motored by an island where we were told there were scarlet ibis. We saw a couple fly into the mangrove, so with cameras at the ready we circled back and got as close to the mangrove as we dared. We thought a blast on the foghorn might raise the two or three we had seen when much to our surprise a whole flock burst into flight – they are magnificent.
The next couple of days we will put Minnie B partly to bed as John and Beth are staying on until 8th January and we return to UK on 28th/29th December.
The first part of our RIDS adventure has been wonderful but we are also looking forward to seeing our wonderful daughters, family and friends before we head north towards the Amazon.

NEWSFLASH --------------NEWSFLASH---------------------NEWSFLASH------------------NEWSFLASH

SHOCKING ACT OF PIRACY, HIJACKING, KIDNAPPING AND RANSOM THROWS FAMILY IN TURMOIL

We have just heard that Mina 2 has been hijacked. This is dreadful. Tim had to return to UK urgently, leaving his wife Maria, son Peter and daughter Selina on the boat with his sailing companion, Neil (some prat) and his now fiancée Sarah. They have been with us on this trip as Tim asked us to keep an eye on them – he didn’t really trust them with the boat but was bullied into letting them take it out. Well, that’s what we understand. All seemed well among the family and friends, but apparently the boat has been taken over by Neil, Sarah, Peter and Selina and they are holding Maria hostage and seeking a substantial ransom. Neil and Sarah say they need the money to pay for an engagement ring and wedding, and it turns out that Peter and Selina have been harbouring a secret hatred of their parents for forcing them to go sailing, when they were young, in the cold, wet weather of winter in England. What brought matters to a head is that Tim plans to take Mina 2 to the Antarctic (his motto is “Sun is fun ... but ice is nice..er” (bit sad we know but ...). Tim was insisting that Selina and Peter go with him but now they will not release Mina 2 or Maria until Tim agrees to fund them for an equivalent holiday somewhere hot and he finds different crew. Unfortunately this could drag on for some time as Tim has a reputation for being pig-headed.

A problem for Tim and the authorities is that the tracking beacons we had from the start of the rally to Brazil have been handed back. So it will be difficult to find the boat. Neil had been very interested in provisioning and distances to the Caribbean. At the same time given Peter’s and Selina’s attitudes to sun and ice, the best guess is that they have now headed north. We will keep you posted.

4 January 2010

Position: Minnie B – Salvador da Bahia; Us – Northern Ireland

Our flight to UK with TAM was fine and we made all connections including to NI. It has been great to see our daughter Julia and our friends Brian and Jill, with whom we are staying. It is cold here and there are no leaves on the trees of course, but it’s all so familiar that adjustment is instant.
We are seeing lots of family and friends so the time here is good.

NEWSFLASH --------------NEWSFLASH---------------------NEWSFLASH------------------NEWSFLASH

MINA 2 IN DARING RESCUE BY BRAZILIAN SPECIAL FORCES – BOTTLE OF ORANGE GIN SAVED

News is just in that Mina 2 has been located and Maria freed by the SAS-trained Brazilian Special Forces, known as the CapRNA. There were several injuries among the hijackers including chipped nail varnish, smudged lipstick and mussed hair.

The dramatic rescue took place after Tim authorised the Brazilian authorities to intervene. He had become increasingly angered at the hijackers’ cavalier attitude to precious cargo. In an interview with Minnie B News he expressed outrage at the use of his orange gin on pancakes “This is my last bottle which I have been nursing for over a year. They must have broken into the locked cupboard marked ‘Skippers (sic) Personal Medical Supplies’. B*****ds.”

Mina 2 had been spotted by fishermen trying to escape north to the Caribbean and alerted the authorities, who were reluctant to interfere in what they saw as a “domestic”. But once news about the orange gin came through, Tim used his extensive contacts in the Foreign Office to bring pressure to bear on the Brazilian government. It is believed that the impact on the economy of withdrawing Mina 2 from Brazilian cruising was so great that ministers quickly acceded to HMG’s request.

At midnight on 30th December an all-out assault took place with four hundred CapRNA’s attacking Mina 2 by mini-submarine, hang- glider and parachute. The hijackers, Neil, Sarah, Selina and Peter tried to fight off the attack with water-bombs but they were no match for the SAS-trained CapRNA’s. It is believed that the hijackers will be deported immediately as they have very posh accents (apart from the Geordie, Neil) and it is feared this might cause severe unrest in any Brazilian prison to which they could be confined.

Tim’s wife, Maria, was found to be in good spirits – mostly because the hijackers maintained the Mina 2 tradition of recognising ‘gin o’clock’. Speaking to the Brazilian press she said “The worst part of the ordeal was that despite stocking up with ice cubes in Salvador, by day 2 there were none left for the gin”.
In a final comment on the amazing events, Tim said “I am just glad that Mina 2 is safe and well, and that I will be able to resume sailing in 2010. Oh, yes, and that Maria is OK too.”

Tuesday 19th January 2010

Posn: Salvador da Bahia

We are back in the warmth of tropical Brazil, but it's quite funny really as we enjoyed the freezing cold of winter in the UK - mostly because we had left our warm clothes (including Russian hats) with Brian and Jill. It was actually quite nice to see the snow and ice albeit every step was taken quite gingerly.
We left Minnie B in the capable hands of John and Beth, and she was in fine form when we returned, albeit slightly grumpy for an hour or two until we got out the tool box and started drilling, screwing and bolting things.

Brian and Jill were fantastic hosts and we are grateful for their kindness. We have had such fun staying with friends (David and Jacquie in October too) that we have decided to run a competition with prizes for "Most Indulgent Hosts", "Most Accessible Wine Cellar (or Rack)", "Best Breakfasts", "Biggest Range of Malt Whisky" and so on. We will be next in the UK sometime around July and all those wishing to enter the competition - it will run until late October - should e-mail us with proposed dates for our inspection visit and stay. Prizes will include a free week or two on Minnie B in the Caribbean (pay your own airfare and clean the heads). In the event of a clash of dates for our inspection visit, the competition organisers reserve the right to select dates of their own choice. The competition is open to all readers of our website. Given some of our readers, references may be required before an entry is accepted. For Anna and Neil, the competition is not open to family - you just have to put up with us!

We had a superb New Year's Eve party at Greg and Carol's forming the usual gang of twelve - the theme was "A Life on the Ocean Wave" and given the weather just shorts, T-shirt and Havainas (they are Brazilian flip-flops which apparently are a fashion rage - half price if bought in Brazil) was a bit of a stretch. The craic was mighty and the food and wine plentiful.

Julia was in Northern Ireland at the same time and it was good to see so much of her along with other family and friends. A particular highlight was a trip to Donegal, to see Janice (Norma's sister) and husband, Tim. The snow on the Sperrin Mountains was very pretty and their new home is a delightful old Manse with modern touches - Janice is now a Reverend and has three churches to look after. Some job in some location - the beautiful Fanad peninsula. (Sorry you didn't get in the photos Tim.)

Our trip to Yorkshire to see Anna and Neil started well as all flights were running after a day of cancellations and we were feeling lucky ... until we reached Hull (pronounced Ull). There had been a severe blizzard, it was the evening commute time and there were lots of very nervous drivers on the road, so it took us 3.5 hours to cover the last 9 miles to Beverley - about what you can expect downwind when the wind drops below 10kts. Anna and Neil were most welcoming and we took time to add to the many chandlery visits, along with a feast of a lunch with Phil's sister Jacqueline, husband Robert and Phil's 94 years-old mother.

The final stage of our trip was down to Southampton to see Julia again and collect a replacement autopilot computer and a battery charger (John had called to say that the one we replaced in October was working only intermittently. Congratulations again to Barden UK for their excellent service. We used www.lastminute.com and their secret hotels facility to pick up exceedingly cheap accommodation at the 'Grand Harbour Hotel' - as advised by Anna and Neil, this is a superb way of booking a hotel.

Our return flight was with TAM - excellent airline and we managed to sleep quite well despite being in cattle class. All was on-time and despite the horror stories about Brazilian customs (and having full documented receipts) we did not have to show our many purchases.
So now we are getting back into the swing of things on Minnie B and Salvador - replace autopilot computer, hm ... now we need a display/control unit so hand steering when no wind until Fortaleza (we hope for wind so that we can use the Windpilot); replace battery charger ... yippee it works; install ventilation blower and ducting ... yippee it works too.

We will do some more touristy things in Salvador before our 450nm trip to Joao Pessoa starts on Friday. It is nice to be back and to see our RIDS friends, but we had a lovely time in the UK and would not have chosen to do things differently.

Tuesday 26th January 2010, 1800 UTC

Posn: 07deg02'.18S 34deg51'.43W

We arrived at the small village of Jacare on the river Paraiba near Joao Pessoa at 0700 local time (UTC -3). We left Salvador at 0800 on 22nd January and were over-optimistic about wind and current. There was lots of north in the wind and the south-going current was over 1kt at times. So on our first day out we puritanically messed about tacking instead of just motor sailing for a while. By the end of the day the penny had dropped - going on a tack away from the coast on a heading of south of 135 degrees (i.e. south-east) was plain ... well ... stupid. So when we needed to tack away from the coast on came our friend Volvo. The wind was also light at about 10kts so our mileage on the first 24 hours was embarrassing. We won't tell, but you wouldn't be impressed. Since then the wind has steadily improved and once we got about 20nm offshore the current was not as strong.

Our main concern has been to sail as there are just the two of us now and we await Julia's arrival to (in hope) fix the autopilot. The Windpilot continues to be one of the best purchases we have made - as we say over again, it doesn't use electrickery.

For the most part we have sailed in sunshine albeit yesterday morning the Musto oilie jackets made an appearance as the force of the rain flattened the sea. There were a couple of squalls with the wind increasing to 16kts and then dying to 2-3 kts before returning to its customary 10-12kts. Much of the time we have been close hauled but the wind veered yesterday and we were on a reach and then had the main out to port and the genoa poled out to starboard, doing 6.8kts in 10.5kts apparent wind.

The nights on the coast are interesting as you are sailing along with just the stars and a few clouds for company when all of a sudden there will be 10-15 white lights appear directly ahead. There are hundreds of fishermen out in small boats and last night we sailed for six continuous hours with these guys (assume they are guys - Brazil is pretty macho) popping up all the time. Our tactic has been to hold our course and apart from a close encounter with two boats (we could see the fishermen needed to shave) they seemed to stay out of our way.
We have had the usual encounter with a cargo ship - nobody seeming to be on watch and us having to manoeuvre out of the way. We called up HORIZON ARMONIA on the VHF to ask if they had seen us as they passed down our starboard side - quote "What is your position?" Reply:"we are the yacht three-quarters of a mile on your starboard side". Response - silence. If you see this ship, watch out.

Yesterday afternoon we had a visit from a guard boat, MISS HAYLEY, for a survey vessel towing a five-miles long sonar array - we were asked to alter course and give it a six-miles wide berth. Of course we did.
Sunday evening we were visited by some of the pontiest, fastest, most acrobatic dolphins and they put on a wonderful display for about 20 mins - it's been great to be back at sea. We are also much less tired than when we did the Dakar-Cape Verdes leg as we have changed our watch system to 4 hours on/4 hours off (instead of 3 on/3 off) and we both get much better rest.

We are looking forward to somewhere new after Salvador - we liked it a lot but we know some who don't, and it's time for a change.
The river here is brown from the mass of decaying vegetation, but we are anchored off a small French-run marina.
We are going to enjoy it here as there are parties and trips but MOST IMPORTANT, Nicholas (our RIDS organiser) has arranged DANCE CLASSES so that we can learn the “Forro” in time for Carnival in Luis Correa – this will be fun.
Just settling into a couple of beers now before shower and party to-night.

Thursday 4th February 2010

Posn: 03deg49`.92S 32deg24`74W

We arrived at the island of Fernando de Noronha at 0640 UTC on 1st February after not the most pleasnt sail of c.240nm. We have not had good internet access so no pics just yet and we have to report on our time in Joao Pessoa too. We will do pics in Fortaleza, we hope.

1. Joao Pessoa

We visited the city of JP, taking the local train and looking forward to seeing the magnificent lagoon in the centre, the charming and vibrant historical quarter and taking in the relaxing cafe life. Well, that is what the tourist brochure prepared us for. If our expectations were 8/10, the reality was more like 5/10. It was OK. The historical quarter is sadly underdeveloped, the lagoon is a large traffic roundabout (prettty big though) and the cafe life must have been out at the coast. Our tourist map highlighted, for example, a shopping centre and we wanted to buy sandals/shoes so after looking at the churches we took a taxi. We were expecting something like Castle Court in Belfast (largish and extensive with good quality shops). It was not even Flagship Centre, Bangor (small and a bit run down). Anyway, we had lunch there at one of the self-service pay-by-weight places - it was OK and very cheap.

The following day we joined most of the RIDS crews on a typical Brazilian cruise boat - we set out at 0800 and went to a sandbank where there were already a lot of holidaymakers - as the tide rose people remained seated at their tables and carried on drinking. Talking of which, we held out until 1000 before having the first capairinha - well, that was when they were first served. After that they just kept coming. We then went back into the Rio Pariaba and anchored for lunch. At 1800 hrs we were just upstream of our anchored boats waiting for the sunset and a daily ceremony. Now this is weird - same time every day this long-haired, long-bearded guy dressed in flowing white shirt and trousers gets in a small flat-bottomed boat with a paddler. The restaurants and banks of the river are packed with people ready for the event. The boat pushes off and the guy starts playing the saxaphone: Ravel`s "Bolero". Same thing, same time, day-in-day out. Apparently some-one sometime said the sunset deserved Ravel and a tradition was born.

On our last day we took a coach with some of the RIDS crews to the small town of Olinda, not far from Recife. Delightful and not over-hyped. We saw the amazing Igreja e Mosteiro Sao Bento (St Benedict) with its golden altar and surrounds (built 1582), the Mercado Ribeira (old market) which houses enormous papier-mache puppets used in Carnaval, we promenaded with Frank and Martje (African Seawing) by the Cathedral (oldest in NW Brazil) and sat out drinking the best (and cheapest) capairinha we have had. Then a superb meal at Oficina de Sabor, where we ate pumpkin stuffed with lobster - brilliant. Then as we hit the street we had an unexpected treat - Carnaval was actually starting and the street was filled with brass bands from different blocos (neighbourhoods) playing frevo music and backed up by costumed dancers carrying multi-coloured frevo umbrellas which they use in their interpretation of the music. Fabulous. There too were the enormous papier-mache puppets being put to their purpose.

All in all, JP was good and thoroughly enjoyable.

2. JP to Fernando de Noronha

We left the Rio Paraiba at 1315 UTC which was slack water and were staright into wind of ESE 18kts. Hm ... it would have been nice at SE and even nicer at SSE. As it was, we were were just off close hauled most of the time with a reef in the main and one/two in the genoa. The trip was c. 240nm overall and not very eventful - completely failed to catch any fish despite trailing two lines - but not that comfortable and we were glad to reach the anchorage at FdeN ... or were we? We had been warned to anchor in 20m after tow boats lost their anchors wrapped round stones last year in 10m. The wind was still up so with 60m chain we decide to add some of our 18mm anchorplait rope - it was actually straightforward, remembering NOT to attach the rope to the end of the chain as you need to get chain on the windlass when hauling in and before disconnecting the warp. BUT so rolly.

3. Fernando de Noronha

The first day we caught up on sleep and went ashore to get the briefing.

Day 2 we took one of the many buggies with Claude and Anne from Cigale, for a tour of the island. Lots of fantastic beaches and volcanic features. The island is a nature reserve and major holiday centre for surfing (a competition on as we write), diving and snorkelling. We visited Baia do Sueste and we both went with a guide snorkelling to see lots of turtles and even sharks - we were within touching distance of all, but there is strictly no touching and access is very controlled, to the extent that the beaches where the turtles hatch are out-of-bounds after 1800 hrs.

Yesterday Phil went with about a dozen others from the Rally for couple of dives. Plenty of colourful reef fish and some excellent swim-throughs, caves and holes but no more turtles or large fauna. However, at breakfast we had been treated to about 30 dolphins swimming into the bay, leaping and diving. Norma spent the morning helpin Edith (Harmonie) with her English - Edith then offered French Lessons - we had to explain ... The rest of the day involved chilling and to-day has been washing and boat prep as we leave for Fortaleza tomorrow (5th February). The trip is 360nm and we expect to arrive late on Sunday. Julia arives on Tuesday so we had better have Minnie B looking her best for that.

FdeN has been a superb treat and the only downside has been that the anchorage is windy and rolly. This means going ashore with clothes in a dry-bag and wearing swim shorts etc. It also means that people are not doing much socialising as you just get wet out in the dinghy
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We are enjoying the change in the rally dynamic too as there are now only two UK boats and we spend more time with our French, Belgian and Swiss participants. We know we are very privileged and very lucky to be doing this.