Saint Helena To Jacare, Brazil.

Saturday 20 April.

After having spend eight days on Saint Helena, we set sail yesterday at 07:40 and I plotted the course to be 271° T for Salvador, Brazil, a distance of 1.920 NM, which should take us two weeks to reach. The weather forecast is currently for 15-18 kn E-SE wind and two meters waves, as well as a slight west running current. So we set the Genoa to port with the spinnaker pole and fixed the mainsail with a preventer to starboard, as well as rigging the stay sail to starboard. This is my usual downwind sail configuration and gives generally comfortable sailing, as well as it give good speed. We have averaged 7.1 kn with a maximum speed of 11.1 kn during the last 23 hours. I expect we will cover a good 160 NM the first 24 hours, which will be fine.

For this trip, I changed the watch system and my watches are now 06:00-09:00 and 18:00-21:00, which is more pleasant than the last time where I was on watches 03:00-06:00 and 15:00-18:00. The watches between midnight and early morning are generally considered the less desirable ones.

Meryon cooked the last Ostrich fillets we had in the freezer and we all enjoy this tender meat.

It was a bit sad to leave Saint Helena as I enjoyed the friendliness of the people and also the beautiful island with its spectacular nature, greenness and its Napoleon History. But as Ester weekend was approaching and most things would be closed for four days, as well as we started to see some tensions between the crew, it was time to set sail. I have experienced this kind of tension before when we are in port and when there are things to be arranged like shopping, getting fuel, gas, etc., as well as some crew starting to partying, so it is not new to me. I was surprised how early these problems started this time. I have spoken to one of the crew and found it is some very petty thing that seems to be the cause. I have suggested, politely, that he try to do his best to behave as an adult and make things work as a team and to put personal differences in the background, as otherwise it will effect us all negatively in one way or the other. Let’s hope it will work, but I have my doubts.

Meryon has to be back in the UK early June and will not have sufficient time to enjoy Salvador and to sail to the Caribbean. He now plans to fly out from Salvador, or perhaps stay a bit longer, depending on the time we will spend in the next ports. There are direct flights from Salvador to Lisbon, which is attractive for him. I have emailed invitations to other crews to replace him.

So far we have not seen any ships. I was very comprised when we passed close to an area with only 20 meters depth and guess what it is called? Yes you are correct it is called Mount Bonaparte and its is located in the middle of an area with 4.500 meters depth. On the cart it looks like a volcano raising from 4.500 meters depth and this is in the middle of the South Atlantic about 100 NM west of Saint Helena.

We start to see flying fish and one used the deck as its landing strip where it made the usual mess. Otherwise we have had no bite of fish since the one we caught yesterday and I have seen no birds since leaving Saint Helena, which is strange, but I guess they are absent as there are little fish in these waters.

The generator works well again and the water maker is back to normal making 140 liters of fresh water per hour. As far as I can see the weather should continue to bring us 14-18 kn SSE-E wind, but I noticed a system coming around 26-30 April which might give us light variable winds and even wind on the nose, which I am not looking forward to. I hope we will miss those systems. Fortunately we have full moon at the moment and it is a pleasure, even when it is overcast, to be able to see the horizon at night time.

We sailed 165 NM the first 24 hours, which is very good. This morning I received an email from Karel on S/Y Tehini-Li and they were yesterday at the halfway mark (960 NM) to Salvador and as they left Saint Helena on 12 April they have averaged about 138 NM per day. I expect they could arrive Salvador around 26 April, after 14 days at sea. S/Y Max left Saint Helena on 11 April and should arrive around 25 April. We are currently all heading for the same marina in Salvador.

So far the sailing conditions have been good and the yacht’s motions nice and gentle. All in all a pleasant downwind trade-wind sail, so far.

Sunday 21 April.

Unfortunately the wind started to fluctuate after midnight and we slowed. The waves have become larger and have shorter distance between them, which has made us roll more than yesterday and the sails starts the annoying flapping, as we roll. The water temperature is now 26.5° and our dress code is now shorts and T-shirts.

Again we have sailed 165 NM the last 24 hours and the total distance sailed since leaving Saint Helena is thus 330 NM. We have another 1.590 NM to Salvador.

Again I have seen no birds since leaving. Usually we catch fish, but out here we have had no bite at all. I have only seen small number of flying fish. No fish - no birds - I guess.

Also we have still not spotted any other vessels, but I have several friends that are 3-7 days ahead of us and others will be behind us, but I can only vaguely hear them on the SSB radio net on 4224 and 8188 at our agreed Net Times.

Monday 22 April.

As we are heading west the water temperature is getting warmer and is now 27.1°, which is nice, but the wind starts to drop to only 11-14 kn. At times we roll a lot, but this morning the rolling was less. The sails tend to bang a lot when the waves continue to make us roll and when the wind drops. I am trying to get the crew to to adjust the sail to diminish the banging of the sails, but am not sure it works and is understood fully by them all.

As I have problems hearing the Net, because the Autopilot disturb the reception, I managed to email Tehini-Li each second day. They were halfway on the 19 April, the day we set sail, so it still looks like they will arrive after having sailed about 14 days. I have not heard from S/Y Max.

We have magnificent sun raises and sets with beautiful red colors each day. The moon was full a couple of days ago and is now Waning to 81%. Each sun raise and set are different and I take pleasure to watch them each day.

When leaving Cape Town, our freezer was well stocked with 29 precooked meals done by Chris, me and Sean. They are great help and make it easier to cook at sea, especially when the sea conditions gets rough. But some of these meals are slowly running short and the freezer is now only about 75% full.

As to the crew, as I mentioned earlier Meryon need to be back home early June and Christopher is looking for a job in Florida as he seems to be short of money and told me he is likely to leave us in Salvador and fly to Florida. This is a surprise to me as he had initially told me he would sail to the Caribbean. Sean seems to change his mind constantly and has a number of personal and financial problems which he seems to have difficulties in dealing with, so I am not sure how long he will stay, even though he had promised to stay until the Caribbean, or longer. I will try to get a commitment from him as soon as possible. But will he stick to it? Thus, if they all depart in Salvador, I will need new crew and have therefore written to some of my contacts, but it is usually difficult to arrange on short notice. Otherwise I might consider sailing to Jacare, as it is about 100 NM shorter than to Salvador and I would thus avoid to single hand the 500 NM from Salvador to Jacare.

We have now sailed 634 NM and have 1.287 NM to Salvador. Our daily average has drooped from 165 NM to 158 NM, which is still very good. Last night I noticed on the AIS a cargo ship about 20 NM to our south. It was heading 300° so it will likely pass to the east of Brazil. That was the first encounter since leaving Saint Helena.

Tuesday 23 April.

When we were all in the cockpit, I asked each of the crew what their plans are. Meryon situation was unchanged and have to return home early June. Christopher felt he has a good chance of getting a job in Florida and as he did'n arrange a visa for the EU he can’t go to French Guyana, but once he has Internet he should know more. Sean was still in his usual limbo and not sure about his private problems, as I mentioned earlier, but he would check once we can get Internet. I asked for a commitment from him by then.

To my surprise, during the afternoon, he approached me and started again with all his silly and petty problems about the way I had offered Phil and Dale (my) beers and bottled of wine as a appreciation for them helping us on our arrival in St Helena, even though Sean had previously told me that the matter was forgotten. I was flabbergasted to hear again this petty matter and it became clear that it was a personal issue of his. After all I don’t see how he can have a say in how I offer “my” beer and wine to friends that had helped us as we arrived in Saint Helena and in addition is seems he has forgotten its my boat. This is for me to decide and certainly not Sean. Thus, I decided to head for Jacare and told Meryon and Christopher. Meryon thought that decision were bound to come as he thought that Sean would continue to make problems. So I changed the course to Jacare and emailed the marina and friends in Salvador and Jacare. A pity that one person can mess up our trip, but I had feared from the beginning that Sean could become a problem.

We have as I am writing this, 1.064 NM to Jacare, but the wind has become more variable during the night and progress is slowing, but I still expect we can arrive around 1 May, or eight days from now.

Thursday 25 April.

The wind is still variable as we are heading NW, but yesterday was an exception with steady SSE wind of 12-16 and the waves reduced to below two meters. The water temperature is now over 28° and the sun is getting very strong and it is hot.

Our progress continues to be satisfactorily with a daily average of well over 150 NM and if we can keep this speed the ETA for Jacare is still 1 May, but I still don’t like the few systems as we get closer to Brazil with variable winds of down to 3 kn and a lot of rain for several days. We start to see more squalls each day and have some showers, but they are generally short lived.

Still no fish caught and Christopher has given up fishing, but will try again once we get closer to Brazil. We still have a few kg of Tuna in the freezer.

We have now 900 NM to Jacare and are 780 NM south of Equator and 960 NM west of Saint Helena, meaning we are now about GMT -1 h (Saint Helena is GMT), but I will not change the clocks before we arrive in Jacare.

I have friends in Jacare Village Marina and received emails from some of them after I had announced we have crew problems and changed the course to Jacare. In fact it is a great pity that I can’t visit Salvador, as it has been on my wish list for many years. But with the petty problems Sean has caused and he has blown completely out of proportions, I don’t have any other option, so I need to cover as many miles as possible to get to the Caribbean, just in case I will be short of crew and even to single hand the last stretches.

We have sailed Wing-on-Wing for five days and have had to jibe only once. It is a great and comfortable sail combination, as it is less prone to wind changes. I always fix the spinnaker pool with a topping lift, and down and out-halls to the front and mid-ship. Like that we can reef and reef in and out the Genoa according to the wind direction and strength and it also stabilize the boat and its motions.

Some of the crew starts to understand how to adjust the sails and course, but unfortunately there are at times mistakes and lack of concentration requiring me to step in quickly. It is not easy to have less experienced crew on board. I am not the only one to have these problems and most of the owners that take strangers as crew, tells me they have almost each time the same problems and many are very frustrated with some of the crews lack of experience and understanding of sailing, even though the crews, like in my case, have told them that they were experiences sailors. However, Christopher was very honest when I met him the first time, as he told me he had almost no sailing experience and that he wanted to learn. I have seen he is picking up what it mean to be on a sailing boat, but he still has a lot to learn and he hope this trip will catapult him into a job in the boating industry in Florida and the Med. I hope it will work well for him and I wish him luck.

Friday 26 April.

Today it has been beautiful sailing with SSE 10-12 kn wind and waves below 2 meter. The wind has been relatively steady, so the spinnaker has been up most of the day. With the Genoa poled out to SB the speed increased to 7.5 kn, and the water temperature is now 29.1° and it is getting hot. I plan to take down the spinnaker before dark as it would be too dangerous to fly it at night and the crew don't have sufficient experience with that sail.

By the evening we had 692 NM to Jacare and the wind should be light from SE-SSE during the coming days.

Saturday 27 April.

The wind freshened, so no spinnaker for today, but by end afternoon we had again little wind and it fluctuate too much to even use the mainsail. Thus we sail with just the Genoa poled out to SB and the stay-sail. Our average mileage is dropping, but believe we might arrive in four days on 1 May. We have 547 NM to Jacare as of this evening (19:30). The water temperature is approaching 30° and we are 660 NM S of Equator.

Sunday 28 April.

Not a good Sunday. First someone cooked my traditional Sunday Bacon and Eggs while I was asleep and did not leave a portion for me. This is the first time that has happened on my boat and I am deplored by the behaviour of my crew! Disgusting of them and shows no team work.

Secondly the wind dropped to almost nothing and turned 180°, so we had the wind and rain on the nose. In the end no wind at all, so reluctantly I started the engine. I hope for a better day tomorrow.

We have 415 NM to Jacare and I fear with the current forecast we might get variable winds and rain the coming days, which might delay us.

Monday 29 April.

Hardly any wind the last 24 hours and the engine has run for 18 hours to make any progress; After lunch the wind picked up again and I suggested we should fly the spinnaker, but unfortunately it tore about 2/3 up and was caused by one crew pulling way too hard on it, as it was not the wind that caused the tear. Well so much for taking inexperienced crew with me. Will need to be restitched, before I can use it again. No one seemed to care anyway, as far as I could see.

Tuesday 30 April.

We arrived at 20:30 after having sailed the 1.830 NM during the 11.5 days at sea giving us an average 159 NM/day. As the sun set we dropped anchor in the river for the night.

Wednesday 1 May.

Entered the Jacare Village Marina during the morning and the crew will depart from here.µ