From Jacare to Tobago.

Sunday 3 November 2019:

After a lot of work and last minuted adjustments, especially with the fridge and freezer, we left Jacare Village Marina at 10:15, as it was high water and we would have a favourable current giving us a push to exit the river about eight nm to the open sea.

The wind was SE 15-20 kn and once outside I set the course to almost north and we made good progress with a speed of 7-10 kn, helped with a one kn favourable current.

The watch system is the typical one with two persons on board with three hours on and three hours off during the night and six hours on and six hours off during daytime.

Tuesday 5 November 2019:

Sailing along Brazil’s East and North coast is like the rest of the South Atlantic Ocean, namely sailing in the Trade Wind with a SE wind of 15-22 kn and a favourable current of 1-3 kn, most of the way. This gives a most pleasant sailing condition. The weather is warm with up to 34° and the water is 29°.

To avoid the various dangers, like fishing boats, pirates and fish farms, I plotted the course to be well away from the coast line and in general 500-2.500 meters depth. Out here we have a reasonable amount of commercial traffic, of which it is predominantly tankers coming from Venezuela and Trinidad. All these ships have AIS and are therefore easily spotted on the plotter and radar.

So far we have not seen any sailing boats except for six fishing boats using a combination of sail and motor. They were fishing on the east coast where the current was strong and where the seabed dropped from 100 to 1.500 meters. They went back and fourth in a confused manner in a small area and I had to keep changing the course to avoid getting too close to them. At first they looked like they were racing, but that would be strange to do so far out at sea and when we got closer it became obvious they were fishing with long lines and their boats were a strange design and rather small. But it was nice to see these white sails.

Today we passed the large town of Fortaleza on the north coast of Brazil. This area is known from its thief and pirates. We were 40 nm out at sea and did not see any of these gangsters. Friends, Paul and Monique from Switzerland, was at anchor close to the town in their Amel Santorin when they were boarded by a group of these gangsters. Paul was badly beaten up and unconscious and Monique was tied up, while their boat was ransacked and the gang departed with everything they could fine of value. As far as I know no one in Brazil seemed to care and Paul, after receiving treatment at the hospital, set sail for the Caribbean. I doubt many sailors have since visited the own. At least I will not go there.

We are heading for Isles Royale, which consist of three islands one of which is Devil’s Island where Papillion was a prisoner and that escaped (see the Papillion film with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman). These islands in French Guyana, were a nasty prison camp for French criminals an political prisoners from 1885 to 1962. I would like to have a stop for a few days to relax a bit, visit the islands and do some repair works.

we have covered 367 nm and have thus 982 nm to go. Next to these islands are Korou where the European Space Center has its rocket launch site. It is possible to visit the Center, but it seems a bit too complicated to arrange and there is not really a safe anchorage up the river at Korou, as there are loads of thief and outboards disappear quickly, as there is not a proper marina. Thus I think we better stay away.

Wednesday 6 November 2019:

The wind continues to be relatively steady from SE-ESE at 15-20 kn, but the current change in strength from 1-3.6 kn and also in direction in certain areas. Most of the time it runs NW setting us too much to the W of the rhumb line and I think today I managed to get David to see how to adjust the course accordingly.

Last night I had several fishing boats around us, some were lid, but others were not, which is a hassle and dangerous, but thankfully they show up on the radar provided we keep a close eye on the screen at all time.

Unfortunately the fresh water pump stopped working last night and I managed to temporary fix it. I think I will need to replace the pressure switch in Trinidad.

So far our daily average is a satisfactory 183 nm and we have now sailed 552 nm and have 797 nm to go to the Isles Royale.

Thursday 7 November 2019:

The sailing conditions are excellent with steady trade wind and warm weather. So far we have seen some modest light showers. The last 24 hours no commercial shipping has been seen and we are currently 128 nm out at sea and no fishing boats seen either, which is good. The sky is cloudless most of the time.

In a couple of hours I will cross the Equator for the fourth time, which is located at the delta of the Amazon river. My Equator crossings are: Pacific at the Galapagos islands, Indonesia close to Singapore, Indian Ocean south of The Maldives and now today the Atlantic Ocean east of the Amazon river. We crossed the Equator at 09:30 at 43°25.95 W and it was celebrated to the honour of Neptune with some Linje Aquavit which had already crossed the Equator three times, two of which by the Norwegian distiller and now two times with New Dawn. A good tradition and to tank Neptune for looking after us through our travels with New Dawn around the globe.

The wind has, as forecast, gone more to the east and I rolled out the mainsail this morning, which steadied the boat and gives a more smooth sailing.

Bye Bye Brazil.

Friday 8 November 2019:

We lost the wind and for 24 hours we only received 3-6 kn wind, but continued to have a favourable current, making at least a little progress. Early this morning the wind came back but from NE direction and has been steady for most of the day at 12 kn. We are again making a nice progress of 7-10 kn, but are close hauled.

It is hot as the sun is right above us and the water temperature is approaching 30°. The waves comes from SB and are only one meter, which is not disturbing as we head to port and hardly feel them with the current boat speed.

Unfortunately one of the aft seats broke and the aft WC water pump stopped working. We now know that the aft seat can’t take Davids 110 kg. The worth thing is that fresh water pump is not working again. More work for me.

Saturday 9 November 2019:

The wind starts getting lighter each day and some times we have no wind and we are slowing considerably. I had thought we could arrive French Guyana tomorrow Sunday end afternoon, but, as it stands now, we might be more than 24 hours delayed. Its not a problem as the weather conditions - apart from the lack of wind - is pleasant, and we have time.

Suday 10 November 2019:

Almost no wind and this afternoon the engine had to come on as we were just drifting and hardly making any progress. The little wind we have seems to change more and more to the S and completely contradicts the weather forecast. I hope the wind will soon back to E-NE and hopefully will straighten to that forecast of 10-15 kn, but it looks doubtful at the moment.

Monday 11 November 2019:

The engine has now been working for 18 hours and it is boring, to say the least. If my calculations are correct, we should arrive Isles Royale today at 15:00   and the engine will have managed 206 nm of the 1.349 nm we had to cover, and it would have taken seven days and five hours. It remains hot, especially since there is hardly any wind. We are looking forward to a few days at anchor and to visit the prison Islands, do some cleaning of the boat and for me to do numerous mechanical jobs that are urgent to get fixed.

We arrived at 15:00 and dropped anchor in the bay.

 Devil's Island.

 At anchor in Isles Royale.

Tuesday to Friday 12-15 November 2019:

As I had many technical issues to sort out, I spend most of my time (trying to) fix things. But we managed to visit the main Island twice. Devil’s Island is off limits as it is (supposed) to be military, although I did not see any military activity, nor any military personal on the island.

The prison seems to have been particular tough place and I understand that 80.000 prisoner were send to these areas and hardly any survived. Many dies of tropical illnesses like Malaria and Dengue fever, and many died of malnutrition, hard labour and also some died in the guillotine. If a prisoner was sentenced to more that seven years, they would not be returned to France, but given a small plot of land so they could feed themselves. The cells were dark and small, as well as overcrowded. No proper sanitation, no water and when the prisoners were let out they were forced to hard labour.

During the mathematical calculation I calculated that if 80.000 prisoners died during the 100 years (1885-1962) this would mean that two prisoners would die each day and were dumped into the sea. Ugh…

As to the film Papillion I am convinced it is more of a novel writing around the person than the actual story of facts, although the conditions and cruelty must be real, but the settings in the film has little to do with Devil’s Island. For example there are no steep cliffs and small bay where Papillion launched his escape on a sack of coconuts. In any case he did escape from the Island.

After preparing New Dawn for tomorrows departure, I managed to call Nicolas to wish him a happy birthday. It was good to speak to him again.

Friday 15 November 2019:

I lifted anchor at 07:45 and we are heading north for Tobago, 602 nm away. Light winds are forecast of seven kn from the east and we have a kn current with us. It remains very hot.

Saturday 16 November 2019:

Still very light wind and we run most of the time on the Genoa only, as the swell make us rock and the sails banging - very annoying. Last night we noted some fishing boats and a few come within 1/2 nm, which I don’t like - one never knows their intention in this area. We have now passed French Guyana and are in Suriname water and 50 nm from its coast, which should insure less traffic. By tomorrow evening we enter the waters of Guyana and should be 150 nm away from it coast. Then comes the dangerous waters of Venezuela, but again we should be by then 200 nm away from its coast and should hopefully avoid problems with thief and pirates and unfriendly fishing boats.

Sunday 17 November 2019:

The weather forecast continues to be wrong as we should have 10-14 kn wind from the east, but have only 3-4 kn from SE, meaning almost from aft. The swell hits us from SB and we roll a lot, making the sails flapping all the time - frustrating. Today we might only cover 90-95 nm/24 hours. This is not pleasure sailing. It is hot and the water temperature is now 31°

I need to adjust the sails and course all the time, trying to get some acceptable speed and to stop the rolling - an impossible task. If it continues like this, we will be lucky to reach the Charlotteville anchorage in Tobago on Wednesday. Its 373 nm from here at this moment.

Tuesday 19 November 2019:

We continue to have very little wind on this stretch and what we receive came from SE and not E-NE, as forecast. To make progress the engine has been working a lot and so far probably it has run for about 400 nm since Jacare Marina. Not a nice sail.

This night we has some squalls giving 30 kn wind and pouring rain. Unfortunately I noticed that more rain sips through the deck, so I spend  time mopping it up. As the carpenter - Mr Chong - in Penang don’t wish to respect his guaranty, I am likely to have to find another carpenter in Trinidad to start to replace the teak where the problems are and to close the holes Chong did in the fibreglass - likely a costly and time consuming job.

On a more positive note, the rain was needed as it gave the boat a good wash.

So far we have passed French Guyana, Suriname, Guyana and in a few miles we will be in the Venezuelan waters. Fortunately we should be 150 nm away from its coast line and in a water depth of 2.300 meters, so we are unlikely to encounter any Venezuelan boats - hopefully - as the country is now in a total mess with a 15.000+% inflation, lack of food and social and security structure, so the population is suffering and will do anything for a meal - even killing someone. Corruption is high and sailors are avoiding the country since 2003. Before that, it was a favoured destination for sailors to avoid the hurricane season in the Caribbean (1 June to 1 December).

Wednesday 20 November 2019:

Loads of strong squalls last couple of days and unpleasant sailing conditions. David seems to stress and wanted to get quickly to Tobago, so I gave in and we motored a lot even when it was windy. Not liked by me all this motoring.

We arrived in Charlotteville, Tobago and anchored in the Man Of War Bay at 13:00 LT(GMT -4 hours) today. Its a nice bay and a sleepy town. New Dawn is not standing still, with a slight rocking from the swell. Great.

As we arrived into the bay a pod of Dolphins followed us to welcome us, and there are plenty of Pelicans bomb-diving for fish around us and retiring to the tree tops by the end of the day. We have also many Frigate Birds hovering above us. Around the bay are dense jungle with the houses around and behind the beach. There are plenty of small fishing boats and it seems that fish is the populations main food.

Trinidad & Tobago.

The following is David's interesting comments and nice photos. Go to:  https://ddmafrica.blogspot.com/2019/12/brazil-to-tobago-nov-2019.html#comment-form

And: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i9_haiag168&feature=youtu.be