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January and February 2008
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The bread baking competition starts.... |
The first day out of Saint Helena Island was quite pleasant. The winds were good and the sea steady. BUT that all changed.... Overnight, we encountered the strangest sea state. There were eddies and the sea was very lumpy. The movement of the boat through the water was so strange with lumps of sea bouncing us all over the place, We could just not get used to the erratic boat motion. Both Tertius and I had quite a difficult time and Tertius started getting sea-sick again. But by now he did not hesitate to "slip" a Valoid suppository in to settle things. Our position on the 12th January at 9am was 12°12.7524'S and 014°21.5628'W.
The eddies, or "willy-nillies" as I called them were something else - the boat would be turned about 90°, usually to port (left) and we often had to disengage the wind steering system and hand steer Zephyr back on course and engage the steering again. This carried on for a little over five days and we were feeling so unsettled that both of us lost our appetites completely. We had to force ourselves to cook and eat something and this is when we started our bread baking competition. We eventually deduced that we had entered the North Atlantic current where it met the doldrum area and this was causing the strange eddies and lumpy seas. This is also where things began hotting up weather wise. The sea temperature was now around 28°C and the air temperature was always over 30°C during the day but with around 80% humidity. Tertius was clearly not comfortable with the temperature so I found a spray bottle and filled it with water so he could "mist" himself down from time to time.
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An evil monster (Baracuda??) |
After about the seventh day the sea started settling down and we started feeling better. We kept ourselves busy doing washing, catching a couple of fish, one of which Tertius turned into delicious fish cakes and fish biltong (jerky). I did a lot of reading and Tertius did a lot of sleeping. Our position at 9am on the 16th January was 08°51.8538'S and 022°06.8395'W which was half way between Mossel Bay and Trinidad, which we did in 30 days of sailing.
We also fiddled with the electrical system some more and watched as the days melted one into the other. A highlight for us was phoning home every second day. It was so nice to hear some news from home and to keep in contact. I suppose it was also nice for the family back home to hear from us knowing we were still safe and sound. The sailing instruments were getting worse and worse. By now they only worked a couple of hours per day but it is amazing how one copes especially at night. Before we arrived at Saint Helena Island, I tied a South African flag onto the Dan Buoy at the back of the boat and we used this as a wind direction and speed indicator!!! Around midnight on the 17th January I caught a really strange "fish". It was about a meter long, had a thin dark grey body with a long sail like dorsal fin and a pair of huge, evil looking eyes with a set of nasty looking teeth. It was also very aggressive and I am sure it would have bitten me had I given it the chance to do so. I would love to get hold of a book on fish to look up what it was and to learn about it's habits. On the 18th January we lost control of the spinnaker pole and broke the mast ring fitting. This meant we could not use the spinnaker pole for the rest of the way to Fernando de Noronha Island.
At 9am on the 20th January we were at 04°25.9156'S and 028°20.4976'W. We were spending quite a lot of time flying Maggy as the winds were getting lighter and lighter in the doldrums, and it was getting hotter and hotter, however during the night of the 20th January, Maggy decided to go dancing again and she wrapped her skirt around the port navigation light tearing her bottom edge tape off as she came back to starboard. Tertius was getting a little worried about his New York deadline so we had to push as hard as we could and whenever the boat speed dropped below about 4½ or 5 knots, we would start the main engine to supplement boat speed. So much so that on the afternoon of the 20th January we decided to motor-sail the last 216nm to our next landfall, Fernando de Noronha Island, also because Maggy was injured we could not use her either. This took us 61 noisy hours to accomplish but at least our batteries were getting a good charge and we maintained a decent boat speed. We arrived at Fernando de Noronha Island just after 3:30am local time on Tuesday the 22nd January 2008.
Not wanting to chance our luck with ropes in the water again, we decided to heave-to and wait a couple of hours until it got light so we could see where we could drop the anchor. In the mean time we raised our yellow "practique" flag and tidied up a bit. As soon as it was light enough, we motored to where all the boats were and identified a spot for us to drop the hook. Our first attempt was not exactly what we wanted so we reset the anchor. I called port control a couple of times but nobody replied so we decided to go ashore in our dinghy anyway. Tertius unpacked and inflated the dinghy, not such an easy task in the heat and humidity, while I dug the outboard out of the lazarette. We married the two and went ashore. At the little harbor entrance we met a member of the local police who sat on the veranda of a hut controlling the harbor entrance boom and he directed us to the immigration offices which was up the hill at a shopping center, about 3 kilometers away. As the language on Fernando is Portuguese, being a Brazilian island, it was not easy to make ourselves understood but we managed to get a lift into town and were deposited at the said (new) immigration offices where we met a lady by the name of Ohára who could speak a little English. We explained that we wanted to clear in and she really did not know the procedure explaining to us that they had only recently opened their offices on the island. She said she will contact the mainland and find out what we need to do. We found this rather strange but we left the office and went into a supermarket next door where Tertius bought a punnet of white grapes and I got us each an ice-cream.
We then walked around the area looking into a second supermarket and a fresh produce market. We then walked about two kilometers into town looking for a bank where we could exchange some US Dollars for Brazilian Rial's. We met a chap along the way who owned a Bed and Breakfast place, Rocco, who could speak English. He told us that the main bank did not exchange US Dollars. He said we could try one of the scuba diving outfits but he doubted it. He was obviously well connected because he came after us in his car a few minutes later saying that the scuba diving outfit would not change money for us. He then arranged for us to get a lift to one of only two International ATM machines on the island where we drew some of the local currency using our credit cards. By now we had realised that the cheapest and most convenient way to get around the island was by Beach Buggy which one could hire for R$100 per day but we did not know where from. As we were about 6 or 7 kilometers from the harbor but only 3 kilometers from the new airport, we guessed there must be a car hire place at the airport, so off we set for the airport, walking in blistering heat. At the airport Tertius and I looked around for a car hire place but there were none, only a few taxis. While Tertius went inside the airport building looking for something cold to drink for us, I went and asked one of the taxi drivers where we could hire a buggy. As luck would have it, one of the buggy hire people was right there at the airport and after much hand gesturing and trying to explain what we wanted, he drove us back to the harbor promising to meet us the next day at 7:30am at the nearby filling station with a buggy for us.
Besides a light breakfast and some grapes and ice-cream earlier in the day, we had not eaten anything else, so by 4pm we were ravished. We stopped at a cute open air café where we had a good meal, coffee and some ice-cream. We then went back to Zephyr for the rest of the day. The next morning we went ashore and walked to the filling station to collet our buggy. After waiting 30 minutes we phoned the buggy hire place only to find out that our watches were still on a different time zone and that the buggy had in fact arrived an hour before we got there and had already left. We arranged that the buggy will be brought down again and not long after our bright yellow buggy arrived. We put 15 liters of fuel in and proceeded to find somebody who could weld our broken spinnaker pole slide as well as sew Maggy's skirt back on. At this point Tertius said it will be more economical time wise if he went back to Zephyr to decant our deck water and diesel jerry cans into Zephyr's tanks and to get ready to re-fill them again using the buggy for transport. So I dropped him off at the harbor and picked a local chap up who offered to help me find the people we needed. So off we went and after driving all over the place asking various people he knew along the way, I was able to find a lady to stitch Maggie's skirt back on as well as a chap to welded the spinnaker pole bracket. Both people asked me to return between 4 and 5pm so my new friend invited me to his home for tea and something to eat. When we arrived at his home, I was introduced to his wife and daughter, and from the house next door, his mother, his grandmother, his grandfather and about 6 other family members. It was obvious to me that I was a "special" attraction as many people came out to gawk at this white man amongst their brown people. Lunch consisted of black beans, rice and...... chicken feet!! (Yum....) I very diplomatically declined lunch saying that I was not hungry...
After finishing my tea, I received a SMS message from Tertius saying that he was ready with the empty diesel containers and was waiting at the harbor guard house for me. I went straight there and we loaded the four 20 liter containers, drove to the nearby filling station and filled them up. Went back to the harbor where we were allowed to drive onto the breakwater right to where our dinghy was moored. We loaded the containers into the dinghy and Tertius went out to transfer the diesel into Zephyr's tanks. I waited at the guard house for him for the next trip. We repeated this routine four times. Then it was time to do the water. While Tertius was busy with the water, the policeman at the harbor gate informed me that the Immigration Officer was looking for us, so I went to the office in the harbor guard house and filled all the forms out and was promptly informed that I had to pay a total of R$1,750.00 for the three days we were staying. I nearly had a heart attack as this was very, very expensive. I had to drive all the way back to the international teller machine to draw more cash. I had just finished paying when a very English sounding gentleman came into the office to also pay his dues. As things turned out, they, Mr. & Mrs. Mike Yendell and their two crew members, Kathryn (Kass) Schmitt (an American living in England) and Melanie Ponchie (French), had arrived a little earlier in the day aboard "Cooya" a 1914 Linton Hope Yawl, a boat that was 94 years old! We introduced ourselves and had a brief chat outside the Immigration office. They then decided to walk into town. In the mean time, we were warned not to drink tap water from the island so Tertius filled four 25 liter containers and took them to Zephyr and lashed the containers on the deck. We used this water for washing clothes in and for showering with. We still had plenty of drinking water in our tanks anyway.
Just before 5pm I drove back to town to fetch Maggy from the sewing lady (I had already fetched the spinnaker pole bracket between one of the diesel runs). As it was now early evening, we decided to drive back into town to find a restaurant to savor some of the local fare. On the way there, we met up with the folk from "Cooya" again. It transpired that they were also looking for a bank to get some local money from and I ended up driving them all to the international teller machine, (with Melanie hanging out the side of the buggy), where they drew some cash. Tertius stayed behind and took a stroll to a nearby fort for a look-see. On our return, after we found Tertius, Mike invited us for drinks at a local establishment. We all had a few drinks, mainly Caipirinha's, made from a local sugar cane spirit called cachaça, (akin to Baccardi white rum/Vodka), and lime juice with a little sugar added. It is a delicious and quite potent drink. They also served us free mangoes with our drinks. We then went walk-about, looking for a Pizza place that was recommended to us by the policeman at the harbor gate. We eventually found the place and had some very nice Pizza's with interesting toppings. Afterwards, Mr. and Mrs. Yendell went back to their boat and the rest of us went looking for a coffee place as the pizza restaurant did not serve coffee which I found rather strange. We soon found a place and had a coffee each (except Melanie, she had tea - trust the French to be different...) Afterwards we all drove back to the harbor and after depositing "Cooya's" crew safely home we retired for the evening feeling quite bushed after the day's activities.
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A lovely beach on Fernando de Noronha Island |
The next morning we had a quick breakfast, grabbed our swimming gear and went over to "Cooya" to collect Kass and Melanie for a swim on one of the beaches which I was told is something not to miss. We drove there in our buggy and eventually found the beach which was lovely. The beach was completely surrounded by cliffs and in order to get down, one had to descend via steps and steel ladders going through rock fissures part of the way - very unusual. The beach was just under a kilometer long with a warm clear sea. There was also a local fishing boat patrolling just beyond the breakers fishing for shrimp (prawns) with a throw net. The breakers were, unfortunately, not very conducive to surfing as most of them were "dumpers". I was the first in the water followed by Kass, who did not stay very long as she got dumped rather badly. When I eventually came out Melanie went in with her dive goggles and snorkel but she too did not stay in very long saying "ze vaves are too bic and too ruff". Tertius elected to sit on the beach saying "sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits". I think he was in a bit of a hurry as we were going to leave the island after our swim.
We climbed back up to the car park and I drove us back to the harbor where we handed the buggy over to Kass and Melanie who took it over for themselves. We went back to Zephyr, deflated the dinghy, stowed it's outboard motor and got most of the last few things done quickly, and before you could say "Jack Rabbit" Tertius was lifting the anchor and we were on our way (tick-tock, tick-tock...) We left Arquipelago de Fernando de Noronha (to give the island it's full name) at 12:35pm local time on the 24th January 2008 and readied ourselves for our final leg, Trinidad which was 1,938 nautical miles (or 3,589 kilometers) away as the crow flies. I downloaded a weather file via the Iridium phone and it looked like we were going to have a 15 to 20 knot beam reach in about 3 knots of sea current. This meant about 6 to 7 knots of boat speed, and 2 or 3 knots current speed which should give us a total GPS speed of 8 to 10 knots. Well, this was all theory because the reality was quite different...
We had a really uncomfortable sail from Fernando to Trinidad. The wind was less than the forecast and the current varied from 1 to 2 knots which still gave us quite good boat speeds, but, the weather was hot and sticky and Tertius get's very uncomfortable inside the boat if there is not enough ventilation. So we made a critical mistake, leaving hatches and portlihghts open while sailing in these conditions. The swells were coming onto the starboard side beam-on or slightly forward of the beam which meant we were taking water over the deck from time to time and every now and again salt water would splash inside the boat. We also developed a leak in the saloon hatch which was caused when the boom-vang caught the open hatch and bent the hinge on the one side slightly. So, we ended up with wet sleeping quarters which was most uncomfortable. We were both subjected to sea water dripping onto our faces or legs when we slept in the saloon but one night, while I was on watch, Tertius took a bucket load of water through the open hatch that completely drenched him. He was up like a shot, dripping wet and not very happy at all!!! The problem with getting anything wet with sea water is that although the item gets dry during the day, as soon as it gets dark, the item gets damp again because the salt attracts the moisture in the air. The only way to remedy the situation is to wash or rinse the item in copious amounts of fresh water to flush the salt out, and this is almost impossible to do on mattresses and pillows etc. while sailing, there is just not enough fresh water aboard to do this. Because of these wet, salty conditions, both of us developed "bum-rot" which is quite annoying. One gets little sores on ones posterior which when sat on are uncomfortable if not painful. We tried all sorts of creams, lotions and potions as we had a ton of these from Aloe Ferox, where Tertius works, but I found Germoline to work the best for me.
Once we were opposite the Brazilian city of Fortaliza, some 47nm off the coast, we did our last jybe for the next 1,590nm on the 27th January. We stayed on this starboard tack for the next eleven days until we reached Trinidad, we hardly ever had to trim the sails even. By now the sailing instruments were useless and we hardly bothered to even look at them. We watched the mast-top burgee and our SA flag to get an idea of what the wind was doing and we checked the boat speed on the GPS, which was usually a respectable 7 to 8 knots, some times going over 9 knots and this made Tertius a happy-chappy as we were now ahead of schedule. Our position on the 27th January at 9am was 02°50.6928'S and 037°44.4536'W.
One day Tertius went "shopping" for something in our food boxes in the aft cabin and had a nasty surprise when he opened the box containing the rice, instant mashed potatoes, cake mix, Couscous and the eggs. The box was crawling with maggots and small flies!!!! The stench was also quite repugnant. As it was almost midnight he just closed the lid and we sprayed insect killer around the outside of the box, intending to deal with the problem in daylight. In the morning we hauled the box onto the deck and I started the un-enviable task of unpacking the food and cleaning the maggots out. What had happened was that one of the egg boxes had broken eggs inside and this was the source of the problem. After many salt water rinses and washing out with strong soap, we re-packed the box and wrapped the eggs that we were able to rescue in bubble wrap and placed the egg parcels in Jiffy® bags. Despite the fact that the eggs are now no longer in this box, we tossed them just before Tertius flew to New York, every time I have to get anything out, the smell is still there some 6 weeks later. A strange side effect was that for a couple of days after cleaning this box, I developed a mild cold and as there are no germs out at sea, the source could have only been the eggs. Strange...
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Crossing the equator. 29th January 2008 |
Besides actually arriving in Trinidad, the highlight on this leg was crossing the equator. I can't put my finger on it, but one gets a sense of real achievement when the GPS reads 00°00.0001'S and changes to 00°00.0001'N, indicating that you have just crossed from the southern to the northern hemisphere. This happened at 9:27am on the 29th January 2008 at position 00°00.0000N/S and 041°35.2673'W. The previous day I put the parcel Natie gave us at our bon-voyage party in the fridge (without looking what it was) just in case it was Champaign. We duly opened the parcel and indeed found a bottle of Champaign with a note neatly printed and bound in plastic inside.
TO ERROL & TERTIUS ~~ "ZEPHYR"
THIS IS A "SPECIAL TIME" FOR YOU BOTH ~~~ CROSSING THE EQUATOR!
THIS MUTI IS TO BE TAKEN AT THE
ZERO LATITUDE & TO BE TAKEN ON
THE WATER & CERTAINLY NOT WITH WATER !!!
MAY YOU HAVE A SAFE RIDE TO YOUR DESTINATON & ULTIMATE RETURN TO YOUR NATIVE LAND SHOULD YOU SO DESIRE
THINKING OF YOU BOTH ALL THE WAY ~~~ NATIE & BLUMÉ 16 DECEMBER 2007
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I was really touched by Natie's words, his thoughtfulness and his fraternal greeting. Tertius had something to say about "old salty dogs" and proceeded to pop the cork. We each had some Champaign to drink and then committed the remainder to "Captain Neptune" which is an old sailing tradition steeped in history and superstition.
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My homemade Trinidadian flag |
Once again we settled into the rhythm of sailing and the days melted into one another. We saw more and more shipping activity as well as oil rigs which cast an enormous flood of light at night. A day or so before we were due to arrive in Trinidad I looked in my book of flags to see what the Trinidadian flag looked like. It was fairly simple so I took one of the white triangular bandages out of my first-aid kit and proceeded to draw a courtesy flag using red and black felt-tip pens. We sighted Trinidad at around 10am on the 6th February at position 10°28.7933'N and 059°43.4704'W. As the wind was fairly light we started the engine and motor-sailed between Trinidad and Tobago heading for the second of the three passages, Boca De Heuvos, that leads into the Gulf of Paria. Once we were in the lee of Tobago, the swells settled down (at last) and we had a comfortable ride around and into the Gulf watching out for the huge ferries plying the waters between Trinidad and Tobago. Once inside the Gulf, the transformation was incredible - it was like sailing on a glassy pond. There was hardly any wind so we dropped all our sails and motored towards Chaguaramus (pronounced Shag-a-raamus) where all the marinas are situated.
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Eating hamburgers on the Customs jetty |
As had become our tradition by now, we arrived in the dead of night and had no idea exactly where to go as there were hundreds of masts ahead of us and bright lights obscuring our vision. As luck would have it, a Pilot boat approached us from behind and we hailed them to ask where we should go. They immediately instructed us to follow them and they led us right up to to the Customs jetty where we could tie up to for the night. The Pilot and his crew were so friendly and welcomed us to Trinidad with hand-shakes all around, even showing Tertius where there was a concealed water tap we could use to fill our tanks and wash the boat down with. But before we did any such thing, Tertius spotted a restaurant that was still open (only just) and immediately went in search of food that contained red meat, something we had not eaten for over a month and I am sure Tertius was having withdrawal symptoms. He came back with two huge hamburgers and french fries and we devoured them right there on the Customs jetty!!!
After finishing our hamburgers we went to the Customs office, cleared in, and then attached a hose pipe to the concealed water tap and proceeded to rinse as many items as we could - cushions, jackets, cloth's, towels and the whole boat. We then filled our water tanks and all our water jerry cans - what a bonus. Just about everything on deck was literally crusted with salt and it was really nice to be able to rinse it all off. We finished with the water, packed everything that was wet out on deck and crawled into bed... at 2:30am.
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