Brazil Brazil!!!

Well we had it pretty bloody good all passage but couldn't just quite get all the way under sail. The breeze died early hours of the last morning with still almost 100 miles to go and after rolling for a while, on went the engine. Had a few showers but mostly fine all day. We managed to speed up a little and just sneak into the channel early evening and drop our anchor 5 miles up the river just as the sun had gone down, happy days! There are a few yachts around, a lot of French boats and a couple of little marinas but also very nice and quiet with a beautiful anchorage. The dinghy went straight in as we could hear music ashore but just as we got in it all stopped, apparently it's just for sundowners! So we went over to Jacare Marina to have a beer and find out some info, not a bad spot owned by French and full of French and not really our thing so back to the boat we went. The champagne came out and it was time to relax and enjoy the moment after rolling around for nearly 15 days it was super nice just to sit still and enjoy the moment.
We will go ashore today and do formalities and find out how and were is safe to leave Julie and Sunflower while I go back to Australia to work. This place looks very safe and quiet from what we can see so I'm sure we will have many options.

Weekend Weather

The weather gods have been very good to us so far. The Grib files we download for the weather were showing lots of cloud and rain but we have had none of it and more wind than predicted so we are not complaining. Making good steady miles each day and all is well onboard Sunflower.
Saturday @ 0900 we have 450nm to go, our position is 09*15south 27*29west

Making Miles

It's been a great few days with 15knots of breeze most of the time and we have had 3 days of making about 130 a day without flying the spinnaker just the head sail and little staysail so pretty happy with that. Been a bit of rain around and forecast for more the next few days with lighter easterly winds tomorrow but then hopefully picking up again. Not a whole lot going on really, Sunflower is going great as are the crew and we just roll along with each day blending in with the next. At this pace we should be in Brazil by Wednesday and starting to get a little excited about that!
Given up on the fishing as lost too many lures so there's not a lot happening there. Have started to run out of good books and all that's left to read seems to be love stories or Argentinian history and with not so much sun on the solar panels Seifeld is getting scarce :)

Too Tough

Well if you're looking at the attached photo of us doing 6.5 knots under spinnaker having a BBQ and thinking that we are showing off you're probably right, just couldn't help it! Ha, I'm sure this is what the Vendee Globe guys dream about when they are going around!
Been a great couple of days runs noon to noon of 118miles each day although today I think will be a little less. Last night and today we had a lot of cloud and a little rain and the wind has been all over the place but we are still doing alright. Forecast for next few days is similar but with a little more wind even up to 17 knots on Wednesday which will be nice if it happens.
Had masala fish cakes from a Dorado we caught but besides him haven't caught anything else but did loose a lure yesterday to something big. Julie's had the sewing machine out making a near perfecto Brazilian flag which is very impressive! Up to Seinfeld season number eight, days have just been so busy:)
0930 Sunday 15th March and we have 1215 miles to go. Position 12*55 south, 14*10 west.

Middle of the South Atlantic!

After the Indian Ocean this really is like a retirement job! I really shouldn't say to much though but it really is just to easy.....so far:) flew the spinnaker all day yesterday and again today and at night just have the staysail and headsail poled out, mainsail is packed away under it's cover, a first ever for us. Caught a dorado, fitted new "Lazy Jacks", made perfect popcorn in the pressure cooker, saw a ship, had a Cuba Libre' and well that's about it for the last 3 days! Not making any speed record but definitely not complaining, averaging so far about 113 miles a day so far. 1459 miles to go @ 0730 13 March pos 14*06south 11*11west, bang on in the middle of South Atlantic!

Back on the road

Saint Helena was great fun, really good times. We were all checked out and ready to leave first thing Monday morning but as they do plans changed. We had a great evening on "Imagine" with Stuart and Sheila from America and also "Gromit" a family of 5 from Canada and "Banik" with 3 from France so we had a right good mix of people and had a fantastic night with a lot of wine consumed and by the end of the night there was another party planned to celebrate Zoe's 16th birthday on Gromit the next night. So we stayed with the plan to catch a fish and a long story short we ended up with a nice sized Wahoo that got turned into delicious sashimi and an Indian fish curry. We had another great night and then said our goodbyes, they are on there way back to Canada to finish there circumnavigation after 7 good years, and for the kids to finish high school and go onto university. Really great interesting family and it would have been good to see more of them. We will see Imagine in Brazil which will be nice but most of our other friends we have met along the way maybe not as a lot of them are all finishing there world trip and either heading back to the USA or Europe and not hanging out to much in the Caribbean. I'm sure though we will meet a load of new cruisers though getting ready for the start of there world trip and the pacific which will be good.
So anyway we are on the way now and rolling along alright. We dropped the main sail as the course is DEAD down wind which is a bit of a pain so we have the headsail poled out one side and the staysail poled out the other and are pretty well making our course. For the last 24hours we have made good 115miles so can't complain, only 1671miles to go!
Our position @10am is 15*14south 07*43west
All good:)

Saint Helena!!

Once you get close to Saint Helena you realize what a crazy place this is in the middle of nowhere! It looks prehistoric, all black rock mountains with little green from what we have seen. Then you get around the back and a few nice little bays open up and very old stone forts from Napoleon days are built into the hills. Haven't been ashore yet but it definitely looks very unique!
We had a great crossing, besides a couple of broken sail slides which are an easy fix everything else went very well. Not a lot of wind the last 4 days but we still manged to sail most of the way just turning on the engine at night when to get a bit of sleep easier without the crashing and banging.
As the crow flies Cape Town to Saint Helena is 1700 miles, we travelled 1884 miles and took us 14.5 days and used 60 litres of fuel. Would have to be our best, easiest crossing yet and hopefully we get more like this!

cruising!

We had to motor a little last night but yesterday and today we have been flying the spinnaker and making progress. Couldn't be better really, beer in hand, spinnaker up, fried rice, beautiful lady and making 5 knots in bugger all wind and flat calm seas! Happy Days!!
230 miles to Saint Helena

Monday 2nd March

We are going alright. Been frustrating though with showers around and wind all over the place but now the clouds have cleared and we have the spinnaker set and heading west. Not a lot else happening really, flat seas and nothing too exciting which s always good as that means we are not breaking anything:)
Oh and we went from longitude East to the West!!
350nm to go to Saint Helena. Pos 19*13south 00*49west