Great Day

Well it was a fairly quiet rolly night last night and by the early hours of the morning we lost most of the nice current we have been sailing so well in. We were down to 3-4 knots so when Julie woke we set the old spinnaker and are back doing 5-6 and not rolling. We started the engine while we set it up and when I went to shut it down noticed salt water pissing out of the raw water pump. I replaced it with a whole new pump and hopefully once the gasket glue is set it will be back to normal. Always something ;) we are now at 6 degrees north and in the summer months here and the temperature and humidity is right up there.
It's now Noon and we have 113nm to go until we get to the river entrance and then another 22 miles up the river till we get to Domburg. The tide starts flooding at midday tomorrow so we plan to head on up sometime then.
Beer was well deserved today :)

Noon to noon 137nm

Day 9-29/7

I'm not going to say too much except all is well and we are making good progress and very happy :)

Noon to noon 162nm and about 250nm until we reach Suriname.

Day 8

With the light winds last night no amount of adjusting the sails or the windvane would make us sail more than 90 degrees apparent wind angle. As soon as we loose the apparent wind the vane wanders even more than it already is, so progress has been slow and we made a course to north. The breeze this morning filled in a little from the SE with about 12-14 knots and we tried for a while poling out the headsails but that didn't work as we were all over the place like a drunken Irishman, but at least sort of on course. It all got too frustrating as I know we should be sailing at 6+ knots but doing less than 4 made good with all the wandering. So now it's back to hand steering to the west for the day to try to make up a few miles.
All is well we just can't watch as many movies ;)

Noon to noon=123nm made good, 410 miles to Suriname.

Here's a pic of the new upgraded autopilot

North Atlantic day 7

Well to say we were a little nervous about crossing the equator was an understatement, both of us didn't want to speak too much of it. The last time at 3am in Maldives saw us with our genoa torn to rags when the webbing on the head gave way in a squall and we couldn't furl it in. In fairness when we crossed the line we gave Neptune some pretty cheap (although tastey) rum, so this time we chilled a bottle of Italy's finest Prosseco Champagne for the occasion also at 3am. The weather was perfect, no squalls great sailing, gave him a good fair gulp, thought we had made amends but not long after our autopilot starts playing up. Call me superstitious but what the #^*%?! Everything had been just going too damn well I suppose ;)
So we are now snaking all over the place in light winds from slightly behind, not too bad an angle but with the strong current and not quite enough wind we aren't going exactly in a straight line and the more I mess around with the sails trying to make it better the worse it seems to get! We hand steered a few hours each and soon got sick of that so we are very grateful for the windvane and the breeze, we really have very little to complain about!!

Yesterday's Noon to Noon run was 183nm, today's 150nm
Position @ 1200 on 27/7 is And 545nm to Suriname

Day 5 South Atlantic

Well it's another sad day as we will be leaving the South Atlantic soon! Man it is a great Ocean, always seems to be a nice breeze and hardly any swell??? Hopefully the North Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea treat us as well! Yesterday was a great day just running with both headsails poled out and then dropped the staysail yesterday evening as wind came more from the east again and we went along with just the genoa. The breeze started to die a bit around midnight and we should have put up the main sail but were lazy as still doing 7 knots but at daylight we put it back up and are doing 8 with a comfier ride. The current is just amazing here we must have 2.5-3 knots so makes for some great daily runs and very easy on the boat as we can just set small sail and make it easy on auto pilot and everything else. We could have spinnaker up now and be doing an easy 10 but no need?! The breeze is forecast to die the next few days so we may have time for it then :)

Ps. Layla McNaughton if you are getting sick of all the sailing talk there's a lot more to come as we have a lot of Iridium minutes to use before they expire!!

Noon to noon days run=180nm made good and 874nm to Suriname
Pos 01*02.688 s42*29.405w @1200

Day 4 Friday 24/7

Well technically its really only day 3 as we have been out just over 72hours and geez we are making some great miles. Last night the wind came up from the east at 20-25knots and we were getting pushed south of our line into the shallower water so we dropped the staysail and headed a bit more north of our line with just half of the genoa and were still doing 7 knots. There is hardly any swell so it makes for really nice sailing and then this morning when the sun came up we hoisted the staysail again and are running with the breeze following the 2000m contour and have 2+ knots of current. Today there is a bit of rain and lots of cloud around with 15-18knots of breeze making for more glorious miles but not so glorious for the solar power and we may have to fire up the engine to charge the batteries this afternoon.
So all is well on the fine ship Sunflower, here is a pic of last night's sunset :)

Noon to Noon days run. 170nm made good=7knt average!
Noon position 02*04.990s 39*43.286w distance to Suriname=1050nm

Day 3

Been a great few days so far, really nice sailing. Yesterday we sailed around the NW corner of Brazil and the weather was just perfect and has so far stayed that way. Clear sky's and 15-20kts of breeze behind us. When we did sail around the corner we went back into the shallower water before the 100m contour and there were loads of fisherman. Beautiful rustic colourful old wooden boats setting what I think were crab traps?? Shitloads of them with big white polystyrene foam floats all over the place so we had to be on our guard. Went very close to one boat and he held up what looked like some sort of a crustacean anyway, all waves and smiles and taking photos:) also lots of shipping around heading the same direction as us but they can see us on AIS so it's no bother at all really which is great at night. We just have the genoa out one side and the staysail out the other and are making 5kts through the water but 6+ with the current we have and hopefully that will pick up in the next day or 2 also. So it's happy days of reading, sleeping and eating with just over 1200nm to go now until we get to Suriname.

Noon to noon run 146nm made good! Pos 03*38.484s 37*16.692w

Sad to leave!

Well after partying and BBQing at the Yacht club from Friday until Sunday it was time to finally leave :( well Monday I was too hung over so another days delay won't hurt?? It really was hard to say our goodbyes as they really are such a great bunch at the Jacare Yacht Club, a lot of fun! They really were so great to us welcoming us in and Julie especially made some very special friends. So a massive thank you and all the best to all the members there and also the other foreign yachties we were hanging out with! It will definitely be a place we come back to on the next way round.

So we woke upon Tuesday to a pretty crappy day with a lot of rain and not much wind but hey it was time to go as time is running out for us to get to Trinidad for me to go back to work. Once out of the river there was not much wind at all and still a lot of rain around and the wind from all directions so we carried on motorsailing. Later the wind settled for a while from behind so dropped the main sail and poled out the genoa and staysail each side. That didn't last long and we were only doing 3 kts and the wind changed again so carried on motorsailing with just the staysail sheeted in. Then after midnight we were off Natal and the breeze filled in more from the east at 12-15 kts and after a while the main sail was hauled back up and we are sailing beautifully with the genoa and staysail doing 6-7kts. Still now we have 15-17kts, Sunflower is loving it, there is not so much rain around and we have just altered course a touch to port to round the top corner of Brazil :)

22nd July @ 0930 pos 05*05.5s 35*01.3w, distance travelled 130nm