June 2 — First sighting of Fernando!
After an incredible amount of longing and anticipation, we finally arrived at the island of Fernando de Noronha, 200 nautical miles off the northern coast of Brazil! The longing and anticipation didn’t really help a lot but the winds sure did. Although we were sailing only 6 days, it sure felt like a heck of a lot longer. We had great wind to start from Ascension — 7 to 10 knots — but it calmed down the last day and a half of our approach. Probably only 4 to 5 knots coming in. It felt like we would stop completely. It was a great sail though and I managed to catch a 25 lb dorado that fed us for three days. It was the biggest fish for me ever!
June 1 — I caught a HUGE dorado this morning on the dawn shift! Biggest fish of my life! Took me 10 minutes to land him!
Captain John said it was the biggest dorado he’s seen. We filleted him and Cracker cooked him up for lunch and dinner. While I was cleaning it, I found some flying fish and steel wool in its stomach. In the middle of the ocean! Unbelievable! Poor thing.
May 30 — Catching up on the last few days…
We left on Saturday evening ahead of our friends and, on Monday afternoon, we heard that Max and Tanya had just hit a whale and lost their rudder. They were shaken but ok. They were one day out from Ascension and one day behind us. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough gas to go upwind 150 nautical miles to reach them. Dustin, however, was 30 nautical miles north of them so he went to help. Bless his soul!
Captain John walked us through some strategies for jury rigging a rudder to steer with as we waited for more news.
Upon inspection, Dustin found that their rudder shaft was broken. He threw them a “drogue” (whatever that is) and stayed close by to ensure they got on their way. They should be able to reach Brazil and get to a harbour for assistance, but at a snail’s pace (3 knots) . It will likely take them 20 days.
On a lighter note, we’ve got company! A bunch of stowaway gulls (John calls them brown boobies) took up residency just above the cockpit. They don’t seem to mind my presence or flash photography. In my twenties I aspired to be a boobie photographer so I guess I’ve finally made it!
It wasn’t long before John corrected me. I’m afraid I’ve misidentified the brown boobies. They are in fact brown noddies. So as opposed to a boobie photographer, I would now consider myself a “noddie” boy. So I don’t come up with the best material at 4:00 am. Sheesh! Tough crowd. :-))
May 27 — On watch, 3:00 to 6:00 pm shift. I’ve got to keep my eyes ahead of us as we nearly hit a string of some type of fishing bouts — in the middle of the deep blue sea. Assholes!
May 26 — It’s a beautiful day! The winds are very favourable, not exactly the right direction but we’re on course and making good speed.
Dustin expects to leave Ascension this morning for Grenada and Max and Tanya for Recife, Brazil. Our direction but 500 nautical miles past us.
May 25 — We left Ascension Island at 6:30 pm heading into the sun, kinda like the ending of a movie! I was on watch from midnight to 3:00 am. A warm night but very cloudy so I couldn’t see much. I think we passed some dolphins on our port side. Whatever it was made a dolphin kind of sound. Might have been a bird though. There wasn’t much to do as the autohelm is working well again and doesn’t make any grinding noises.