Fernando de Noronha to Forteleza, Brazil……Day 1
July 1st, written the morning of the 2nd, 2013 (Western Hemisphere) Time: -2 on GMT
We motored out from Fernando yesterday in calm conditions to the end of the island. It is a lovely island! From there, we set course to Forteleza and were sailing within about three hours. That lasted till dark when we again motored till midnight. The winds came back and we sailed till this morning about an hour ago and we\’re motoring again. The weather here is much like the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) but that won\’t really be upon us till we\’re near French Guyana, Surinam and Guyana. The trade winds which are \”cool\” hit the South American Continent which is \”warm\” and the moist air causes convection. So the squalls aren\’t slammers, but they do cause large wind shifts, rain and basically yukkie conditions with the swell coming from anywhere North through East through South.
The highlight of today is that we had dozens of dolphins on two occasions hang out off our bow for 1/2 hour stints. It IS pretty cool and of course the dolphin police are nowhere to be found!…:-)
Not much else to report today except that we\’ll have our radio chit chat with \”This Side Up\”, \”Jongilanga\” and \”OZ\” in about a half an hour. \”Jongilanga\” should be arriving at Fernando today and \”TSU\” should be arriving at Forteleza.
We hope to be tied to a decent dock by dark tomorrow in Forteleza Marina…. Hope it all goes well!
KIT,
Scott and Nikki