On to Ilha Grande

Caramor - sailing around the world
Franco Ferrero / Kath Mcnulty
Sat 25 Jul 2015 01:22
23:08.30S 44:09.40W

As Kath’s mum is in her late seventies she has been staying ashore so the plan was for me to sail Caramor the 60NM or so to Ilha Grande and for Kath and Joyce to catch a bus and then a escuna and meet me there. As luck would have it there was a one day window of easterly winds forecast so on Thursday 23 July I set off before dawn. The winds were light to start with so I motor-sailed for a few hours and then as the breeze picked up was able to sail the rest of the way. By stopping at the first available anchorage I managed to drop anchor just before dark.

Sailing Caramor on my own after so much time working as a team with Kath was a revelation. I hadn’t quite realised what a smoothly running machine we make.We have got to the stage where if something needs doing we both spring into action and get on with the task with barely a word needing to be said. On my own, not only was there double the work to do, but some jobs that seem effortless when handled as a team were very difficult unaided, needed careful planning and setting up, and as a result took much longer to execute.

The next morning I moved around to the beautiful anchorage in Abraão, the ‘capital' of Ilha Grande and was there to greet Kath and Joyce when they arrived.

Franco