Noon Position: 16:52.5N
025:06.4W
Date:
1 December 2009
The fleet have been leaving for
Brazil in three
staggered fleets, so that our arrival is not spread out over too many days. The
smaller boats left on Monday, including Norma and Phil on “Minnie B”. Malcolm
James and Steve left yesterday on “Vita” with the medium sized boats, and the
larger boats including “Suzie Too” with Suzanne, David and Lisa on board, and
ourselves, left today.
Having developed close relationships over the last couple
of months, it was surprisingly emotional saying goodbye to our friends as they
embarked on their big Transatlantic adventure. Every boat left with crowds of
friends waving goodbye amidst a cacophony of fog horns. Suzie Too left earlyish
at 0830 whilst we stayed on to finish the last few tasks, leaving at
1115.
The route to
Salvador in
Brazil (12 deg
55 S 038 deg 30 W) is 2000 miles as the crow flies, although it would be a
bloody tired crow by the time it arrived. But we will not be going direct, and
the distance we will cover will be more than 2100 miles. It should take about 13
or 14 days.
The strategy is to follow the wind south west for the
first 50 miles or more to benefit from the stronger winds funnelling between the
Cape Verde islands, then head due south for about 700 miles (05 deg 30 N 025 deg
W). During this time we should have the wind just behind the beam, sailing
reasonably fast in the north easterly trade winds. We then get to the Doldrums
(the ITCZ). Most people think the Doldrums as an area in between the north east
trade winds and the south east trade winds with nothing but calms. In reality
you do get light winds (mainly from the east) and calms there, but these are
interspersed with squalls, some violent with winds up to 60 miles per hour, and
accompanied by tropical downpours. The width of the Doldrums varies from as
little as 50 miles across to a couple of hundred miles and we will want to get
through them as quickly as possible. Most boats will be motoring through, and we
are likely to resort to the Perkins ourselves for part of the time.
Once through the Doldrums we will start picking up the
south east trade winds and we should have beam winds for the last 1300 miles as
we curve round towards our destination. The last few hundred miles off the coast
of Brazil is
likely to be windless and we might again have to resort to the engine. The
reason for the longer dog leg is that if one were to follow the direct line, the
ITCZ would be wider at the point of intersection and thereafter we would have
head winds for the rest of the way.
A big day for all of us will be when we Cross the Line
(the Equator) on about 10 December and enter the Southern Hemisphere. We will be
crossing at approximately 27 deg W.
Venetia having at last satisfied herself that we had
enough food on board to ward off starvation (so long as she can keep Neil away
from the biscuits) – and we certainly won’t die of thirst having more than 50
litres of wine, 3 bottles of whisky, 4 bottles of gin and several more assorted
bottles of strong liquor (I was in charge of the liquid stores) we slipped our
lines and sailed out of Mindelo harbour. For some people the most exciting day
in a passage is the day they arrive in a new destination. For others, the most
exciting day is the day they leave for the next destination. I fall in to the
latter category – the travellers rather than the arrivers. So whilst we have had
a fabulous time in these wonderful islands, it was time to leave. We got off to a good start today,
sailing at about 7.5 knots and overtaking “African Seawing”, Frank and Martha’s
catamaran who had started about 20 minutes before us. But in the right
conditions the cat is very fast and she will doubtless retake her position in
due course. Meanwhile, Suzie Too
who started about three hours before us will be more than 20 miles in front of
us. Our Dolink transponders will be updating our positions every four hours so
you can track where we (and the other boats) are on the rally website www.ilesdusoleil.eu .
