Day 11 - Passage to the Caribbean
Misterx
Sat 12 Apr 2025 00:14
11/04/25
8:30 pm
Day 11
South Atlantic Ocean
DTD : 2,475 NM (127NM)
The Bird Gazette
By the midnight watch, Ian counted a total of 6 birds in residence... these how ever were a lot more well behaved than the previous lot... not so much squabbling at night, a very prompt departure, well before dawn. They also were not as messy, not like the night before when they left us loads to clear up, including bits of undigested fish!! YUK!! Still waiting for our overnight residents now, Ian is hoping they'll not turn up, but we are ready, the tarpaulin is deployed. I don't think we'll be spared, not just yet. We'll see later on.
We've had to fold the wings and go a bit further North East today. The wind was taking us to close to Brazil, when I say close, we are still a good 600nm (6 days) from the Brazil coast, at the level of Barreira do Zumbi, above Natal. I've always wanted to go to Brazil. We were meant to go and stop there this year, but we have just run out of time... rush, rush, rush! So instead, I've been looking at the Brazilian coast on the chart, my Portuguese is good enough to make a good guess at the meaning of the names, which is fun. But the coast is littered with wrecks and submerged rocks, and currents, as well as dangerous breakers! Maybe it will be easier to go by plane! Brazil is still on the list of destinations to go and visit.
So we changed slightly direction in anticipation of the wind coming from the East in the next few days, not from the South East, we are making sure that we have some leeway and not end up on this dangerous looking Brazilian coast... 600nm away! We have more and more impressive looking clouds as we approach the equator. The doldrums are approaching.
We've had a busy day today. I have lavished a lot of loving care to my carrots since we left St Helena. I knew they would need lot of attention as we couldn't find local carrots and these were imported and probably refrigerated. Never the less we got 6 kg, because I love carrots and i though i would be able to nurse them along... it's not like i have not have a lot of experience... not blowing my own trumpet, but i have had carrots lasting us all the way from Panama to French Polynesia... a 37 days at sea! And I conducted several experiments over the years to see what the best way would be to keep carrots! Wrapping them in newspapers and hanging them in a mesh bag in a well ventilated area got me the best results in the past. Storing them in a paper thick bag without any wrapping was good too, crossing the North Atlantic... so did standing them up, foliage at the top, in a tupperware box with just a paper towel lining in a dark area, that was in the Indian Ocean... So there you have it, carrots behave differently from one ocean to the next!
To get back to this particular bunch of carrots, in the South Atlantic, wrapped in newspaper, for the last week i have been checking them out every day, part of my morning chore, unwrapping every single one of them, and letting them sunbathe for the afternoon and then back in the now dry newspaper... Still they were not faring to well and i got a bit tired of this particular chore, could not save them fast enough, the red mist came down! Got the peeler and peeled the whole lot, coarsely grated them and put them in white wine vinegar! Go 6 big jars of them now sitting pretty in the pantry! no more unwrapping/wrapping our sunbathing carrots! Getting a cockpit free of rolling around carrots and my life back!
Now I'll have more time to gaze at the clouds, no more gazing at the carrots!
M