Sailed from Fortaleza on Sunday morning after immigration came through on Saturday afternoon.  What a joke… they had booked us in for an inspection of the yacht at 10am on Saturday, and surprise surprise they did not turn up.  The yacht next to us said it took them 3 days to get to them.  So Rohan paid them a visit that afternoon and lucky for us he met with a kindly old fella that apologized for the cancellation and gave us our paperwork right there and then.  I believe that may be a first and may well be even the last… a lucky break I guess ;)

It’s been a slog heading east to get over the shoulder of Brazil and another day or so we will start heading south with more favourable wind and currents… one can only dream.  Looking forward to doing less zig and a lot less zag ;)

Matt and Rohan

PS.  On a more serious note, we have had several losses in the last few days.  The first and more importantly is that ‘The Rocky” (named after our first crew member which was an invaluable piece of stainless steel for the main sail track that was lovingly shaped and fabricated by Rocky in the Irish Sea) was lost overboard.  It may ease the pain for you Rocky to know that a service was held at sea and a good turn out with kind words was said by all.

The second loss, though not so painful as the above but still weighs heavy on our hearts, was the loss of ¾ of a jar of vegemite this morning.  A horrible accident that is heard all too often at sea, when a much loved condiment stored high fell to their demise on the galley floor in an inclement sea.  Rohan tried his best to recover what he could from the mess of glass and vegemite, but alas nothing could be done.  A somber but fitting burial at sea took place this morning and the next of kin have been notified.