02:52.66S 041:40.01W
s/y Miss Blue
Bengt/Ritva Björlin
Tue 21 Sep 2010 12:59
We left Jacaré and the river Paraíba together with s/y Kairos and the solosailor Nils. We went with the tide in the afternoon and got a good speed in winds from SE 20-25 knots. On our third day at sea the wind and waves had increased and the weather report was giving even more wind the next few days. After having a discussion we decided to sail towards Fortaleza as we were only 40 miles away. Just before sunset around 17.00 pm we dropped the anchor outside the Marina Park Hotell. We stayed here three days making some minor repairs and filling up with some fresh food. We could get in touch with Nils and found out that his windsteering had broken and he managed to get in behind the piers of Louis Correia and was going to stay there a few days for fixing it. So on Sunday pm we left Fortaleza and were sailing to Louis Correia to meet up with him. The next morning we were having huge seas and winds around 30-35 knots. It had become a very wet sailing. We had sailed 80 miles almost north because of the oil fields near Fortaleza and now we could change course and head west towards L.C. Our average speed was now around 6,1 knots and both the windsteering and the boat were doing fine. After 270 miles and 46 hours we could drop the anchor beside s/y Kairos. Nils had a nice cold beer waiting for us.
The next day we went together at high water into the little fishing harbour and we could tie up to a fishing boat (not in use). Again we had some minor repairs to be done, this time on our cutter jib. The people are very friendly and you can buy fresh fish direct from the fishermen. The atmosphere is very relaxed.
Typical fishingboat without an engine on it´s way out from Louis Correia