Thursday 29th January 2009
HURTLING ALONG LIKE A HERD OF SPEEDING TURTLES
After yesterday's activities today has been a rather restful day. We've largely been mourning the temporary loss of the spinnaker, which loss has added about 15 hours on to our ETA in Salvador. Our sadness has been heightened by the fact that since the "squall incident" we've had light south-easterly trade winds , perfect for the spinnaker but not so perfect for the Twistle rig. The sails are just too heavy for such light winds and have a tendency to flap and fold in the light winds. Our speed oscillates between 4 - 6.5 knots. The momentum has gone.
We all turn to our little vehicles for solace. Lindsey has been making the sails for her ketch (called Cleone) and has made various deck fittings (simply superb); Malcolm has a futuristic style vehicle powered by a nose hair trimmer, no less! (genius); Sam's water bottle race car is fast turning in to a Heineken/Amstel tin can sports car as he's now fitted a bonnet, bumper and spoiler (very sleek); Ian's green race car, made out of a green washing up bottle is now looking like a miniature SS Jaguar (stylish). As for my vehicle, I have yet to disclose this to you, so embarrassed was I by my pathetic attempts. But there has been improvement; my dinghy is now starting to look like a dinghy. At one point it rather looked like a rubber boomerang; so appalled was I by such low standards I threw it aside in disgust, only for it to behave like a boomerang and find itself back on my lap. I had to squash it in to the bin to get rid of it and start all over again.
The cleaning and polishing directive has been extended to this afternoon and this continues to keep us out of mischief. A tinge of melancholy befalls the good ship Quasar as we near the end of our transatlantic voyage from South Africa to Salvador : 3600 miles. I note that each of us is taking a quiet moment to reflect on the last month, sitting at the bow or stern, looking out to sea and the glorious sky.
On the SSB we heard that Tallulah Ruby and Baccalieu had sighted unlit fishing buoys and had crossed a busy shipping channel so we decided to double up on night watches to ensure a safe closing passage to Salvador.
Tonight, Ian cooks a delicious sausage casserole followed by butterscotch angel delight and the night watches commence, with Linds grabbing a torch and sitting at the bow looking out for unlit fishing buoys. Within half an hour she's calling out "fishing buoy dead ahead, fishing buoy dead ahead, it's flashing." Sam steers to port. I jump out of bed searching for this elusive flashing fishing buoy. The darkness reveals nothing. After half an hour Linds finally concedes that it was probably Venus setting.
Position: getting close to Salvador ETA tomorrow afternoon.
Friday 30th January 2009
ARRIVAL IN SALVADOR
As we approach land, the wind lightens to a gentle Force 2 and at 5ish Malcolm switches the engine on, keen to arrive in Salvador by light. The engine continues to chug away throughout the day and land is sighted just after lunch. At about 4ish we sail in to a pod of whales basking in the sun, some just below the surface, others emerging fleetingly. They are huge and move so gracefully. It reminds us of the South African whales that bid us farewell at the start of our journey. We like to think that these are Brazilian humpbacks bidding us a warm hello. We put the engine in to neutral and idle about with them for a while.
Life is glorious and as we approach Salvador the impressive skyline of the city comes in to focus, with its plethora of high-rise buildings lining the peninsula. We are excited by the prospect of exploring this new city. As we round the peninsula, the Baia de Todos os Santos sprawls out before us and ushers us in to her sheltered waters.
It could only happen to Quasar but as we approach the finish line we merge with 2 dinghy races and weave in and out of a number of dinky dinghies. We finally cross the finish line at 19 hrs 57 min 32 sec UTC. We are warmly greeted by: our fellow WARC sailors (looking rather drunk); a beautiful Brazilian lady dressed up in Carnival attire offering us a tray of caipirinhas; the race team who supply us with cans of Heineken (the sponsors) and Bahia t-shirts.
The party has just started and this is where Quasar V signs off until the next leg my dear readers, which will be in a couple of weeks. A big thank you to you all for your support.
Position: In the middle of Carnival city!!