Hi from Skipper Steve
We are just a few hours into our 1000nm passage
from Forteleza to Cayenne in French Guyana. Forteleza turned out to be a little
gem with an excellent marina complex in front of the 5 star Marina Park Hotel,
with power, fresh water, easy refueling and a
supermarket just 5 minutes away. Also for a very modest fee, considering the
rates were 150 Uk pounds for the cheapest room, we had full use of the hotel
facilities. So we enjoyed a very pleasant pit stop there and prepared for our
longer passage across the Amazon delta to French Guyana. Bruce our weatherman
has predicted difficult sailing conditions for the first couple of days until we
reach the Northern hemisphere NE trade belt hopefully at about 1 degree North.
Until then we can expect mixed squally conditions with a lot of rain and
inconsistent winds, so should be fun...!! (Currently it is raining cats and
dogs)
We met up with a number of cruisers in Forteleza
who are making the passage from Cape Town to the Caribbean and it would seem
this is a popular stop after the long passage from South Africa. One deep
end South African sailor arrived in a catamaran he had built himself, junk
rigged, absolute minimum electrical aids, just hand held GPS and VHF sets, a
removable slat in the deck for a toilet, single gimbaled burner for cooking, nav
light on top of the mast and the whole contraption was powered by two solar
panels..!! A real adventurer and inspiration to us cosseted on Kasuje. his
worldly possessions were contained in the front locker and he was making for New
Zealand, hopefully by November. We wished him our very best, admired him deeply
and donated a couple of bottles of South African red to his wine
list.
The London guys are all fine a couple of us are
nursing dickey tummies but apart from that no other injuries and as it's Friday
and I'm duty chef today we are going to be treated to fish, chips and mushy
peas. The fish being steaks presented to us by a beautiful Marlin we managed to
snare and get on board just as we were arriving at Forteleza. I do not normally
allow such a large fish on board but as this was the boys first large beast I
made an exception.
So back to the frying pan and the beer
batter.
Bye for now.
Please keep in touch
Skipper Steve, Kevin, Dennis and
Colin