Well yesterday and Tuesday were slow progress days, light winds, making 4 - 5 knots max. The winds were forecast to pick up during yesterday evening, which they did, but around 0300 this morning the wind got up to 15 knots or so and there was a big cloud behind us. Then it started to rain heavily, squall. No further increase in wind though, unlike the North Atlantic. However when it passed us the wind dropped for newly two hours, to less than 5 knots. Also the wind had varied in direction by over 100 degrees, so our boat track was all over the place. It did start to pick up though and now, at 0830 it's approx 13 - 15 knots from the east, great, exactly what we want.
Although the wind hasn't been too kind, the rest of the weather has, lovely days with only a few clouds, I could get used to this.
Our chart plotter is conferring with our gps and suggesting 7 maybe 6 days until we reach our destination of Salvador. Our World Arc representative Victor will be in Salvador until the 10th Feb, so if we can get there by then that will help our clearance in and familiarisation with Salvador and Brasil.
Since we got to South Africa most of the boats including us have been treating the World Arc itinerary and timetable as advisory, it would seem. Most of us left Cape Town late and stayed in St Helena for longer than the 72 hours, so we are all late getting to Salvador. In fact some boats are bypassing Salvador and either going direct to our check out port of Cabadelo or going via Ascension Island. Saves a two to three day beat up the coast to get there but miss out on one of the biggest and oldest cities in Brasil, or even South America.