Left Bracuhy

I motored out of Marina Bracuhy at 1 PM and am now safely at anchor on the north side of Ilha Da Gipoia at lat/log 23S02.2, 044W21.23.

Last night I gave myself a going away banquet and had a large bottle of beer and their "the works" hamburger with good lean beef, cheese, an egg, and the rest, accompanied by French fries. I enjoyed it so much that I did it again. It was the first meat that I had eaten since Rio and will be the last until Cape Town. During this passage I'll rely mainly with rice accompanied by beans or canned sardines, and spaghetti once in a while. I've brought 3 dozen eggs for extra protein, and there is plenty of cheese in the refrigerator. The beans I do as a stew. In the morning I'll throw dried beans into the pressure cooker and let them soak all day. In the evening I throw in plenty of onions, potato, garlic, carrots, carrots, canned corn, and whatever else I can think of. I pressure cook it for 30 minutes and wind up with enough "stew" for 3 or 4 days, always accompanied by rice and the occasional egg.

I had arranged to be assisted out of the slip at 9-10 AM but it was such a nice day and the next anchorage was so close (about 5 mi) that I asked for a postponement until noon. That gave the a final chance to look at my email, and I was able to respond to several bon voyage messages from friends. I also used my remaining Brazilian currency to do two more shopping runs for fruit and vegetables. The ones in my usual shop were pretty sad looking so I tried for the first time a small shop that I had spotted from the bus, and the man had an excellent array of fresh produce. I now have plenty of potatoes, onions, carrots, garlic, tomatoes, capsicums (bell peppers), bananas, oranges, a few apples, two mangoes and two lines. There will be no scurvy on this ship.

I started the engine at 11.45 AM and just as well, because the two helpers arrived 10 minutes early. They were simply going to cast off my stern lines but I expressed anxiety about the buoy and rope up front, so one of them got into a dinghy and positioned himself at the bow. The cast off went fine but as expected I had trouble making the sharp left turn into the fairway. I was not going to clear the line of boats on the other side and was forced to apply reverse with the wheel hard the other way and as expected my stern kicked back to the left negating most of the turning progress that I had made. I let the boat drift back almost to the jetty where I had started from then turned the wheel hard to port, gunned the engine, and cleared the line of boats on the other side by less than 5 ft. I was so close that I was worried about fouling the mooring lines at their bows so I allowed the boat to drift by in neutral until I had cleared the danger. I then yelled my thanks to the two men and I was on my way.

I had a good motoring to the anchorage, remembering my seamanship as I went along. It took 30 minutes to realize that I did not have my safety harness on. On the third trip to the foredeck realized that I was not clipping myself to the jack line. Then the navigation routine started to come back to me, and so it went.

As I approached the island I got a very pleasant surprise. I noticed a sloop with full sail motoring to catch up with me. It was my friend Ricardo with his wife and presumably his two dogs on board. I had managed to give him my boat card early in the morning pointing out that it contained the address of my blog, but I expected to say Goodbye later. Unfortunately when I went by his slip a couple of hours later his boat was gone, and no doubt they were enjoying one of their frequent sails. It was great to exchange our goodbye's across the water but I couldn't help feeling sad afterward. There is something special about this good man, and I will miss being around him. I am hoping that he will send a message to my Gmail address so that we can communicate later, because in the excitement I forgot to thank him for helping me so much during my stay at Bracuhy.

At the anchorage I took my time searching for a good spot and on the third circuit dropped the anchor in 10 meters of water over sand. I payed out 30 meters of chain and was pleased to see that I was well clear of other boats and moorings. The wind was from the SSW at a surprisingly strong 10-12 kt. I then set three anchor alarms: the Raymarine, OpenCPN, and Marine Plotter. I would have a look at this night's grib wind file to decide whether to spend 1 or 2 more days working my way to the open sea.

During the run I got my first technical surprise of the passage. The brand new Raymarine autopilot head is behaving exactly as the one that was repaired in Mar del Plata. Whenever I try to make a course adjustment to port or starboard of either 1 or 10 degrees the steering goes berserk, sending the wheel hard one way then hard the other. So I was wrong in assuming that there was something faulty with the repaired head. Most likely there is a problem with a crossed wire or a setting in the autopilot, unless there is something wrong with the course computer itself. I'll look at it when I get a chance but the problem is not particularly serious because the autopilot will steer the boat straight on whatever course I set it.

I'll be cooking one of those bean stews tonight and to accompany the meal I am chilling in the refrigerator a bottle of Suter Pinot de la Loire from Argentina.

I'm hoping to get good communication from Sailmail. These days I must rely on the Chile station because I haven't had much joy from the many stations in the Caribbean area. What this means is that my missing a day or two of blog reports should not be a cause of worry, because at this distance bad atmospherics could prevent HF radio communication.

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