Fair Wind and Following Sea

We made very good progress throughout the afternoon and night with a fair wind that got up into the high teens. In the early evening the boat was moving at over 6 knots with an ease that seemed like magic. Nevertheless I rolled in some headsail in case the wind piped up, but that still left us doing an easy 5.5 knots. The wind was off the port quarter and as it backed I adjusted Jeff to keep us tracking north and away from the coast and for the last hours of the night we were sailing almost directly downwind. I didn't want to gybe at night and besides, I needed to avoid a no-go zone around a well lit permanently anchored ship containing dangerous cargo (?) which would have been in my way.

In the early night we blew past Florianopolis and I could see the glow of its lights 35 miles away. The coast line between Cabo de S Marta Grande just south of Florianopolis and Pta. do Boi on the SE corner of Isla Bella curves to the west forming a long bay. I had hopes that by sailing in the waters to the west of the cord between those two points I would be able to avoid heavy shipping, but that wasn't to be, and I spent over an hour tracking two targets until the dangers had passed. In any event I had trouble sleeping because of the shipping concern, and didn't start getting serious sleep until 3.30 AM, when radar showed everything clear within its 25 mile range and I figured that AIS would save my bacon if I got caught unawares. Fortunately there were no further shipping incidents and when I woke up from my second 2-hour sleep session at 7.30 AM I saw with AIS another ship that had passed 10 miles to our starboard.

After a second cup of coffee I gybed the boat which was laughably easy when I used a technique that I think I must credit to Dieter. The straight forward method is to first roll in some headsail to ensure that it will clear the inner forestay when it passes to the other side of the boat, then disengage Jeff, manually turn the boat, re engage Jeff resetting its air vane to the new wind direction, then rolling out and setting the headsail. This time I left the head sail rolled out and Jeff engaged then adjusted the airvane to the new wind direction. Knowing that Jeff would steer the boat across the wind for the gybe I was able to focus on the head sail letting out just enough sheet to allow the wind to push it through the gap between the stays. Once the sail was on the correct side I let fly the sheet and brought on the other one. Easy and fast.

I needed a course of 040 T to lay Ilha Bella just a shade over 200 miles away, and I wanted to pick up the pace. So with an adjustment of Jeff to put us on a broad reach and more headsail I found ourselves moving more or less down the rhumb line to Ilha Bella at over 6 knots. We had a large following sea helping us along, giving hint to rough weather to the south.

At 9.30 AM our position was 26S29, 047W31, giving us a DMG of 121 miles over the last 24 hours. Ilha Bella was 200 miles away and we were 860 miles from MdP. Last night's grib file predicted that this phenomenal wind would last until dawn tomorrow, and even after that it would remain fair though moderating through to midnight of that day. Thereafter it would back and strengthen in rainy conditions. The barometer had climbed 4 points to 1023 hPa.

I had a fair chance of making to the anchorage by nightfall the day after next. I would not make an entrance through unfamiliar close waters either during at night or in rough weather, so if needs be I would stand off until the third day. (An Aussie sailor lost his boat trying to come in to Ala Wai Boat Harbor on Oahu at night when he sailed straight into the reef. I may have provided an explanation to the baffled locals with my theory that he was working with the Aussie system of lights which is the reverse of that used in the USA. Mike told me that in the US the rule is "Red Right Returning". I replied that in Australia the rule is "Red Right Rong." The point is that if the fellow had just stood off until dawn he would have seen the entrance and the reefs very clearly and all would have been well.)

Today I'll have my last banana. There are three Kiwi fruit left but I'm not sure what condition they're in. The pears are gone. Tonight I'll pressure cook another pork stew. The beef stew fed me for 3 days and last night I had a dinner of 4 eggs and rice for a change.
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In the late afternoon I visited the mast for a deck check and everything appeared to be in order. Some of the lines holding down the Zodiac were a bit slack but there are so many redundant lines holding the inflatable down that I could see no harm leaving it as is. I expected to inflate and use it at Ilha Bella. The port lazy jack was loose so I secured it firmly to a mast cleat. The lazy jacks were now completely out of the picture, with no risk of impeding me when I raised either the trysail or mainsail. The mainsail was tied down along 5 places along the boom, but freeing them for a hoist would be a simple and quick matter.

I thought about the anchor while I was out there. I would have to wait until I was in calm waters, probably in the shelter of Ilha Bella, before I could connect the chain to it and place it on the stem roller prepared for a quick drop. I would try to pick up one of the white guest moorings but would have to be ready to drop anchor on short notice.

I then went to the steering station and checked Jeff the wind steering. The bright orange nylon ropes that I purchased in MdP because that was the best I could get in that diameter had settled down nicely and were still tight. Nylon stretches and is not suitable for the role. During the first few days of the passage I had to frequently tighten the lines and had been resigned to dealing with a chronic problem all of the way to Brazil. Fortunately the lines had settled down and I was no longer constantly wondering about the state of the steering.

At 5 PM we were at 25S57, 047W04, 160 miles from the anchorage at Ilha Bella. It had been another great sailing day during which we averaged about 6 knots before a fair wind strong enough to create white caps as far as the eye could see. - And there was yet another ship, passing 5 miles to my port. That was about the 6th of the day and I would expect to see a similar number throughout the night. But on the bright side, I had not seen a fishing boat for days.

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