Itaparica near Salvador de Bahia in Brazil - 12°53.22'S 038°41.31'W

Thursday, 2 August 2012

 

Hello from Brazil!  And merry Full Moon parties! 

 

 

By now our clocks and watches are at UTC-3 hours.  The trip across the South Atlantic was one of the most pleasant ones we've ever had.  Only the trip from Chagos to Mauritius can compare.  The wind was mostly around 25 knots from behind, so that we didn't even unpack the mainsail at all and did everything with the genoa.  So glad to be on a multihull!  One of our friends was rolling so badly that he mostly had three reefs in the main and even at anchor his boat was rolling like mad.  Once upon a time I was considering getting myself a small monohull - but I am definitely not going to do that now.  Much rather a Wharram or a little trimaran. 

 

An amazing thing were the many whales following us, for hours and hours, sometimes for days.  We think they were finback whales.  They were surfing just a couple of meters from us, regarding us with one eye and turning their flukes sideways so that they looked like giant dorsal fins.  The first time that happened, it gave Liping quite a fright!  Fortunately we didn't hit one of them, as happened to ADIO.  Apparently the whale got quite angry, for he rammed them full power in the side, so that they now have giant dent in their boat.  Which is fortunately made of metal. 

 

 

Our arrival was just as peaceful.  While almost all the other boats head for the marina in Salvador de Bahia, we decided to bypass that horrible city altogether and sailed on to the island of Itaparica.  Much more peace and quiet and also much safer.  Salvador has one of the worst reputations anywhere and people here call it The Black Hole.  Not only because of the predominant skin color of the population, but because everything disappears there on an astronomical scale.  Post office, customs, theft, robbery, muggings - you name it.  We were told that they had to move the Cape Town race back to Rio de Janeiro after only three years here, because about 80% of the sailors got mugged in the first few days, often right between the two marinas.  But that must surely be exaggerated!

 

By now we even can take showers in the cockpit again, because it finally got a bit warmer.  Only in the daytime, though.  At night temperatures fall to 27°C or even lower.  Right now it is winter and the rainy season, so we can expect rain for weeks on end and squalls of up to 40 knots.  Hmmm...

 

Just before our arrival here, Aurora was so excited that she couldn't sleep any more.  She tried it on the sofa in the salon and that seemed to work.  You don't miss any excitement there, see.  One day before our arrival, the clouds were lit up all over the horizon from the lights of Salvador.  Amazing how much electricity we humans waste.  The closer we got, the more I got reminded of Belem in the Amazon delta.  One skyscraper standing next to the other.  Apparently everything is falling into ruin and is very dirty and neglected. 

 

Here in Itaparica there is a more village-like atmosphere of a small tourist attraction.  I was reminded of Soure in Marajó where my brother Birger and I went on DHARMA BUM I together with Dede and Riton on the VILLE DE SAINT NAZAIRE in 1989.  Hard to describe, same architecture and flat land.  Typically Brazilian. 

 

Right after arrival I launched and pumped up the dinghy, put on the outboard and went to visit Reinhart & Marlene on ADIO from Cuxhafen.  We met before in Mauritius and they are good friends of Michael on TANOA, who is by now back in Germany.  The next day we went to visit the German boat UI, as there were  two little girls for Ulani to play with.  They swim like fish and climb like monkeys, very independent minded.  Their father is working in Germany while the mother is staying here with the children. 

 

Many boats here come from Europe and are new to the Yachtie lifestyle.  We managed to get cash out of a machine and buy a cucumber for Hamsti.  Back home we had the good instant noodles Made in Taiwan.  Unfortunately our supplies are dwindling.  Next project was WiFi and Internet.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and if it does, it is excruciatingly slow.  Still can do eMails once in a while, which is very nice indeed. 

 

Through my long-time friend Roy Starkey on SEALOONE (we met 1989 in Kourou) we got to know Ron Llewellyn, who lives in a house right here at the anchorage.  Ex-Special Forces in Australia, specialized in "High Altitude, Low Opening" parachute jumps with oxygen and special gear.  You only open up the chute when it is almost too late.  Often at night, as the idea is to penetrate enemy lines this way.  He did that for ten years, cross-trained and instructed Americans, the Brits and the like.  After that he quit and opened up his own sky-diving school.  Did that for many years and then went sailing.  After the first circumnavigation he thought it might be a good idea to sail from New Zealand non-stop and single-handed around Cape  Horn. 

 

There he got caught by a big storm.  The military observatory at Cape Horn measured wind velocities at 120 knots.  My God!  He was under bare poles, capsized, a Norseman terminal broke and that was that.  The mast came down and trapped the forward hatch in the open position.  Ron was only wearing a T-shirt and some kind of jumpsuit pants.  He stood on the ceiling and thought that this was most likely going to be the end, as SULA didn't seem to want to right herself again.  Fortunately she did after all and he could make it on deck and to that hatch crawling on his stomach.  But no way to do anything, as the broken mast was way too heavy.  Every wave put in many liters of 5°C cold water into SULA.  If he didn't fix the problem, she would surely sink.  He managed to destroy the hinges and wired the hatch into place.  Then back inside.  That's when he realized that he was now just about to die of hypothermia.  This was the second time he thought he wasn't going to make it.  Everything was wet, cold, full of diesel - an unbelievable mess.  I've seen the pictures.  He put on all the stuff he could find, so that he looked somewhat like the Michelin man. 

 

Then it took him two days to get the engine started.  Next was the radio and an emergency antenna.  The Chilean navy treated him very badly.  Heavy duty fines and it looked pretty sure that he would never get his boat out again if he took it to the military outpost in Puerto Williams.  Finally Ron had it and went under engine, just as the boat was, around the Horn to Ushuaia in Argentina.  His life was one big adventure.  Now he lives here with his young Brazilian wife Marli and baby Ronzinho. 

 

Life here can be very inexpensive.  A full meal with chicken, rice, noodles, beans, fruit-juice and a cafezinho is less than US$ 2!   

 

 

The other day we all had a barbecue on SEUTE DEERN from Cape Town.  Hans (72) hails from Hamburg and SangHee Lee from Korea.  Our friends Henry (Oz) and Tuk (Thailand) from PARPAR had bought three lobsters from a boat  that morning and the three Asian "girls" all cooked specialties from their country.  Delicious!  We had beer, red wine, Caipirinhas and good conversation.  Hans left Germany around 40 years ago and Henry always has excellent stories to tell from his life as a field geologist in remote areas all over the planet. 

 

By now Aurora Ulani is in the 4th grade of Calvert School, which alone means 6 1/2 hours of school every day.  Add to that Chinese and German lessons and you can imagine how busy we are.  At least it looks as if we will not have any visa-troubles for once.  As long as Liping is listed as crew on the boat, she gets pretty much the same deal as Ulani and I in Trinidad.  That is important as everybody told us it is not a good idea at all to attempt major repairs while here.  Spare parts never arrive, everything is always slow, late and costs more money than originally agreed on.  So we won't be staying all that long.  Got to get DHARMA BUM III back to the Caribbean - and after we have sold her, our sailing lifestyle will have come to an end.  Whether we can sell her up there or have to go to Australia or elsewhere is a different chapter again.  : - )

 

Here is the updated position tracker:

 

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/xtras/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=WDC7641

 

All the best, cheers and ciao! 

 

Holger, Liping & Aurora Ulani Jacobsen

Catamaran DHARMA BUM III

Itaparica, Brazil, 12°53.22'S 038°41.31'W

HolgPhone +557197039908 

GloriaPhone +557183422235 (Data)

South Africa to Saint Helena - 5 July 2012 - 15°55.04'S 005°43.14'W

After three weeks our time in Saint Helena is coming quickly to an end.  For us, the trip from Cape Town was one of the best we ever had.  Both the wind - mostly around 25 knots - and the swell were coming from behind, so that after the first day we took down the main completely and were moving as if on tracks.  No fuss whatsoever.  The story was very different for a friend of us, who was sailing at the same time.  A 30 foot long keeled boat apparently behaves very differently in these kind of conditions and he was having a miserable time of it with three reefs in the main and constant rolling.  Even here at the anchorage he was still rolling like crazy.  Shows again that it very much depends on what kind of boat you are on. 

 

 

 

The big swell outside of Hout Bay did cause one problem on our boat as well.  My spare battery took off, smashed into the automatic water pump and broke off a nozzle.  Since the pump is well lower than the tank, we lost all our drinking water.  Not exactly a life-threatening situation as we had bottled water and all kinds of other liquids on board.  Still, while in a pinch, I might be content to drink only "homebrew", I don't much like it for taking showers or washing my hair.  And the best of all women will get positively grumpy in this kind of situation.  I had to get water quick.  The next source was in Jamestown, Saint Helena though.  Originally we had planned to pass this island close by and sail directly to Brazil. 

 

After 16 days of sailing we arrived.  The last night we were drifting, as we didn't want to arrive in the dark.  As friends had already told us, it was a rolly anchorage in very deep water.  Not quite as bad as the one in front of Betio, Tarawa, Kiribati, but here the swell was coming from the side.   

 

After a short time we were together with old friends and acquaintances.  Just in time for my 52nd birthday party.   Henry & Tuk from  PARPAR, Kirk from SALSA, Neil from FULL MOON, as well as Bill & Melissa from RELIANT showed up. 

 

Most of the time here, I had to deal with the water-system.  I had connected a smaller spare pump, put water in the tank, nada.  Even the foot pump in the galley didn't work any more.  I had to take apart half the salon to get at the tank and open it up.  I fixed the old, stronger pump and when finally I managed to get water, it was so filthy that I had to dump it overboard.  The foot pump still wouldn't work at all and by this time I was losing my temper on a regular basis, with the slightest provocation and at ever shorter intervals. 

 

That's when I decided to change tack.  I sent my girls ashore without me, so that I could concentrate on my work.  There was another reason, though.  By this time the swell had become considerable, so that I didn't really dare to anchor my dinghy that close to the rocks.  I simply didn't trust the small anchor I had bought for the dinghy in Fiji.  If the anchor doesn't hold, you can write off dinghy and outboard motor.  Kirk did it anyway and lost his diving mask and snorkel.  He also holed his dinghy, so that it always fills with water now.  His anchor, on the other hand, held so well that he had to dive with a crowbar to retrieve it.  The joys of going to out-of-the-way places. 

 

Finally l decided that I had massive amounts of air in my water system.  I didn't help to pour in water at the top, as the back pressure was too big.   I took a powerful manual bilge pump for the dinghy and used it to push water in instead of sucking water out.  At the same time Liping operated the foot pump in the kitchen.  That finally did the trick and everything was working once more as it should. 

 

Except that I now noticed a leak in my water tank...   After a lot of swearing and two more days of work, that problem was fixed as well.  Man!  PARPAR & FULL MOON had taken off for Ascension just after my birthday and soon RELIANT was on its way too.  Kirk had quite a few problems with his windvane self-steering and was busy fixing things as well.  And as we heard later, both FULL MOON and RELIANT had problems with the SSB radios.  Only PARPAR didn't report any problems. 

 

We still had time for a  trip around the island where we had a look at the houses of Napoleon Bonaparte, his tomb, the giant tortoises, the Jacob's ladder and many other interesting sights.  Unfortunately we were sitting in the back of a pickup-truck which my back didn't like at all.  Liping and Aurora Ulani went to a barbecue picnic at Sandy Bay but I couldn't go as I had picked up some kind of virus and suffered from neck- and headaches for about three weeks. 

 

 

 

Aurora Ulani and I took her little fishing net and tried to catch some sea creatures.  She enjoys this kind of activity tremendously.  Just like her father.  After a little while we had caught some starfish, a crab and various other creatures.  The fish were too fast and the sea urchins were too well entrenched in their holes in the rocks.  Unfortunately for the crab, it was gobbled up by the starfish. 

 

The "Royal Mail Ship" RMS ST. HELENA came by.  We watched how they offloaded three containers at a time onto barges which are powered by some gigantic kind of outboard engine, which looked like heavy duty construction machinery. 

 

Then there was the big discussion whether we should go and watch the hatching sea turtle on Ascension. We had tried at Ashmore Reef between Australia and Indonesia, but were not successful.  We really would like to watch this!  However, our friends had told us that it is often impossible to go ashore there as the swell is even more of a problem.  Also, Ascension would mean quite a detour and from there to Salvador de Bahia the wind would not be on such a propitious angle compared to leaving directly from here.  Even today, when we are about to set sail, we haven't made a decision yet. 

 

 

No matter what, we have a longish time at sea ahead of us which suits us quite well.  It'll get warmer all the time, the moon will accompany us at the beginning of the trip and we are well in the trade-wind area now.   

 

Our position:  http://www.pangolin.co.nz/xtras/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=WDC7641