Voyage Recap 4: Passage to Fernando de Naronha and a visit from a friend
September 27 we departed St. Helena bound for our next stop of Fernando de Naronha, Brazil. FdN is an island 250 miles off the coast of northern Brazil, across 1742 miles across open ocean from St. Helena. We set off at about noon, and saying goodbye to a place we would probably never see again after a very interesting stop, bound for new adventures. The wind was at our back and mild, and we hoped it would stay that way. For the most part it did, so we settled in to our passage routine of watch keeping and cooking and checking the sails and having a lovely sail for the next 12 days. We put lures out for fish, but we had had such abysmal luck that we didn’t expect anything to bite. That was about to change…
Mark was on watch and I was on standby, lazing on the day bed behind the cockpit table. Emmy was in the saloon and Ed was sleeping on his off watch. We were making very good speed when the lines when taut. Mark yelled out “FISH ON!” and ran for the port side line. This confused me, because I could clearly see that the fish was on the starboard side line, a huge yellow and green flash leaping out of the water. But it was TWO fish! One on each line. Emmy came over to the starboard line, which had the bigger fish and Mark worked to bring in the smaller one. Suddenly Mark yelled out “what the hell is that?!” I turned in time to see a large round yellow buoy emerge from between the two hulls of the catamaran. Whatever it was we had passed cleanly over it, without hitting it. Emmy swears she had also seen a blue one. This was in very deep water, so there was no chance it was anchored to the bottom. We didn’t have time to really mull it over till later, we had fish to bring aboard. It wound up being two lovely mahi-mahi, which Mark filleted and bagged into ziplocks. It wound up being about 5 pounds of meat between the two fish.
After it was all over, Ed emerged, having slept through the excitement and yelling, to enjoy a lovely Mahi dinner!
The of the passage was smooth with the crew really in the groove, until suddenly it wasn’t. It was a total of 12 days from St. Helena to Fernando. On about day ten Ed suffered a painful abscess in a tooth, which caused him to pass out on watch. This was scary for us, because I’d left my ships doctor (Liz) back in California. Fortunately she had stocked us up with antibiotics and some painkillers, so a reached out on the satellite link and asked for advice. We got Ed started on the antibiotics and gave him some recuperation time. We knew that he’d need to get some dental attention when we arrived in Fernando de Naronha. As it turns out, there was a dentist there, but Ed and I made the decision that he should get home to Texas to get a visit with his regular dentist. The next leg of the trip would be the longest, and starting out with an abscessed tooth would have been a risk. We arrived in Naronha, and Ed began researching flights home, but not before enjoying some of the island.
The whole island is a marine sanctuary, so the only place you are allowed to anchor is in the main harbor. It is a deep anchorage and took almost all of our chain to get a hold, but it was quite a place. Each morning the spinner dolphins would put on a show for us, leaping clear of the water mere meters from the boat. Snorkelling in the bay was fantastic. There were lots of fish on an old wreck that was right off the main dock, within walking distance of the best caipirinha I’ve ever had. We found good food ashore, including a sushi bar that was outstanding even though they only had two fish, both caught by the chef!
The highlghts of our stay in FdN included a visit from my old Apple Manager and now great friend Mauricio Da Silva. I have to pause here to say that none of this would have been possible without Mauricio. I was working as a “Genius” at Apple Retail when he was the director of iPod and iPhone global service in 2007. He hired me to help coordinate the capture of early field failures units of the then new iPhone, and I made a career out of that until my retirement last year. Mauricio is from Brazil, it was very special to have him come visit us in FdN. He stayed with us on the boat for a few nights, but refused our offer to sail on in place of Ed for the next two weeks. I guess he had to work! I look forward to his next visit (soon!)
Another highlight was Emmy’s 3xth Birthday! Ed, despite his wonky tooth, went all out on getting gifts together, and Mark baked a cake. The five of us had a great meal and celebration on board. The next day we said goodbye to Ed and watched his plane take off for the mainland before transfer in Recife to a flight to the US. We had another few days getting ready to go, including getting fuel and some vegetables. Mauricio’s Portuguese was very helpful in sorting all that out. One last meal ashore and we said goodby to Mauricio and headed out for the longest part of the trip.
With only three aboard now we had to adjust the watches, but we were now seasoned trade wind sailors, so we adjusted quickly again to life at sea and the rythms of the waves. 14 days more and our journey would end in Grenada, but not before we crossed the Doldrums, where the trade winds meet and cancel each other out, which can mean some slow days.