If
fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish
thing.
Journal
Hot, hot and getting hotter...
Note: There is a problem with the server that prevents us from being able to upload pictures via the blog. This post will unfortunately not contain pictures. Sorry all! Brazil is probably the hottest place I have stayed in - Kuwait was hotter but a drier heat and I was only there for business. Even Malaysia was cooler than here. It is a steady 35-40 degrees Celsius (95-105 Fahrenheit) and miserably humid (regularly over 90%), so the sweat is nonstop. Even nights can get up to 40 degrees. When we arrived, poor Saoirse got such a bad heat rash all over her body and face that people avoided her in the streets, thinking she has some sort of disease! The boat is regularly above 40 degrees when the hatches are closed (if we are out shopping etc.) JC spent days on end sewing awnings for shade over the front of the boat area and that has helped keep the boat much cooler. Even with the fans running and hatches open, the measly wind rarely eases the discomfort. I suppose we are all more acclimatised now and Saoirse’s rash is gone, but like most pregnant women, I am running hotter than…
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End of 2009 Update...
Well it has been a while since I have updated my blog entries on foolishsailor.com AND it is already 2010, (HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!), so thought I had better give you all an update as to where we are in our (sailing) lives. A lot has happened since I last wrote… My parents arrived from Ireland in August and we had a fabulous time. The weather was perfect, shorts and t-shirts during the day and something a little warmer at night. We collected them off the bus in Angra where the boat is and took them, to their surprise, by dinghy to our boat! It is easier to get around by dinghy than by bus or taxi… We had booked their first few nights in a local pousada beside the marina so that was handy for all. We then sailed to the World Heritage village of Paraty where we had again booked a few nights stay for them. Saoirse, JC and I stayed in a local marina. Paraty is beautiful with its cobblestoned roads, historic stone buildings and perfect view over the water. It was one of the main landing areas for the slavery ships of the 16th to 19th centuries…
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Rio, or Hio (as pronounced in Portuguese) de Janeiro...
After our loud and tiring welcome (see end of last Jackie blog entry) into Marina da Gloria, one of the yacht clubs of Rio city, we spent 3 days clearing customs, immigration, health department and the Port Authority. There were several hairy hours for us as JC’s visa for Brazil had expired by 10 days (Americans need a visa), but the official was incredibly helpful and willing to help us so after a few tense hours a solution was found and he was not deported to a neighbouring country to apply for a new entry visa (we have subsequently heard several stories about people who were made do this, so were very lucky). We both agreed that Saoirse was probably the only reason the official was so lenient with us. I found all of the officials we dealt with very nice, friendly and efficient, with the one exception of the Port Authority who are all naval. They kicked JC out of the building and made him wait outside because he was wearing shorts and told me (not asked nicely) not to sit and play with Saoirse on their step. Not sure if it is that I am Irish or just…
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Passage Notes: St. Helena to Brazil
Hey everyone. I have had many requests to put online my passage notes so here they are. I have put up the relevant notes from my log and expanded on the last bit. Hope they are interesting, it was definitely an interesting passage. Passage Notes: St. Helena to Brazil Date: 30/6 Time: 0800 Heading:260T Speed:6kt Sky:altocumulus Wind:190T Speed:3kt Baro:1018 Engine:Y/1500rpm Comment: Leaving is always sad, even when you desperately want to go. What a strange and interesting island in the middle of nowhere. As the other cruisers joke, “what a beautiful place, what a shitty anchorage”. We have been here for almost a week anchored in 20 meters of water with the wide open Atlantic at our backs with a steep drop off on the bottom. It wouldn’t take too much anchor drag for the boat to find herself cast off and free to drift to Brazil on her own. The bottom drops to 200 meters deep only 100 meters further from the island and drops to 4000 meters deep only 500 meters away. Needles to say I didn’t get a full nights sleep without at least once in the evening popping up convinced we had dragged only to look…
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3,000 miles later...
Arrived 19 days after leaving St Helena Island. Feeling very battered and worn down but thrilled to be in Brazil at last, the Land of the Fresh Fruit!!!! A little about St Helena before I tell you more about that 2nd passage. We stayed in St Helena for a full week and it was a welcome break after the long 17 days on the boat…Towards the end of the first passage I was more than looking forward to some fresh fruit and veg as all we really had were tangerines and bananas, the latter browned quickly enough in the heat and ended up in batches of banana bread which we ate for breakfast, along with one tangerine each per day. The veggies that kept onboard were cabbage, carrots, onions and potatoes - JC perfected coleslaw on the first trip! We would never get scurvy, but I was truly excited about all the fruit I would eat on the island. Well I was sorely mistaken. There is no airport in St Helena and the mail boat only arrives every 2 weeks carrying produce for the islanders. We arrived the day after the boat departed which meant that all the choice vegetables…
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The Maiden Voyage...
This voyage from Hout Bay to St Helena was supposed to take 7 to 10 days, or so we were told. A few people told us the day before we left that we would be lucky to do it in 2 weeks. Well, it is now day 14 and we are still 300 miles from the island. I am at last ready to put some words down. The easiest way I think I can do this is by explaining my concerns and fears before we set off and then the actual realities of life on the high seas… Fear - Saoirse. The biggest fear I had was actually about Saoirse. Not so much of her falling over board, but rather the boredom factor. In Hout Bay she was attending the kindergarten pretty much full time and was surrounded by other children and activities all day. Great for her social development but hard on me at the weekends when we were stuck on the boat from Friday to Monday morning. At least on the marina we had a rented car, so simple things like going to the shops became a way off the boat for she and I. What on earth…
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1 step forward, 3 steps back...
Well, we are still here, despite our best efforts to leave! Things just don’t get done quickly on a boat. We had hoped to test sail last week and the weather was at last just right when the solenoid (electronic by-pass valve) for the autopilot burnt out, after only 10 minutes of use. Of course, being a Friday, no one was available or interested in helping us, so it had to wait till Monday. We managed to get the problem resolved with a new dual hydraulics design allowing us to override the autopilot to manually use the tiller, but when we went to bleed the hoses for the system, we could not get rid of all the air. After 4 hours of air bubbles, we finally gave up and called in the experts. They told us that the ram (piston which drives the rudder) was broken and needed to come out. More money and more bad news. Even worse, the weather has changed again and we are at the start of 3 bad cold fronts with high winds and driving rain hitting Cape Town. That means the ram can’t be welded out till the weather is calmer, i.e. mid next…
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Saoirse the Slapper
My mother always accused me of pinching my brother when he was a little baby. I have now discovered that you can divide babies into 3 categories - biters (despite their tiny innocent-looking teeth, they hurt when they bite), pinchers (yes Mam, Dad and Dave, I know, that was me!) and slappers. Saoirse falls under the latter. I am not sure if this is something she has learned from the other children in the creche, or if this happens naturally. I say this as our friend Bev has a baby 3 weeks younger who does not go to any creche and is a natural born biter! When Saoirse is unhappy and not getting her way, she pushes or slaps. Sometimes very hard. She has slapped me a few times on the face and we have had to be very stern with her. Kind of hard to be firm with a young one, but I think she gets the message as she averts her eyes and looks sufficiently guilty. She recently came home from the creche with a black eye. Hit some toys at the end of the slide, we were told - I just hope she did not mess with…
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Almost a luxury liner
Well, the email you have all been waiting for - the photos of the boat! We moved onto the boat last week. At last! She is not quite ready, but ready enough for us to leave in about 10 days or so. For those who don’t remember, JC had stripped most of “Taniwha” down to her aluminium ribs, literally gutted her. He has completely redesigned and rebuilt the insides to a modern style that suits us as a family and me as a princess. The boat used to have that typical nautical look with tight small spaces, dark wood everywhere and dark blue upholstery. The headliners (the ceiling) are now a crisp white vinyl with lots of chrome light fittings and we decided to paint the walls a vanilla colour with a golden varnish on the trim wood as a highlight. (photo close up of head liner, especially for Barry and my Dad!). The soles are a darker red colour. JC lowered 3 partitioning walls and the effect has been to open the boat up and make it feel really airy and bright -no more claustrophobia for me! The final touch was the fabric we chose for the salon and…
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Onwards and upwards
Hope you all had a nice start to the New Year, despite the doom and gloom that seems to be radiating from every corner of the globe. Our highlight over the past few weeks was that my parents came over to see us - they were supposed to have waved us off on the 29th December as part of the Governor’s Cup Race to St Helena, but obviously that did not happen. On Christmas day I went with Saoirse and my parents to hear the Malawian choir sing during mass. JC and Dad made a crayfish barbeque (or braai as it is called here) accompanied by my Mam’s excellent roast potatoes and crumble for dessert. It was a slow paced and unusual Christmas meal and we did not even have a tree, Christmas crackers or even exchange gifts (except for some that my brother sent Saoirse - thanks Dave and family!). Saoirse did get a teddy bear from my parent’s stop over at Heathrow airport and she spent hours hugging Teddy (although it looked more like wrestling to me). Saoirse adored my parents and spent most of the days hanging out of one or both of them! My mother especially…
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