Location: 5° 52.6 N, 43° 31 W
Friday 12:00, 06.16.2006

The Schooner Maggie B’s noon position on June 16 was 5° 52.6 N 43° 31 W. Our course is 120, speed five knots under full plain sail. The wind is from 075 at 8-10 knots. We changed our clocks to Brazil time which is three hours behind Universal Time.

First a quiz, with answers at the end. Don’t peek ahead! In a perfectly flat sea with perfect visibility, how far can you see something right on the surface (think a person’s head or the strobe light on a life jacket) if you were standing 10 feet (3 M) above the water, before it is over the horizon, literally? Write your answer down. Second, if you are 10 feet (3 M) above the water, flat sea, perfect visibility, how far away could you see a bright light 40 feet (12 M) in the air? Like on the bow of a huge container ship. Third and finally, if the Maggie B is doing her usual seven knots and the aforementioned container ship is doing 28 knots (like the one we saw last night) and they are head to head, closing, how long from the first possible glimpse of the ship’s light to impact?

Our position is 535 NM WSW of Belem, 860 from Recife and 870 from Fernando de Noronha (FdeN). FdeN is our new planned next stop. The archipelago is on our way to Natal and is described by The Lonely Planet Guide, which is not prone to exaggeration, as the prettiest place in Brazil, if not the whole world. It is located at 3° 50 S 32° 25 W. It has three of Brazil’s “Top Ten” beaches. Access to FdeN is tightly controlled, with a limited amount of tourists, and escalating daily fees. It is mostly a national park and has tight restrictions. It is not exactly a port of entry, but our information is that yachts are allowed to stay briefly in certain areas, especially if it is a “port of necessity.” We expect that Bori with her Portuguese, suitable crew uniforms, a nice bottle of French wine, and cheerful payment of the official fees will make our arrival a success. Check FdeN out on the web at Fernando de Noronha. We don’t have web access here so if you see any hints for us, please email them.

When we started out for Brazil from Barbados, many sailors were very negative about the routing due to the current along the coast, which would supposedly push us back into the Caribbean. The reality is much different. We have had as much favorable (two knots behind us last night) as unfavorable current. I suspect that it this current was as analyzed as the Gulf Stream, it would not be so scary to sailors, and that with good updates, a navigator could find favorable eddies.

Answers to the quiz:
1) 3.6 miles (5.8 Km)
2) 11 miles (17.6 Km)
3)19 minutes. Yikes! Thank goodness for radar.

All is well.