Location: 5° 06.0 S, 35° 25.0 W
Sunday 12:00, 06.25.2006

Schooner Maggie B’s Noon Position on Sunday, June 25 was 05° 06.0S 35° 25.0 W. As you can see from Google Map, we are about five miles off the beach at Cape Calcanhar, the turning point. The black and white striped lighthouse is very visible through the rain showers. Cape Sao Roque, better known but less important, is another 20 miles south. We currently have tacked off, on a course of 110 degrees at six knots. We are just 40 miles from Natal, but we are beating into a strong SE’erly, so we probably won’t be there until after dark.

The mouth of the Potengi River at Natal seems wide and well-marked. There is a nice breakwater at the mouth, inside of which we should be able to anchor for the night. The chart does have a caution about varying currents and shifting shoals, so if it looks chancy when we get there, we’ll just hold off for the night and enter at dawn.

Last night was a long one of beating our way down the coast through rain squalls and strings and strings of tiny, impossible-to-detect on radar, fishing boats, all lit up, between showers, by oil platforms and petrochemical works.

Sixteen days and 2333 on the trip log.

All is well.