Location: 4° 27.5 S, 36° 52.8 W
Saturday 12:00, 06.24.2006

The Schooner Maggie B’s Noon Position on Saturday, June 24 was 4° 27.5 S, 36° 52.8 W. Our course is 195 degrees at 5.6 knots. The wind is 130 at 12-14. We have 127 NM to go. The trip log is 2177 NM.

Getting around this last Cape — Calcanhar — is getting old. As you can see, we have gone 17 times the last distance to Natal, but, due to winds and current, this last is very hard. But we have been out for 15 days and 17 was my estimate a month ago and you have to work the ship, so we will be fine. This Cape is where the coast of Brazil changes from East and West to North and South. The Equatorial Current also splits off here. Once past all will be easier, but we are not there yet.

Last night was a surprise. We worked our way into the coast. We made soundings for the first time in two weeks and sailed in to a depth of 100 feet (we were still 20 miles off the coast) and then put her about to starboard tack. Sailing along the coast at night we were in the midst of dozens of fishing boats. In the last ten days we have seen perhaps three boats, so it was rather a change. Most all carried only a single white light, so it was a bit challenging to determine speed and distance. Being small wooden boats in a fair sea, they didn’t show up on radar.

One medium sized motorboat did show up on radar as it came within five miles and we were able to “acquire” it. Acquiring a target on radar means that we can highlight it with a pointer, push a button or two, and the computer will work out the target’s course, speed, and closest point of approach. This boat was coming right for us. It was on our right, so in general it would have right-of-way — we would see their red light and they would see our green. But we are a sailboat, under sail and thus have right of way over a motorboat. But would they realize we were a sailboat? I turned the deck lights on to light up the sails, hoping they would adjust their course to pass behind us. There was an announcement on the radio in Portuguese but Bori, who can speak the language, was asleep. Then they turned on an additional white masthead light. Yike! Two masthead lights in a vertical line means a tow boat! Towing trumps sailing. I spun the Maggie B downwind to avoid the hypothetical barge, though there turned out to be nothing else there, other than a game of “Brazilian one-up.”

We expect to be in Natal tomorrow or the next day. Life on board has an “end-of-term at school” feel. I am anxious about how we will be able to find a good place to anchor under sail up the River Potengi, and then all the bureaucratic problems of checking in with the world’s worst bureaucracy, getting the supplies we need, getting the Maggie B hauled to put a new propeller on, etc., etc.

All is well.