Recife to Noronha to Natal Journal

A junior high school principal had a problem with girls who were starting to use lipstick.When applying it in the bathroom they would blot their lips on the mirrors, leaving lip prints. So he spoke to the teachers and asked them for their help. They promised they would speak to the girls, but after two weeks, the situation didn't improve at all. He called a few of the girls parents who were his friends for their advice, but to no avail. The mirrors were constantly a mess. Finally he thought of a way to stop it. He gathered together all the girls who wore lipstick. He then took them into the bathroom and lectured about how hard it was to clean the lipstick off the mirrors. You could see the young girls smiling at each other, all nodding publicly but smirking to one another. The principal then asked the custodian, who was present, to demonstrate how difficult it was to clean the mirrors. The custodian took a long handled brush, dipped it into the toilet and vigorously rubbed the lipstick off the mirror. From that day forward, the mirrors stayed lipstick free.

My how time flies when you are having fun. We have spent a total of twelve weeks in Pernambuco, the state in which Recife lies. We must thank the people of Cabanga Yacht Club, and heartily recommend it to the Rio fleet that will be passing up this way early in 2000.  Cruising tip- When you arrive in Recife, it is best to stop at the Pernumbuco Yacht Club, the first one on the left as you go up the harbour. Use the rule "Red Right Returning" as you enter in accordance with IALA B. Pick up a mooring buoy, and spend at least one night there. During your stay at PIC (Pernambuco Iate Clube) do make use of the restaurant and their ferry to go to the Capitania dos Portos. While on the (VERY STRONG) mooring buoy, take a dinghy ride the 1.5 miles up to Cabanga. Use the opportunity to check tides and make your booking. There are a number of English speaking chaps there, seek them out.

No comment on Cabanga would be complete without a special word of thanks to the Commodore and the committee. A few very special friends stand out as well. On top of the list is Rafael do Monte Filho. Many hours of fun and laughter were spent with him and his fantastic family. Jaime (the husband of the very sexy Christina of PIC) for his help and jokes, and of course others with the nicknames of "Sr Desoito" , "Sr Dois-Parafusos" , "Sra Dois-Porcas" and speaking of nicknames I earned the name of "Capitan Sapatao" none of the above may be explained here in front of children.

`We finally completed our preparations for the regatta to Fernando do Noronha late on the Friday night, in fact during the party. The new set of Aerogen blades that was sent from LVM in the UK on 26 July had still not arrived. The complete fiasco of the March freezer pump from West Marine is a story on its own. This cost me hundreds of grey hairs and quite a few hundred unnecessary US$ down the drain in order to try and get my freezer working again. (Postscript: in 2001 a fax to the CEO of West Marine induced a phonecall from his PR director. Credit to West Marine, who refunded me all monies wasted. The Aerogen blades arrived in Natal, a month later, I had to pay huge taxes, but the blades are still running fine today (21 January 2003)

We arranged to take some extra crew to Noronha with us, Rafael and his wife Patricia, Jean from the yacht Jera (whose hubby was racing seriously) and Claudia (Little potato to her numerous friends) the local Laser dinghy champ, completed the list. Our last shopping was done at a 24 hour supermarket Hiper BomPreco, and Gilana was ready to go again.

We sailed out of PIC at 10h30 on 25 Sept in order to make the start at Boa Viagem beach some 3 or 4 miles south. The start was delayed 10 minutes, and we just mulled around waiting. The Trimaran chartered by some racing berzerk Bahian to win the race for him was very impressive doing twenty odd knots up and down the start line. (This tri set the record recently of 538 miles in 24 hours - sheesh!!) Eighty eight yachts made up the fleet. There were all sorts of yachts monohulls and multihulls, big and small. The largest was "Kea Uno" an ocean 80' and the smallest 25'. The complete list with all the results and ratings and a few more pictures is on the Web at http://www.cabangaiate.com.br 

We set the main and genoa and made our way to the start, getting there 32 minutes after the gun. Our tactics were different to anybody else's. We wanted to get height on the rest of the fleet, that is to go to windward closer than anyone else, while they went straight to the finish, we would do a curve to windward, putting as much distance between land and us as soon as possible. I thought this would be the best tactic as if the wind shifted to the nose, later in the race, we would still be reaching while the rest of the fleet would be beating. This height proved to work for us, near the finish we were doing 7.6 kts, while those fast racers on my left were beating at 5-6 kts. The trip was very rocky and rolly , and together with the unusual feeling of having other people on board resulted in many, including yours truly going down with seasickness. Our approach to the finish was quite exciting. We had found out that we were first in our class (steel cruisers) and wanted to hold on to this lead. In the calm waters of the lee of the island, I thought that those fast light boats would scream past me, so we shook out the reef in the main, rolled out the full genoa, and hoisted the mizzen. Sheeted in tight Gilana screamed away at over 8 knots in 20 apparent, like a fat lady in a barn dance she lifted her skirts and showed her ample thighs, which have not been seen in many years, to all who would venture a look. Boy she sure can dance when asked nicely. The last bit of subterfuge secured our position against the group following close behind. We aimed at the extreme downwind end of the finish line, this , combined with the fact that we were higher than the other boats enticed them to follow us. At the last moment we headed slightly upwind and luffed through the line two meters from the fishing boat that was its end. The yachts following us ran out of sea, and had to tack one last time to cross the line, HA!.

31st across the line, first steel boat, first dog across the line, wow, we never expected this. There was a slight snafu however, someone mixed up the classes and put us in the open class with all the maxi's 80 footers with 12 crew of uniformed brutes trimming Kevlar sails with electric or grinder winches seems like a fair match to a 50 footer overloaded by 10 tons driven by a mom and dad, a granny and a dog together with their friends. (these grapes are sour!)

MONOHULL RESULTS 1st Kea Uno - Ocean 80
2nd Excalibur - CNB 70
3rd Swan Lake - Swan 60
4th Lady Francesca - Ketch 70
5th Arcadia - Victory 40
6th GILANA - VdStadt 50

The prize for the first steel boat went to the boat three behind us - go figure.

Fernando de Noronha is definitely worth the effort. The waters are clear and the weather is balmy. (see the pics) Our first taste of a tropical island paradise. We took Liz for her first real deep sea scuba dive, surrounded by fish of all sorts and species. She had been waiting since her birthday in January when we had given her the SCUBA rig as a present.
One very interesting day was when we went "Plano-sub" ing (that's what Leo calls it) basically a piece of wood expertly fashioned into a hydro dynamically sound foil, supported at 1/3 of its chord by nylon line, towed behind a boat at three to four knots with us the divers, driving it. It was fantastic. I am going to make one of these devices, it is like flying under the clear 29 deg C waters of the Island. You can cover so much ground so much more quickly, take a breath point the plane down and you go straight to 30 foot under, looking ahead you see a reef with clouds of colourful fish looming, you wait until the last moment and just as you are sure you will scrape the coral, you tilt the plane up and swoosh over the reef startling all the fish in the process. Look between your arms, down past your feet at the clouds of fish closing ranks behind you and decide its time to breathe again, a slight point upward with the forearm sends you screaming toward the silvery surface for a breath of air before diving again, this time over turquoise sand in 60 foot of water. You notice the slow calm movement of a green turtle below at 40 odd feet. Pointing the plane down again you dive, dive, dive pumping air into your mask and ears as fast as you can, the turtle senses your approach and flaps more as he looks over his round shoulder with a slimy eye. Too late, at four knots no turtle can get away so with one hand on the plane you reach out and give him a friendly stroke up the back before screaming up to the surface again. The highlight was when Laura and Liz went planing through a school of dolphins. They were enthralled and could only spit out the word "fantastic - fantastic" over and over. Imagine gliding effortlessly through 30 metre visibility at four knots amongst the playful pod of dolphin, while your body ripples with the massage of the ocean.
My friend Manfred must come here.

The Natal Yacht Club had organised a race back to the mainland. What the hell we thought, in for a penny... So after a week on the island we decided to enter the other regatta just to prove that it was no fluke (or maybe it was) There were mutterings about how could those South Africans beat the local champions in their stripped down regatta machines without using the engine.

To cut a long story here are the results
LINE HONOURS
1st Ave Rara - Trimaran 36 
2nd Sun Coast - Catamaran 44
3rd Lady Francesca - Ketch 75 
4th GILANA - VdStadt 50 YAY!!!

FINAL RESULTS
Second Monohull - Gilana

and to crown it we had the boat measured just to get a rating and IF we had entered in the RGS (Brasilian version of IMS) class we would have won that too!! this time with no crew at all, just Mom and Pop, Liz, Granny and the dog.
We are so proud of GILANA and her behaviour. She sure wriggles along when she wants to.

20:23 05 October 99

Till next time...