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December 1st, 2009 – At Sea, 02 05S, 043 52W
by Skipper Mark Schrader
Once the arrangements were made and wheels put in motion – read that to mean advance payment in local currency – yesterday’s fueling of Ocean Watch in the commercial port of Itaqui went fairly smoothly. Yes, it still involved jugs (large ones), a boat, lots of helpers and some grunting but all 1,100 liters of prepaid clean looking fuel made it into the tanks. After a little deck clean-up we made OW ready for an early evening departure in order to take advantage of a strong ebb ride out the long channel.
The local coastal breeze usually dies down a bit in the evening and goes away almost completely near sunrise, but as our departure time drew closer the evening winds increased, all from the east, straight up the channel. With a rising wind against 6-knots of ebb current in the relatively shallow channel the planned evening departure started looking like a bad option. We were anxious to leave but equally pleased to stay put for a good nights rest and leave with calmer winds and the early morning tide.
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| The fueling of Ocean Watch went fairly smoothly. It still involved jugs (large ones), a boat, lots of helpers and some grunting. |
We agreed on a wake-up call at 0430 with an anchor up time of 0500. If there is any breeze the coolest place to sleep is in the cockpit so that’s where I was at 0430, with one eye open. About fifteen minutes later the other eye managed to cooperate. Everyone has a job station for anchor up or down procedures and all quickly assembled to start what usually is a five or ten minute anchor-up drill. An hour later we were free to leave. Somehow our anchor chain managed to wind itself around the flukes of another old, large anchor which in turn managed to snag an industrial sized tire. Our anchor windless protested the extra load but little-by-little we hauled in 150′ of chain, untangled first the tire, and then the other anchor and finally, ours was safely aboard. There is nothing like some good early morning physical labor to wake up the rest of the body.
Four hours later we were still motoring out the channel. The strong ebb flowing out of the river and collides with the onshore swells in this channel and makes very steep, short, uncomfortable seas. Thick, brown water slowly gave way to green water which will eventually change to nice clear blue ocean water as we pound our way further offshore. The route from here to Fortaleza and Natal will be a coastal in an attempt to stay inside the strong northerly flowing Brazilian current. Natal (616 nautical miles) is the preferred stop to top up the fuel tanks again and to buy some fresh produce. We’ll know in the next few hours how the current will treat us along the coast and how long this might take.
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| Rick and Jen left early yesterday and their energy and enthusiasm are missed. They were so helpful it seems like four or five people left rather than just two. |
In order to attend to some family responsibilities, Rick Fleischman and Jen Price left OW early yesterday afternoon and will make their way back to Seattle over the next few days. Air connections from Itaqui to anywhere are a little odd so their route home will be via Recife and Rio. I sent an email to their Itaqui hotel room this morning and said we were already missing their energy and enthusiasm. In fact, they did so much and were so helpful it seems like four or five people left rather than just the two of them. They have supported this project from the beginning. It was great to have them onboard Ocean Watch.
On our way again, smashing into seas and heading south, well, sort of heading south, I’m happy to report the remaining five aboard Ocean Watch are well.
- Mark Schrader with photographs by David Thoreson
This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos
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