Sailing to Recife

We lifted anchor just after 05h30 on Tuesday morning. Joe pushed the Down-button for the anchor to drop, and there was no reaction. We hurried for the manual, and found the handle to let down the anchor, and we were prepared for anchoring with a spoilt button in the future. Who needs buttons? With the spirits high we were heading for Nautico to fill up diesel. The tide wasn`t in our favor and we took a little while longer, and arrived at about 9h30. Everything went so smooth, even with the one engine we safely secured Catlyn with the help of the two men at the floating jetty, and filled her belly with about 600L of diesel, it was about R4500.00. This should last us for more or less 6 months. It was good to see that they accept all credit cards, master and visa, and we could save our cash for another day. Safely secured to the jetty we took the opportunity to secure the dinghy and canoes.

Now we were on our way to Recife!

It took us 2o minutes to smoothly sail out of the Bay, with the tide in our favor. We battled for a while as soon as we reached the open sea around the light house, where the tide and the sea and the wind met. Heading for deeper waters, Catlyn was rolling gently.

The first night was exactly what it said…the first night. I got confronted with the blackness of the night,

the sound of waves and the pumping of the wind, but I stilled myself, knowing that we`ll be safe.

Marco was lethargic on Wednesday, and enjoyed sleeping on the couch. Our Skipper was cooking to keep his crew well fed.

The wind was blowing a steady 15 to 20 knots and we had an awesome sail! New records were set for Catlyn! My night shift was between 03h00 and 06h00 and my pumping adrenaline kept me fully awake. My top speed with Catlyn was 8,9knots with the reefed down main and genoa.

Our third morning we were greeted by the sun! The swells were still big, but not so choppy anymore and we had an excellent sail. Friday morning came, and I saw the yellow of the sun tingeing the clouds. When I grabbed the dust pan and tiny broom, my Skipper new that I was in control again! According to the weather reports, bad weather was to be building up during the day, so we were on the lookout for safe anchorages if necessary. We considered Maceio, but sailed past. With the couple of bottle nose dolphins surfing, Recife was too close. Then we considered another anchorage,Tamandare, but everyone still voted for heading to Recife. Marco still hoped that we will sail past Recife to meet his friends at Cabadello.

The wind turned south, the screecher was bulging in the wind. Marco spotted a tornado hanging in the clouds, but not touching the sea. We watched it spiral and swirl and saw the cumulus clouds turn black above it, and then we saw the rain pouring down! Thank goodness, we weren`t sailing so deep anymore. We were sailing closer to the shore by now, and made full use of the 2knot current pushing us forward.

We knew by now that we are going to reach Recife after sunset, and normally we try to avoid that, but all of us were looking ahead to a good night sleep. The city, with its skyscrapers rise as if out of the sea. Beautiful! The light slowly came on, and a fairytale city was greeting us.As the Raymarine guided us towards the entrance, Marco and I sat on the bow, gasping at the night.

We dropped the sails and entered the canal. It was so well lit. The tide was against us, and the strong wind was on the bow. Slowly we sailed the canal, watching out for the small fishing boats. We reached Pernambuco, and dropped anchor. The guy from the Yacht Club, met us with his little boat, and told us to lift anchor and drop it further ahead, where the holding ground will be better. We dropped anchor, around 21h00, and as always was so grateful for an amazing adventure! Catlyn and her crew did well, and somewhere she set her record for this journey at 9,8knots!