Fernando De Noronha And Beyond

It's almost time to depart Recife--planning on a Monday (March 11) morning departure. Next stop, Fernando De Noronha, an archipelago about 300 nm north-northeast of Recife. I will probably only stay a day or two before starting the ~1900 nm passage to Tobago (after doing some research, I decided on Tobago rather than Trinidad). If the ITCZ (doldrums) behaves, this passage has potential to be a fast one as we will probably be reaching (wind on the beam, ie perpendicular to the course the boat is sailing) to broad reaching (winds from behind the beam, but not dead downwind) the whole way, and the current should be favorable (of course I was expecting favorable currents from Cape Town to Brazil but actually had countercurrent almost the whole way--turns out there are a lot of eddies in the ocean currents and where the currents are depicted on nautical charts is often not where they're found). Somewhere near the equator, I will be passing the sun in its nortward passage to the Tropic of Cancer, and after passing the equator, Twister will be back in the northern hemisphere for the first time in about two years.

Olinda

Recife

Thank you very much, Joao and Elba, for your putting me up in your lovely home, feeding me delicious Brazilina food, taking me  out to listen to local music. I hope I can repay your generous hospitality someday. After a week in Recife, I'm starting to know my way around this lively city. I haven't seen many tourists in Recife. It turns out they are all in Olinda, a smaller, quainter, and more historic-looking town just north of Recife. I went there on a day-trip to walk the cobblestone streets and be a tourist. Olinda is said to be a good place to go for Carnival (which I missed as it came very early in the calendar this year--Carnival occurs anywhere from the beginning of February to early March, somehow depending on the timing of a particular full moon, or at least that's my understanding of the matter). Latest photos from Recife.