Dear friends,
It is a long time since we have seen you all. We are at
the moment still in Salvador but we will continue further down south in a few days.
We like to spent the month of may in the bay of Ilha Grande and then venture further
south to Uruguay. Since it will be winter by then we will have to watch the weather
more carefully in order to avoid a strong southwesterly on the nose. Especially
the last bit to Piriapolis (Uruguay) is a few hundred miles long stretch of coast
with no shelter. Around the 20th of august we want to fly home for about six weeks
to see the children and family and friends at home. And of course our beautiful
grandchild Dio who will by then be already a year old.
Until now we had good sailing
with little trouble. Only a heavy shower occasionally with 30 knots. But the crossing
was great in general. The showers mostly looked more threatening then they actually
were. The Windpilot worked fine and we were not at all tired on arrival. Only the
laptop packed up so we are a bit limited in our mailing and Skype-ing and the pictures
of Neptune are still in it. This marina has Wifi but we can not use it. We had king
Neptune on board while crossing the equator and we drank a bottle of champagne with
him. Then he admitted us in the southern hemisphere and I was declared the tallest
(not the greatest) sailor in the south. So we will be able to continue our travels
further south and west. And hopefully meet some of you eventually "down under".
Brasil is a wonderful country. The people are cheerful and mostly friendly. But
the other stories are also true. Almost all of our friends here have been robbed
in broad daylight. We think it is best to avoid the big cities as much as possible.
The countryside is beautiful. We have been riding horseback in the mountains several
times for many hours and the people there were ever so friendly. We did not feel
threatened at all in the bush. We hope to ride in NZ and Australia as well. By then
we would welcome your advise of course.
Whether we will continue straight away into
the Pacific next march is still open. We leave the decision until we have arrived
in Patagonia. Three or four months seem a bit short for that vast area.
In the meantime
we are wondering where you all are. We would have loved to sail on in your company
because we enjoyed your company very much. We would welcome a word of you all about
your whereabouts and experiences. Please mail us on SYPACIFICBLUE@GMAIL.COM in order
not to overload our sailmail box. But if you reply to this address, please delete
all text before starting to type your answer.
You won't be able to read our website,
but if you like to see some pictures, have a look. www.pacific-blue.nl
Safe sailing and love from
Peter and Paula