Destination Brazil? – Day 1

After almost three weeks spent at several Cap Verde Islands we left our anchorage today with our primary destination being Fernando do Noronja, an archilago 1300 nm southwest of Cap Verde and 200 nm northeast of mainland Brasil. The last week has seen some difficult sailing conditions, and that is why we use the word “primary destination”. The trade winds convergence zone is usually found at 5 degrees North, but for a week it got realy wide and moved north, almost allthe way to Cap Verde at 14-16 dehree north. This zone is not very pleasant, shifting wind direction ,strong wind gusts, heavy rain and thunder. We hope to be able use a change in the position of the zone the coming days. If not, there is better chance of NE tradewinds further west, meaning we head for Surinam, slightly longer, 2100 nm, but maybe more comfortable sailing. Peter&Eva Tinaprincess.com