March 15, 2012-Final Run to Fortaleza

We are now sailing the last leg of our Atlantic Crossing, the run from Fernando de Naronha to Fortaleza Brazil. This short leg, only 364 miles, is awkward for us because of it's short duration and the fact that we wish to both leave and arrive in the daylight. To do so we have to sail slowly otherwise we will be approaching the port of Fortaleza before dawn tomorrow. In fact slowing Wings down has not been easy. We have not set the jib at all, and the winds have been light, but our average speed has been over six knots due to a following current. Had we know of this we might have changed strategy and sped onward from the beginning to try to complete the passage in two days in stead of two and a half, but now we are stuck, sometime in the next twentyfour hours we must stall our progress for about three hours. We'll manage I'm sure.

So tomorrow morning we will arrive in Fortaleza, having sailed something over 3600 miles across the South Atlantic Ocean with Randy & Laura since leaving Cape Town. At this point it has been the definitive "good passage". We have sailed from Africa to South America, through thirty degrees of latitude and fifty degrees of longitude. We've gone from icy cold water to equatorial conditions. We have had five very nice stops along the way. We will arrive on schedule, healthy, and happy, with the boat intact, have had no storms or significant problems, and not too much to fix when we get there, however we will have a bit of laundry to do.

Fred & Judy (and Randy and Laura), SV Wings, South Atlantic Ocean

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