Ciao Ilhabela!

As I write this,  I am sitting in Kax's old blogging pozzie on the port quarterberth behind the nav station. We are well on our way from Ilhabela to Paranagua,  and about 20 hours from our destination. There is no signal here, so we'll have to wait until we're closer to land for this post to go out.

We left Ilhabela yesterday (Wednesday 05/03) afternoon after an unforgettable 5 days of Carnaval. We only managed 3 of the 5 nights, but we made the most of the experience, as the photo's will eventually show. Ric jumped ship to go visit his cousin in Brasilia,  so we dropped him off on the mainland at a marine refuelling station in São Sebastião. This left us with a crew of 3: myself, Dave and Gina.

We departed in the rain and into a light headwind, but we didn't mind. We were just happy to be hitting the open water again, and were teetering on overstaying our welcome. The wind swung around to the north and we were gunning it down the coast. We gybed inshore at around 2am to avoid some lightning storms that were brewing further offshore. Dave and Gina took one watch, and I took the other, calling them up if anything needed to be done.  Sailing short-handed is tougher than it seems.

In the morning the breeze died to nothing. Dead calm. Gina held the helm for a good few hours while we motor-sailed through it. A very light southerly began to fill in while we were having our lunchtime sandwiches,  and by the later afternoon it had slowly developed into a pleasant ESE tight reach. Dave and I saw two of the biggest turtles we had seen in our lives. At first Dave thought the first one was a truck tyre. No cheddars, these things were ENORMOUS. That thing's head was as big as mine. Ryan might have to verify, but I think the common name for it is a Blastoise. And we saw two of them! In one day! Right next to the boat!

That was exciting to see, but it got better. We accidentally dropped a fender off the transom, and as we spun around to get it, we were joined by a pod of a gazillion dolphins. And they were too stoked to have a gander at this curious looking boat. Some of them were even doing full flips out of the water! Quick as a flash, the go pro and camera were out, taking selfies on the bow with the dolphins,  and videos of these awe-inspiring beasts. I even managed to get a touch of one off the bow. After picking uo the offending fender, we continued to sail with the dolphins for a good 20 minutes - totally oblivious to the fact that we were heading in the wrong direction.

I'm sure that the sight of dolphins frolicking about your boat can cheer any person up no matter what mood they're in.

To cap it all off,  the South Atlantic put on a marvellous sunset for us. One of the best we have seen so far. I told Gina not to bother getting her camera, because the memory that would be captured in a photo has nothing on the imprint that a great sunset makes on your soul.

Today has been nothing short of spectacular,  and the rest of the trip has a lot to live up to...