Rosie & Nick Sail Round The World (RTW)

3921 Miles Later - and we are finally in Brazil

Yes , we have finally arrived in Salvador , after a tortuous light airs crossing of the South Atlantic from South Africa - we are 3rd boat in, 1st in Cruising division - beaten across the line only by Leopard and Rambler ( world renound record breaking ocean racers ) After 22 days at sea this was our longest ocean crossing , and last major ocean before we head for the finish of our RTW odyssey in St Lucia - for now none of us will forget the Heineken Cape to Bahia race - the concentration required and the never give up approach - which resulted in, hopefully a reasonable placing in this huge international yacht race .

For now it is off to the official welcome that Heineken have laid on for us - suffice to say , we will all sleep well tonight . :-)

If Heineken did ocean racing ............

If Heineken did Ocean Racing, it would be on a luxury 72ft Oyster, complete with electric everything, Air Con, Flat Screens and lots of DVD's, hot and cold running showers, coupled with 15 Knt trade winds across the South Atlantic.

If Heineken did ocean racing - it would be on Kealoha 8 - currently leading the cruising fleet to Brazil.

Kealoha 8 - 800 miles from the finish:

Note to the sponsors - the things we'll do for a free T Shirt. FYI we are all over 18 thus please don't give all the fine product and free clothing to those boys on Leopard & Rambler - save some for the real sailors, who will hopefully arrive at the weekend

While after circa 30,000 miles we know we are tough sailors, the sea mountains off Tonga , the cyclones off Australia , the wild East coast of Africa etc , prove that we can tough it out when the wind and water gets up - equally the unseasonably light winds of the South Atlantic (in race conditions) make for a completely different type of toughness - days of less then 10knts - coasting along , with the "distance to go" , never seeming to decrease - No one said that Sailing RTW would be easy, in many regards slow sailing is just as tough as heavy weather sailing - doing so under race conditions with the ever changing game of snakes & ladders with the rest of the fleet mean we follow the daily position reports as if we were on the Volvo.

St Helena - The Land of Napoleon

Safe arrival in St Helena , after playing Snakes & Ladders in the South Atlantic

After 1700 tortuous miles, with very changeable conditions coming up the African coastline, we are now safely anchored off Jamestown in St Helena, circa half way to Brazil.
With the added fission of daily updates from Heineken race control, our competitive juices have been kept flowing; as the position reports of fellow competitors keep us on our toes. However we have had wonderful downwind sailing, and a glad to have arrived. Yet again Kealoha is the first boat home arriving at 01.15 lit only by the moon. Tomorrow we will start exploring the island, as we wait for the optimal weather window to head off on Part 2 of this race to Brazil. So far no sign of Hailey or his comet.

Heading to Brazil -via St Helena

And so we have finally left Cape Town as part of the Heineken Cape to Bahia race and very excited we are - it is nice to be back on the open oceans of the world after what seems a long time in port. We all enjoyed SA, so much to do , and have vowed to return . It is also great to have a high profile event such at the Heineken to focus the mind - ( drink companies make very good sailing sponsors ! ) and bring added competition in the form of about 10 more yachts all racing in the same class . Instead of our usual white crew T Shirts ( or Black if we are supporting NZ) we were all happy to ware the sponsors Green T shirts - in support of a) Heineken or b) Ireland - you decide

The start was a big local media event, with a huge spectator fleet (some getting in the way !) helicopters, press boats and the like , we managed to have a cracking start , hitting the line at full speed to the smell of the cordite as we powered past the committee boat end of the line, dodging some of our fellow competitors, who under normal circumstances we may have given a hard time to - but given we have sailed so many miles together , we ducked and shouted ( Louis - you owe us some/lots of beer!)

We are now heading north up the coast of Africa, and passing Namibia home of the world sailing speed record attempt by our friend Paul Larsen- look at www.sailrocket.com - while Paul was denied perfect conditions for his recent record attempt - we have no complaints , thanks to Bruce our weather man sitting in Perth, we are enjoying good winds as we stay to the east of the rhumb line heading towards to St Helena - a small British Island circa 1500 miles away in the middle of the Atlantic - this will be a pit stop in the race for the cruising boats - where we will stay between 24 & 72 hours depending on how we feel and what the weather is like . you never hear much about St Helena and we will report fully after our arrival - suffice to say it is like the Azores - but as it has no airport - so not many people go there -however it is British and we will be able to use Stirling - so for once not suffering from a currency exchange rate lower then we had planed for!

We now have blue sky's, sun shine and 10-15 knts of wind and have been flying kites all the time since the start ( having had all 3 up at one time or another in the first 24 hours)The evenings are cool , but getter warmer as each day passes , lovely clear sky - so nice to be back under the canopy of the stars for us to gaze at and study

There is a racing division in this event as well , for the people who don't have air Con, flat screen TV's and the like - this leaves on Saturday , heading straight to Brazil, the thinking been that the slower cruising boats with their pit stop will all arrive at the same time in Brazil ( in time for carnival !) - our hopes are pinned on the British entry "Leopard" - Mike Slade's 100 ft record breaking race boat which is looking to set a new course record.

For now no records for us - just Ipods , and fair winds - but we are very competitive ! At the moment life on board is perfect

Setting sail for Brazil - Happy New Year

After what seems an age , we are finally ready to set sail for Brazil - as part of the Cape to Baha race - starting tomorrow at 14.00 local time .

We have had a fantastic Christmas - in  Cape Town London , Dublin & Hamble  -  it was so nice to see so many friends and family - well worth the effort ( and cost !) - we will be back eventually , but for now it is about sailing.

More blogs once we get sailing  -   meanwhile , we hope all our on-line readers have a very happy new year .