Photos – Second Atlantic Crossing

Frans holding onto the rope and buoy tied to the back of Shang Du.

This is the boat as seen from the end of the rope

This is a view from the bottom, showing the surface as seen by a fish.

This looks like Sophia, but it is Franci : See how clear the water is.

This is a picture with myself, Karin and Sophia, taken as seen from the divers below us. They dived to about 17m. Here they were coming up

This was taken about 25m from the boat. The water was incredibly clear. Although they didn’t dive as deep, the length of the rope showed the distance from us. Frans went down twice. Once with Marike and again with Franci

The end of the rope, just where the divers were attached. It is hard to believe that this is under water, it is so clear!

Marike, coming up.

Our first little visitor. A Brown Noddy.

This was also a Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus). It might even have been the same one, we don’t know.

Good to be sailing again.

Playing on the deck at sunset. Best time to be out.

Sunset.

All the girls. Franci used a timer to take this.

A becalmed day. Beautiful colour sea.

Marike – she has to go up the mast to try and unstick the cups on our Garmin wind instrument. We could read the direction of the wind, but not its speed.

Marike cutting my hair. Frans gave me an early Birthday present and allowed me to cut my hair. He felt sorry for me when he saw how much trouble it was to maintain the long hair on board.

The Result.

All the girls have multiple doors to get into the yacht. This is Sophia coming through the hatch in Franci’s cabin.

The girls, holding our spare Jib to dry out before we stow it away in preparation for strong winds coming. The sail was still wet from a rain shower,

We entered the Oilfields together with the rough weather.

This is the reading on the Chart Plotter. All the little red circles are Oil Rigs.

A tiny Flying Fish. When we saw these jump out of the sea, they looked like little grasshoppery things,

Frans writing up the log

The first sight of Brazil.

Dolphins just off the coast.

Frans towing Shang Du with Shampoo and its 2 Horsepower Engine.

Myself at the helm of Shang Du while Frans is out in the blistering sun on Shampoo. Travelling even at a snail’s pace is better than not travelling at all. See the post “Making an Entrance”.

Marike, ready with sailing gloves, taking a tea break. At this point she had been awake for more than 24 hours.

The land that just didn’t wanted to come any closer.

Safely anchored at last. You can see Sugarloaf Mountain through our porthole.

The track so far. From Cape Town to St. Helena. Then from St. Helena to Rio de Janeiro.