Well, the time has finally come to say goodbye Brasil.......well almost! We are leaving mainland Brasil later today enroute for the Caribean but have decided to put in a couple of stops on the way. The first is at Fernando de Noronha, an island national park of Brasil some 250 miles from our present position in Jacare, then we plan to sail to Ilhes du Salut (Devil´s Island of Papillon fame, French Guyana) on our way to Tobago. In Jacare we made our final preparations for this passage by drying Oceana out to paint her bottom, cleaning all the barnacles off for a faster passage time and taking on stores for the next month or so. Essential items such as 8 cases of beer, 4 bottles of cachaça (cane rum or agua dente (fire water) as it is known locally), 50 cartons of tomato pulp, 30 packets of Brasillian coffee and 18 hammocks. Now I know we like to take it easy but you may think that 18 hammocks is a bit much even for us to make use of, well they are our currency for the Carribean where we plan to sell them for vast profits - we also do mail order with prices from 30 - 150 dollars US plus postage and packing. You can place your order through our Ahoy there! facility. Unfortunately we will be making this passage without Itibere our Brasillian crewmember who has had to return to Sao Paulo at short notice. His grandfather has been kidnapped and held to ransom whilst returning from work one day - this happens in Sao Paulo regularly apparently. We were at a complete loss as to how to give him support in this but send him and his familly all our love and hope for a speedy conclusion. So just us two and our faithful hound Ubatuba as we leave Brasil after just over one and a half years, many parties, islands, beaches and waterfalls later and sadly leave behind all the wonderful friends we have made here. We are heading back to the UK now, eta August 2007 if you want to keep a lookout for us but in the meantime here`s to "livin´ it large in the Caribean", reggae, rastas and rum punch.......
