(by Audrey Adamson)

It’s hard to believe the Fernando islands were our last stopover before completing this circumnavigation. The islands waters are full of turtles, spinner dolphins and fish galore with frigate birds, tropical birds and boobies flying overhead. There were a few things to do ashore but to really get a feel for this island you’ve got to dive. It is an underwater paradise with extremely clear water and fascinating topography. The landscape itself is dramatic with the most beautiful beaches and plenty of surf.

While it’s always hard to leave a cool island like this, I for one amn’t too upset to be on our way! I have three very good reasons for saying so. 1. Baia Santo Antonio, the only anchorage there, is the most rolliest anchorage we’ve been to. After days at sea the one thing we all long for is a motionless boat but not in Fernando. The boat just rolled and rolled from beam to beam due the northerly swell. This made it difficult to get any little jobs done onboard and particularly tricky in the galley! I had the oven on gimble, as we do when sailing, and had the pan clamps in place to stop them moving while cooking. Everything slid from one side of my counter to the other while trying to prepare food. We couldn’t even eat the food from a plate on the table, as it would slide off! So we all held our own plates and ate from them. Crazy!
2. Flies!!!! Blinkin flies everywhere. throughout the boat but particularly in the galley. We opened the hatches allowing the wind to blow through but then I had bits of lettuce and onionskin etc.. (whatever I was prepping at the time) blowing around the galley! So picture it. the whole galley and it’s contents massively rocking from side to side, I was doing what looked like the funky-chicken dance trying to get the flies off me and the food, and all the while there’s a mini tornado of lettuce, skins etc. flying around me!!! The fly spray worked to a degree but it’s pretty toxic so we could only use it once prep and cooking was finished! 3. Brazilian tong bikinis!!! There appears to be a shortage of lycra material on this South American shore and the girls all saunter about in tong bikinis!!! Yes, full ass on display!!! Tanned and toned asses at that!! Needless to say the lads eyes were popping out of their heads with this sight and they were in no way discreet about it!! Now the Brazilian men also suffer from this shortage of lycra, wearing their Speedos everywhere from the beach to the bar!! Funnily enough it didn’t have the same affect on us gals!

The locals were lovely happy people speaking only Portuguese, which made it tricky to communicate. Our Charades skills came in handy when trying to communicate without the language that’s for sure! Off course we did enjoy a couple of caipirihnas when there but didn’t get any Samba dancing in much to my Dads disappointment!

Now here we are on LUSH sailing north-northwest for Antigua, where we will have fully circumnavigated the world! We all love Antigua and we’ll have one hell of a party when we arrive. Hopefully we’ll get in on time for the Ireland Vs England rugby on the 22nd of this month. With half the crew Irish and the other half English it should add to the fun of it. And if we don’t make it in for the match well Paul will just have his father-in-law to answer to who has been getting very excited with all the rugby reports from back home of late!

One Life.. Live it!

Audrey xxx

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