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Fernando de Noronha, December 8, 1998

Astronotus II - Third Around the World Cruise - Diary Entry #1

Dear friends,

no, we're not lost. Contrary to our initial travel plans, have stopped over on a small island, which we passed en route to South Africa. Its name is Fernando de Noronha, a minute rock island 4 degrees south of the equator and 180 nautical miles west of Brazil. The route to Africa is a long journey along the Trade Winds. First, we leave the English Channel westward, past the Canary Islands (we arrived 10. October) in order to take a south-south-westerly tack. We initially followed the north-eastern Trade Winds right up to Brazil, the Recife area, then headed south, upwards in the south eastern Trade Winds, past Trinidad island, where we hope to get some westerly winds that will take us across the southern Atlantik Ocean to South Africa and the Cape of Good Hope.

How come we had to stop over at Noronha Island? After we had island hopped around the Canaries and visited Comera and Hierro, we left the Canary Archipelago and the "Mar de las Calmas" (south-south-west of Hierro). Columbus took a westerly route, we headed south-south-west.

We had tremendous problems with the autopilot; mechanical parts hitched or simply snapped and the boat headed straight into the wind. Repeatedly I had to weld broken parts. The sea was calm -far too calm. Dead calm. Moths, a butterfly, which wanted to fly across the Alps and the ocean to warmer winter territories in Africa like a swallow, now float about lifelessly. Two white herons settled down on the bow's rail. After a while these unfortunate, disoriented birds flew off westward -into the calm Atlantic Ocean. They were moribund.

We drifted along, caught the odd mackerel to replenish our pantry. During the calmer days, we did some maintenance work: we connected an additional lamp in the bridge with our wind generator, but our attention centred on the autopilot, which turned out to be a bad bargain. The design had to be reinforced.

The trip had some exciting moments! During rough seas, the toilet porthole burst open and Johanna was flushed off the loo, through the toilet door and straight into our wardrobe. We had to stop over in Lisbon, to repair the makeshift window replacement.

Dear friends, how can we make you believe the following, incredible story? I'll simply give it a try. November 9th, 11h30, our bearings: 22 degrees, 39 minutes north, 22 degrees 27 minutes west. The "Astronotus" sailed on a 210 degrees tack, the north-easterly wind had almost died down. The Cape Verde Islands are around 80 nautical miles southeast. We drift along at one knot per hour.

I had just explained to Johanna that corn freighters (four to seven mast sailing ships) took half a year to go to Australia, past the Cape of Good Hope. This is precisely why we wanted to stop over in Cape Town. Ever since the Canary Islands, we had not seen another ship. We are stuck in a crystal palace, the sun shining through the glass roof. The blue of the ocean pervades everything. It is hot, extremely hot.

Johanna is at the helm, forever solving crosswords. "Is a wood beech also called white beech? I didn't have the chance to answer. A tremendous jolt! he ship starts to shake and twist. Doors and cupboards burst open. Books everywhere. Johanna fell, I toppled out of the bed, right onto the living room table. Our potted plant, a fern from the Azores, crashes down onto my head. Chaos! No time to be afraid. I suspected that we had hit a container that was lost by a freighter. But wait a moment. We were far too slow to receive such a blow. Just when I started to come back to senses, I heard a bellowing sound. Sperm whales! We made a head count. This was a sensational experience. Eight giant whales. A mighty male, around 16 metres long surfaced on portside - retracting his giant, grey penis! On starboard another monstrous animal surfaced. Six more whales lag behind. They appear to be males only, since female sperm whales grow to approximately seven metres.

"What was that? Never had I heard of a similar incident. The sperm whales wanted to mate with the "Astronotus"!

We hasten to add that the "Astronotus" has two rudders (much like racing yachts). The back one employed for the autopilot and as an emergency rudder. The front one is the main rudder and hydraulically activated. The two rudders are usually separated by a 5-centimetre gap, but since the main rudder was in backboard position as to keep on course, the gap broadened to 30 centimetres. The whale had approached "Lady Astronotus" almost unnoticeably, as to push its giant penis between the rudders. The other males had obviously held their breath during this affair. I can only guess what the second whale was up to.

At some point in time Johanna must have turned the helm and squashed the sperm whales treasured part. At that point, the whale must have recognised the error and gave the "Austronotus" a quick slap of the tail. Two whales followed us for a while, the others were disgusted about our "unladylike" behaviour and dove away.
After this incident, the "Astronotus" has trouble keeping a straight course. We stopped at the Cape Verde Islands to repair the damages and to reinforce the mechanics of the autopilot. During the inspection dive, we discovered that the back rudder had been wrenched to the side. A steel shaft with a diameter of 70 centimetres had been twisted by over 30 degrees. From that day, we knew that we had to turn the helm 30 degrees starboard in order to head straight on.

We anchored at Porto Nova on the Cape Verde island of Santo Antào. Johanna didn't leave the boat. The sweltering heat made the village smell like a public latrine. We must have landed near the only municipal toilet on the Cape Verde Islands. The islands are hot and dry. During our stay, I only saw one tree - an acacia. The underwater world, however, is breathtakingly beautiful.

To make a long story short: later, we lost the back rudder in the depths of the Atlantic. The rudder now rests in peace - at a depth of 4 700 metres. Through some modifications of our main rudder, which still doesn't work satisfactorily, we managed to limp to Fernando de Noronha. After three days of trail and error repairs, we worked out a makeshift solution.

This was not the only strange occurrence we experienced around the Cape Verde Islands. A pulsating fireball crossed the sky and disappeared after around three seconds. The night after that a green sphere fell from the sky into the ocean! I wouldn't want to consider flying saucers, but I lack alternative explanations.

We caught fewer fish than during our first two voyages, but we dredged and cleaned the ocean. We had a lot of debris on the hook...

As we will be at sea at the turn of the year, we would like to wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year well in advance. We have a lot of time to think of you out at sea!

Yours, Otto and Hanni