Not all that glitters is gold....

Being a responsible captain (usualy,.. no always...), i had been following and (re) checking the weatherforecast for our small route from Ilhabela to Santos (aprox 45 nm). All looked OK.. light favourable winds from (supposedly the NE) should have put us in Santos in the early afternoon yesterday. I had told Cris that this was going to be a "papaya-with-sugar-kind-of-sail" and that we even might spot some dolphins... So, recapping the day:

•  we left our anchorage at 05:30 in the morning
•  we had no wind to speak of, except a very light breeze from the SW (!) (sailed maybe for two hours)
•  motor sailed the rest 
•  no dolphins 
•  and we were going to arrive (and we did) at the entrance of the busy port of Santos at 19:00 hrs (I had already told Cris that is was not going to be a walk in the park: arriving at one of the bussiest ports in South America at night is not my idea of easy going... 

Thanks for the AIS that performed just great, we were able to verify all the moves of the vessels... We stayed outside the canal used by the large cargo vessels, but closer to the port we all have to squeese through a kind of narrow turn... Our luck that, at least at this moment, the weather was helping: no wind, no rain, just calm... We managed, and we docked at the Iate Clube de Santos at around 20:00.

 

So, what glittered were the night lights of Santos and not a nice sunset... Leason learned: conditions may change, but that is ok, just go with the flow, stay alert, and always have a cold beer in the fridge... Enjoy and stay safe,