South America landfall at Recife

Gabrielle was eager to get on the bus!

We docked at Recife around 7am local time. It’s a city of some 4 million inhabitants, the capital of the Pernambuco state of Brazil and is referred to as “The Venice of Brazil” because of its many rivers and waterways. It’s close to the easternmost point of South America … and, yes, I have been checking up on Google. However, our initial view was of the breakwater and dirty brown sea with floating detritus. Not the best welcome for our first landfall in South America. What was I expecting? Inca temples? Mayan ruins. Wrong country and wrong location, Nick!

Crossing the line, Initiation Ceremony and Boobies

After the stuntman and Nell Gwynn impersonator husband and wife team, I was feeling a little less than impressed with P&O’s choice in entertainment. Apart from anything else, I couldn’t help but wonder what their pillow talk was going to be like. So it has to be said that when we headed off for prinks last night in pursuit of the violinist, Tom Suha, it was with a certain amount of trepidation. I like a well-played violin and am happy with classical or Ceilidh.

In the Doldrums

Overnight, we have come into a belt of tropical weather called the Tropical Convergence Zone where weather systems from two hemispheres begin to meet. Typically, this can mean squally weather and rain or total calm - hence its other name: The Doldrums. As you can see, Gabrielle is less than impressed with the rainfall! However, it’s a warm 27 degrees and quite humid on board ship.

Change of itinerary and stowaway on board

Since our departure from Cape Verde Islands to noon today, we’ve travelled a distance of 357 nautical miles. When we set off yesterday, we noticed we were “clogging” along. The previous couple of days’ sedate speed seemed to change quite noticeably. Our average speed now is 19.8 knots. We’ve got 1248 nautical miles before we reach our next port of call. Today is a rather humid 25 degrees.