My life was changing again, my project was definitely not going ahead and I was definitely not going to Rio de Janeiro.

I was definitely not going to live in my small beach house anymore and I was definitely going to live in the apartment of the mother of my baby Matilda.

The mother of my daughter had decided to travel to Europe for 3 month and I had the chance to stay with my baby Matilda.

Although I would not make it to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games or even watch an event in one of the new stadiums, I would have my own personal Olympic competition, sailing and baby watching.

I did not like the situation to have to decide between my sailing professor Alexandre or on the sailor-mechanic-carpenter Walmir but I had to decide and I had decided economically and my sailing professor Alexandre had been more economic.

He was in a difficult situation and had bought house under the social housing program ‘Minha casa Minha vida’ and had to fulfill the monthly payments.

I had promised him R$ 4500 at the time we had bought my sailing boat in Recife and still owed him R$ 2500. His offer was now to pay the outstanding R$ 2500 plus another R$ 500 to join in my small big adventure.

Apart from the financial agreement, I had to pay for food and return transport from Salvador to Natal.

We had scheduled everything for the last day, met after lunch to do the shopping and met again in the afternoon to prepare the sailing boat. Walmir had finished the work on the sailing boat in the afternoon and was ready now to dive and clean the body of the boat from all dirt and animals.

I could see a certain sadness; I could feel a certain sadness and portion of disappointment. I did not feel well, Walmir did not feel well and Alexandre did not appear to feel well either.

Alexandre and I stored all the food in the refrigerator and the cupboards, went to buy ice cubes and studied the GPS and the route towards Joao Pessoa and Recife.

We all together, my sailing professor Alexandre,the sailor-mechanic-carpenter Walmir and the commander AlexK had test drive up and down the river Potengi into the sunset.

We were ready to go, we had to say good-bye to Walmir, we had to. We started our small big adventure sailing into the darkness, into the dark night and after an hour it was suddenly my turn to take over the steering wheel, for the first time in more than a year and I had respect, lots of respect and maybe a little bit of fear.

However, I gained confidence with every minute, with every hour and suddenly it was after midnight and it was my turn to sleep, well-deserved sleep.

For a small understanding of the days travel, I have included a Google Earth map. The red pins mark the locations I have stopped and taken pictures. At the bottom of the page you will find a link for all the pictures I have taken. The link will open in a Google+ Album.

Please click on map to enlarge!!!

See map and distances / Siehe Karte und Entfernungen / Ver mapa e distâncias / Ver mapa y distancias