Monday 21st August - 555 miles to Amazon number one buoy, and the start of our river journey!

With only a few days left of our Atlantic voyage, we are all eager to see land after 12 full days at sea.

Over the past 12 days since departing the Canaries, we have encountered just two ships - a Japanese fishing boat and a freighter en-route to New York. It's amazing what technology can tell you! First and foremost, however, the ship is sailed by people, not computers, and it is the constant efforts of our three watches that keep the ship safe. That being said, the automatic helm has been a great help and will be sorely missed when we begin our river journey.

Fuel, water and food supplies have all been double checked, which hopefully means we will have no further stops (other than for Port State Control at the Brazilian and Peruvian borders) before we reach our desitination in Iquitos.

Two more crew will be joining us at Macapa, along with some river pilots, so our ship will be getting a little bit busier! 

The fully air conditioned cabins are a far cry from our first delivery in September 2001. Who would have imagined then that, 16 years later, we would be delivering MV Forth Hope along virtually the same route!

Must rush time - to mark the 9pm position on our chart.

Willie McPherson