Renata and our Isreali friends

We just received an email from friends we met in Cabedelo, Brazil. It is Tanya, Oren and their beloved cat who twice sailed around the world with their yacht Renata. We again met up with them in French Guiana where we spend a couple of evenings together talking about a range of topics.

In the morning, after checking out in Saint Laurent du Maroni, French Guiana we saw this small yacht sailing towards us as we were sailing down the Maroni River, French Guiana on our way to Trinidad. As the small yacht got ever closer we could see that there were people in the cockpit. As we passed each other, sailing in opposite directions, we saw that it was a man and a woman with faces heavily covered up to protect themselves from the sun, they waved in what we thought was a bit over friendly. So we waved back as we continued our journey to the sea. The woman on the small yacht stared back at us as the distance increased between our yachts.

In the late afternoon, after encountering difficulties at sea, we decided to return to Saint Laurent du Maroni - which involved sailing up the unmarked river at night. The next morning, we once again saw the small yacht we passed on the river - now tied up to a mooring. Then to our surprise, Tanya and Oren emerged from the yacht! We passed our friends on the river the previous day without recognizing them nor their yacht. We felt foolish, apologized and took up on our friendship where we left off in Cabedelo.

Another week later, we left for Trinidad and they followed a couple of weeks later. But by the time they got to Trinidad, we already suspended our world cruise and were back South Africa. Since then, they sailed the Caribbean and visited places they did not visit on their first world cruise - Montserrat, Nevis, St.Kits, Statia and Saba. They have just completed their third Atlantic crossing from the Caribbean and have now arrived safely at Horta in the Azores.

Tanya and Oren must surely be some of the most down to earth people we ever met and we immensely enjoyed their company, stories and tales during the times we met. On one such visit, Tanya prepared the most delicious Humus we ever ate - a simple dish, but it was so much better than the store bought variety. We miss you guys and hope we can meet up again in the future.