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Joe Fontes has come home
21:38 p.m. EST Oct 26, 2003
Here i am at 7 AM o my way to Calheta. I will have to wait for a while before going in to port. All is well in Imigrante. Just quite excited and with butterflies in my stomach...
Thank you so much for all the nice words from every one, by for now and maybe for a long time...
Joe and Fiel the Cat
Joe Fontes was born in the Atlantic ocean. Saturday, October 25 2003, he returned home on his 34-foot sail boat, the Imigrante.
The 52-year-old resident of Hilmar was born in the Azores, a group of islands that lies over 1,000 miles west of Portugal.
He immigrated to USA with his family when he was 10. As he landed on the American shores, he earned his living as a tuna boat fisherman off the coast of San Diego. Fontes has never given up the sea, nor his dream of one day sailing into port in the Azores. Joe Fontes took off from Half Moon Bay in June of 2000 and headed west for the Hawaiian Islands.
He has since sailed to Papua New Guinea, Torres Straits, the Timor Sea, the Indian Ocean, South Africa around the Cape of Good Hope, into the Atlantic Ocean and then cut west across the Atlantic to Brazil, a detour needed to avoid a dead area of wind and sea in the Atlantic near Africa. Northeast to Cape Verde he turned north for a 1,700-mile run up to the Azores and home.
Do you realize what Imigrante achieved so far?
...ask's Coastal Brothers, the global ocean society that has been tracking Joe. Here's their log:
California to Hawaii from 3 June 2000 to 22 June 2000
Hawaii to Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands to Timor from 12 November 2000 to 1 June 2001
Timor to Durban arriving in Durban 15 Sept 2001 (Yes, 4 days after 9/11)
From Durban to Saldanha in a record time, non-stop departing 9 Nov 2001 09h00 and arriving 14 Nov 2001 15h00
Saldanha to Luderitz (Namibia) April, 1 2002 at 9:00 AM arriving April,5 2002 (John as crew)
Luderitz to Walvis Bay (Namibia) April 10 2002 arriving April 12 2002
Walvis Bay to Luanda April 21, 2002 arriving April 29 2002 Luanda to Cape Verde April 29 2002 arriving May, 31 2002
Cape Verde to Horta Faia (Azores) June 7 2002 arriving June 20 2002
Horta Faia to Calheta, Sao Jorge arriving June 23 2002
Then the SINGLE-HANDED circumnavigation starts:
Azore to Cape Town (South Africa) 17 November 2002 arriving 27 January 2003)
Cape Town to Hobart, Tasmania From 24 February 2003 until 19 April 2003 going down below 45šS
Hobart to Panama Sailing 24 May 2003 and arriving on 15 August 2003
FIRST NON-STOP from Hobart to Panama known sailing in the winter storm season
Panama to Azores Leaving on Sept 01 2003 during hurricane season.
Image of Joe, Fiel the cat, and Joe's beloved harbor of Sao Jorge in the Azores, courtesy of Coastal brothers and www.azorers.dk.
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