How many hours on average you trained ?
RD : Sometimes enter the centar at eight in the morning and go out when it was dark. Had two hours of physiotherapy and ate there, I got to do about 6 to 8 hours of exercise per day .
What are your dietary concerns ? What does a sailor need to be healthy so many months at sea ? You talked about the water that is important, but it is not everything.
RD : As I mentioned I have water to go to Brazil and back, I really have a lot of water on board . It is also very important to have an appetite, like the taste of waht I'm eating, so I have a wide variety of food, but is essentially healthy. I have no beef , sardines and mackerel take were canned in Peniche, to make my meals based on fish and have a lot of grains such as lentils and beans. From Madeira and Green Cape I will bring mostly fresh foods, vegetables and fruits. And I'm always eating, why ? Because I'm always awake, sleep 15 minutes at a time, sometimes not going to get much, ie, 4 four hours in every 24 hours and to keep me aware and energy levels at the top is precisely through vitamin supplements and not take any caffeine. It is essencial to be well fed and always be eating healthy food, a carrot, an apple a courgette or a lettuce and all this gives much strength to the body and I make my diet around it.
But how can you be awake so many hours ? You must also train the body in that direction ?
RD : At the beginning yes, when I started this project in 1996 was very difficult not to sleep because a person is accustomed to waking up in the morning and arrive at night and sleeps. Me on the boat, no. I am always awake and nowadays is automatic for me and I feel good about it , is not something that makes me confused , but it is demanding and I get to be very tired . In an hour I can sleep three or four times ten minutes and during that time I see that the boat is well , does not have ship's on the horizon and go back to sleep a little longer and have got used to doing it and once I go back to land I get in rhythm and once I go back to sea a few more hours I get into that rhythm .
This type of sleep does not cause a greater weariness in the body ?
RD : Without a doubt, because life on the boat is very intense , it is very heavy, I'm always pulling sails and am always working on the vessel .
This turns out to have repercussions ? You spend a lot of time at sea.
RD : It's curious the more time I spend at sea, the more tailored I feel, the body gets stronger, I am more muscular and a month before the trip I'm at my peak, harder and more fat in the last month before going to the sea is so crazy that I lose weight, I can not eat, I've been running from one side to another, have interviews and meetings and I'm at that stage now, I'm a little skinny and then the rest of the trip will get fatten and arrival in Brazil 'll be fine. When you reach the shore I'll have a much healthier air than on the day I left, because all this is exhausting. It is the easiest of the 3 day trip from Lisbon , than day 1 than when I plucked because everything is new and the boat moves, we have to balance ourselves, I feel nauseous , which is normal and it's all a process of adaptation . Day 2 I feel good and the third day is 100 % . I continued if it was my choice, it's easier, but I wanted to stop in Madeira and in Green Cape is important because they are Portuguese speakers and if there were any more land or country that spoke Portuguese I would stop. This is also important .
What is the challenge that arises from here to Brazil in terms of travel ?
RD : There are a number of aspects, from here to the Canary very is very windy there, I try to go to west , between the islands of the archipelago wind funnels. Further south things start to improve a lot, approaching land is very demanding , because I have to understand if I enter the left or right of an island, I cannot sleep , when I was coming to Madeira woke up at four in the morning and during the day I got no sleep at all since that time until the 23 hours because in land I was still working on the boat and see other things. One sleeps very little on arrival to dock safe and well . Between Green Cape and Brazil before crossing the equator, the meteorology of the northern hemisphere has a reaction with the southern hemisphere creating the intertropical convergence in this area and it has everything, too much wind, too little wind and strong electrical storms, that scares me a little, I'm afraid of storms, I have a 23-meter mast in carbon fiber in a horizon with nothing, is like an antenna. I have to be very careful. Crossing the Equator enter the southern hemisphere , I'll have wind, because this has to do with the end the summer and with some nasty weather on arrival in Brazil , possibly going to have a lot of wind to get to Salvador .
What is the thing that pleases you on your travels ? Beyond the challenge of being alone .
RD : I have a great pleasure in making proejctos happen. In having the idea and draw it in my head , knowing what is possible and make it happen . Add the right people , go into battle , roll up your sleeves and throw me out standing and believing . Sometimes I'm not sure if I can , but I think in the end I got it. Was the case of this project , was set up in record time whith the biggest brand in the world that is Tap that is our largest exporter in the world . Our sponsor is the most international of Portuguese players, Luis Figo, our godmother is a great Brazilian singer, Roberta Sá and it all fitted in weeks, part of achieving something on land gives me immense pleasure. Then appears the easiest part of it is to go sailing, the sea part is simpler , my phone does not ring much, I have so many people demanding my attention , I 'm me and my cat. I am happy to be at sea, is a very special place, seems that I breathe deeper have time to stop and look out. People towards a cliff are ecstatic when they look at the sea , I have that moment every day. Even now on the trip a pigeon entered the boat and I was looking at it , the cat stared look at him and it at me and there are very special and unique moments that you cannot explain, that I watch it constantly and exclusively in the front row . And it's very beautiful and strong and that is what motivates me to go to sea and not only communicate the Portuguese nationality , but also this whole thing of being in harmony with nature and be well .
And there comes a point where you get tired of seeing so much water around you ?
RD : No, not at all.
On some of these trips and I think you've done a round the world ...
RD : I have not done a trip around the world , made four trips that would be equivalent to nearly 4 times around the globe .
And liked to do it?
RD : Yes, I think so . It is my desire since the age of eight. Nowadays not push projects with force and urgency, no. This had to happen and I worked for it, but for the trip around the world I will expect the occurrence of an alignment, a thread and am in no hurry to finish. But, believe it will happen when it happens.
But you had some time on some of your trips where you thought it was the day you were going to die ?
RD : I never had a moment to think it was that day , but I had moments where I had the notion of a sensitive and risky situation. I had a series of these, but it is part of the sea, we have storms, accidents and technical problems, I prepare myself as best as possible.
