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George H wrote:
"That became the well-travelled route for sailing vessels from Europe to the 
East, via the Canaries, Cape Verde Islands, across the Atlantic to Brazil 
(Fernando de Noronha or Recife) , then Southward and Eastward across the 
South Atlantic, to pass Cape of Good Hope on a latitude line. It was the 
standard route well into the 20th century, for square-rig vessels."

In 19th century logbooks, one finds that vessels frequently would aim for the 
small Brazilian islands Fernando de Noronha (4S, 32W, 200 miles off Brazil) 
and Trindade and Martim Vaz (20S, 29W, 700 miles offshore). The Atlantic has 
a nice "slalom course" of islands and archipelagos, small and large, and they 
were used as navigational targets. This applied whether a vessel was heading 
west into the South Pacific or east into the Indian Ocean. Even from New 
England, it was common for vessels to sail with the wind to the Azores and 
then down the Atlantic "slalom course". More so on the return voyage, St. 
Helena served much the same purpose navigationally.


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