Sailing around the World with the World ARC.
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Thu 24 Feb 2011 10:50
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WEDNESDAY 23rd
FEBRUARY 2011
Another beautifull morning, and skipper hopped over
the side and cleaned the rest of the boot top/ waterline
on the port side, Looking at the boat from close
quarters in the water, she is beggining to show the wear and tear
of 33,000 miles at sea. not to mention the sails,
Later , we went ashore with the Garbage and filled
a few 5L bottles with spring water, At the top of the pier, there is
this
little park , a spring water park with 4 big
tiled covered circular tanks , each with about 8 taps and they supply fresh
spring water
365 days of the year, There is always a steady
stream of locals filling their water jars, like in the " Biblical " times,
While we were there, a group of council workers
were busy chopping down a huge tree, not with a chain saw,
but with a "machety" can you just imagine,
and whats more, they were efficient and fast.
Midday, we hauled the anchor, washed down the mud
from the chain with our fresh water power hose, ( this used about 400L
of sweet water ) and set sail westwards
towards the river, the tide was flooding,
We were heading for " Maragojipe " , a distance of
15 miles ,and about 10 miles up the river,
We passed half a dozen or so working sail boats or
skiffs, these are beautifull to look at with their huge loose
footed gaff mainsails
and real tiny headsails and they sail along
real fast and easy.
We also passed a massive ship building dock before
entering a lush green tree filled valley with some wonderfull old colonial
buildings dotted here and there. The river was wide
and deep and with 20 knots, we sailed with just the headsail untill
we reached our destination. Of course, there
were 3 other ARC boats here, Tzagine, Voyaguer, and Tuconan,
We also learned that some of the Americans who were
kidnapped by the Somalie pirates have been shot,
Now thats real sad news, and a bad day for sailors,
Later, we met " The Bubbly Bev " and Mo as
were went ashore, and explored the village with them before having a 1L bottle
of beer
each, well thats Mo and Skipper, the girls had
minerals, now the beer was the equivalent of 1.5 € for the 1L bottle,
thats the best value
we have seen in Brazil. We tried chatting with some
of the locals, who were very friendly, Mo made a good hand of getting our
messages across, the rest of us, ........
double dutch..........we were like monkies talking to monkies. but it was funny
and
we had a good laugh.
Ohhh, the busses were like something from the 1st
world war, the buildings were in an afull state, the churches were totally
closed down
and almost falling down, a real poor , but happy
place,
On the pier, there were plenty of people fishing,
with as many more in the water swimming around the place. all
laughing
and giggling and generally enjoying
themselves.
And no crockadiles,
We returned to our respective boats when it got
dark , we had a Lasagine from the deep freezer , listened to some music and
generally enjoyed the solitude and stars sitting on
this river in the middle of Brazil.
Thats it.
signed :- Stephen
Hyde ( Skipper )
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