Sailing around the World ( Presently in Recife, Brazil )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sat 5 Mar 2011 23:48
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SATURDAY 5th
MARCH 2011
Ohhh my goodness, it was piddling rain when we
woke up, and to think of all the clothes we have hanging on the
rails,
anyway, they will dry out during the
day,
A poor start for the Carnival, but, that blooming
but again, it eventually stopped and Skipper along with Aileen (
first mate )
slipped ashore in the semiridgit and decided
to walk the 4 km to Recife centre where we could view the Carnival
proceedings,
We walked along the boardwalk beside the
river , which was on our right hand side, the tide was flat out, so lots of
mud with
hundreds of birds foraging for worms and other
little creatures that live in these conditions,
Step by step, along we go, side by side and inch by
inch, you know the way you look at the ground, your shoes, then
along
the distance still to go and think, " Why am I
doing this" especially in this heat, not to mention the long traffic jam on our
left,
But, at least we are moving faster than the
traffic, some comfort in that,
Eventually we reached the centre of town, well
nearly the centre, but, certainly where all the crowds had gathered, we
stopped
and gazed at the mobs of people and the noise was
horrific, huge trucks parked one behind the other all along the side
of the main street and totally crammed with
musicians and jazz bands of one kind or another.
Then there were all these beautifully dressed
humans in uniforms of vibrant colours and usually wearing bright furry hair or
hats,
all part of the parade that was just about to
begin.
We got sucked along with the crowds, it was like
flowing with the tide, and reminded skipper of the time we were swept out
of Strangford lough in the Mc Millans " Moody "
with a massive ebb tide many years ago, No control of where you were
going,
and praying to the gods that all will work out well
in the end.
And then we got handed little bags, skipper put his
into the pocket and later the " First Mate " asked what he had
done
with his " Condom " ........ What
condom,! the one you were given a while back by the girls
standing across the street.
Ohhhhhhh my Gawd, is that what they were, and
burst out laughing,
Well , at least it is an indication of what has to
come for some. Be Prepared for every eventuality.
The " First Mate" does not like crowds and was
clearly uncomfortable with the current situation, so we decided to slip
off
down a side street , across a couple of bridges,
one of which had a gigantic " Rooster" 30m high parked in the
centre.
The river was low and dirty, but full of speed
boats ( river cowboys ) all viewing the proceedings.
Around midday or shortly after, we managed to grab
a taxi and left the heaving crowds to themselves and headed to
the comforts of the " Recife Shopping Mall
" approx 10km to the south of where we were ........
We had a great lunch there, skipper with his
"steak and rochford cheese" and the first mate with her
chicken,
this was followed with coffee in the Book
Shops cafe, along with some healthy helpings of chocklate cake,,, yum,
yum,
Ohhhhh, to die for
stuff,
We spent the afternoon wandering around the
place, and it had some fantastic things and deals, but we kept our
hands
in our pockets most of the time, Skipper
struggling to control the " First Mate "
The place had a very pale collection of customers,
a very different type of clientele to what we have generally
observed
in Brazil, and no shortage of spending power here.
Early evening, say around 7pm, we got a taxi
back to the Marina, and made our way out to the boat in the
semiridgit,
which we had to bail out first, there
must have been some heavy showers around here as the rib was almost 1/2 full of
water.
Back on board we could hear some of the other
sailors talking on the radio, It seems they did not really
have
a great day, The lack of the balcony
viewing did help,
Later , we had an email from " Daniel Hearsum
" making some good suggestions for the parade in
Olinda,
Hotel " Pousada De Quatros Cantos " on
rue prudente de morais.......................(.but our plans may be already in
place.)
However, he says.................good for
views, good for food and good drink, what more could one ask
for !
Daniel was our shortist surviving crew
member, just 5 days back in Fiji to
Tanna,
Skipper decided to have a nice big G&T on board
and do an early Blog while everything was fresh in the memory.
one with a really groung up lime ( done with a
Garlic crusher ) to give that extra whomph,
Thats it for now,
Signed:- Stephen Hyde, (
Skipper )
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