1/1/08

Spindrift
David Hersey
Tue 1 Jan 2008 18:48


Begin forwarded message:

Date: 1 January 2008 17:41:55 GMT-01:00
Subject: 1/1/08

1/1/08

Happy New Year to All.  I flew back overnight from London Saturday evening, and arrived at the boat at 8:30 AM.  I called the Brazilian rigger at 10 and gave the prearranged coded signal i.e. “Spindrift David” He grunted something and two hours later showed up.  It took about 4 1/2 hours to reassemble the furler and to  re-rig the forestay and all went smoothly.  The grey water pump has been replaced and the fridge is actually working normally now.  The sails have all been repaired and hoisted.  For the moment it’s all systems go. Except for the fact we have been sitting in this filthy harbour for over two weeks and the anchor chair and some of the spring lines, which were in the water and the hull, are all covered in a disgusting brown oozy sticky slime.  So we have decided to leave early Wednesday AM and go to a very beautiful island about 65 miles South where we hope to be able to clean the hull.  Paolo who is a member of the Yacht Club here has his boat there and will come with us to show us the best place to swim etc.  The problem is that the water is so warm there you need to find a place where there is fresh water springs mixing with the hot seawater.

New Years Eve.  Steve and Nik had wrangled invites to a private party in a big flat overlooking Copacabana beach. Sotiris went off to see his Greek Consul friend and I went to Paolo’s family gathering.   His parents have a flat with a large roof terrace on the top of the building, facing the Harbour and about a 1/2 mile away from where the fireworks barges were moored.  There were about 25 people there from three generations and they were extremely gracious, many actually spoke English and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  We had our own fireworks to let off and I was surprised to discover how much kick a big rocket  actually has.  At midnight the big display started and after 20 minutes the  harbour was so thick with smoke that the fireworks began to fade into the murk as did the lights of Rio.  The locals complained but I thought it was a great magical effect.  A few minutes later very slowly the lights of Rio reappeared.

Yesterday I took the cable car up to Sugar Loaf and then took the famous Helicopter ride.
Unfortunately I was sandwiched between  two  full size adults and wasn’t  able to get any decent pictures. Steve who had already done the flight was more fortunate and the aerial shots I enclose were taken by him.

I have often been accused of overdoing  dry ice and smoke effects on the stage so you can imagine my pleasure is discovering that the great lighting designer in the sky is also guilty.
hence the sequence of pictures of the famous statue.

Sotiris is staying in Rio for a few days before flying back to  Greece.  So now we are three,
and the watch system will change from 2 hours on/ 6 hours off to 3 hours on/ 6 hours off.