Day 21 - Boat preparations
Jacana
David Munro
Sun 1 Feb 2009 13:16
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Jacana lies in the Salvadour harbour amongst the
other competitors in the race as well as the World ARC fleet who used the
Cape - Salvadour race to cruise /race their leg to South America. The World ARC
started almost 12 months ago with 30 plus boats, they have had a number of drop
outs and are down to a core of 20 boats, the ARC fleet comprised mainly of Brits
with a couple of Canadians, Swiss & Germans who are cruising the world in
company, the passages are planned for them and the various bits of paperwork
taken care for them making life very pleasant. (see attached
photograph)
Jacana has a work list which day 21 saw us start to
tackle, the best way to get anything done here is to start early in the morning
before the heat of the day. The heat we all have learnt to deal with, the
humidity is the killer, everyone is permanently damp, the least amount of
physical exertion results in being dripped in persperation. The work list
includes repairs to the running rigging, the boom, B&G and navigation
lights, nothing major but all takes some time and effort. It has been decided to
make a temporary repair to the boom somewhat more substantial than the repair we
were able to make at sea. The boom will be repaired fully once the boat has
returned to Cape Town.
Salvadour is situated on the largest inlet in
Brazil, there is a 5 miles wide stretch of water between the headlands which
leads into a large protected stretch of water, Salvadour many years ago used to
be the capitol of Brazil, as such there is a lot of industry, trade &
commerce. The town is not an international destination for tourists from outside
of Souh America but is for Brazilians and other South Americans. The bay has
numerous islands on which are resort style hotels with all the facilities, the
Atlantic coast has dozens of beaches that stretch 30 miles to the north. Beach
life is Brazilian life, every beach is packed with locals.
Just above the marina lies the old historic part of
town and we took the lift to the top to find somewhere for lunch. The town has
old cobbled streets and and squares, full of character, cafes, restaurants and
bars, souvenir shops as well. Having had a light lunch we wandered around peerng
in shops fending off beggars and peering over our shoulders looking for
muggers! The city has a reputation for being unsafe for visitors,
especially after dark, a number of the crew on the oher boats have been mugged,
we do have Paul as a minder but we still don't want to take any chances. We took
a long taxi ride to a recommended restaurant in the evening, on the way
there we complained about how far away it was , but the journey was well
worth making - the grill restaurant was excellent and we had a very pleasant
crew evening.
Part of the worklist was a good tidy of the boat
which meant throwing old food stuffs away and anything else that wasn't going to
be used - finally Pauls' well thumbed GQ magazine made it into the bin!! (se
attached)
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