Heading Out - Afua
Suzie Too - Western Caribbean
David & Suzanne Chappell
Mon 19 Apr 2010 13:17
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Going downstream was much easier and less stressful
than motoring up and with up to 4kts of current we covered the ground
quickly.There were still problems, Petunia III hit something and broke their
rope cutter and had to remove it, MaheSadry, had a fishing line around their
saildrive, which damaged the seal, lost the oil and let in water and damaged the
gearbox, but as they are a catamaran - they had another engine.
Suzie Too picked up her anchor at Prainha - Suzanne
said drive forward to break it out, but as I did something caught in the prop,
when she pulled it up further we had the top of a tree around the chain and the
roots were in the rudder and prop - so we had to wait for the Bombeiros to come
and dive down in zero visibility, no mask or snorkel, with a machete to chop the
tree and set us free. But this had all become routine, in the last anchorage at
Afua, morning, noon and night the Bombeiros were out removing floating islands
and trees so it's normal Amazon navigation for us.
Afua was another great place, each town has been so
different, but the common theme is how happy and friendly everyone is - on the
last Saturday we all gathered in the village hall and all the local dance
troupes came out, some of them over 100 years old. Then each boat made a dish
and we all ate, drank and danced with the locals - and actually it wasn't too
blubby - lots of final pictures and swapping of emails and
addresses.
Then at 0600 on Monday we weighed anchor an set off
behind Sao Jao for the final time as far as the Equator, where she stopped and
we all steamed past, as they stood on the roof and waved goodbye.
Now we head out to anchor off an island having
completed the RIDS and already the boats have organised a dinghy drinks party -
then we will all meet again in Kourou, Paramaribo and on the the Caribbean for
more drinks.
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