Day 425: Recife, Brazil – 07/03/11

My anti hangover preparations (mega dose of vitamin C and lots of water before bed) keep off the worst of the pain in the morning, but some pain relief and porridge are still needed to fix the rest.

It is unbelievably hot (the temperature reaches 39 degrees inside the boat today) but there are jobs to be done.  I put the laundry together and Mike takes it along with the empty gas bottle over to the marina reception.  We have no shore power here although it is available our cable isn’t long enough to reach the shore and we have the wrong plug end.  Mike trudges in the stifling heat to the nearest electrical shop only to find that it is closed.  Carnival does weird things to opening hours and it is apparently a holiday tomorrow.  This means that he wouldn’t get the stuff until Wednesday and as we are leaving on Thursday, it seems pointless getting the required stuff.  In the meantime, we move slowly in our little sweat box!

I tidy around in the morning and take note of what we need to buy for the next passage, making a small list and knowing that I’ll ignore it anyway as usual and get more than I need no matter how hard I try not to.

Mid afternoon Mike and I go to the supermarket with Anna and Basia.  There’s actually a Carrefour here in Recife and the food choices are good.  The salad section is disappointing though (apart from to Mike who dances with glee that he won’t have green stuff forced down his throat every day).  As usual, the language barrier is a problem.  We can’t find sugar and we ask someone using the Spanish word for it.  He looks at us as if we are mad and rattles of something in Portuguese which of course we don’t understand.  I then have the bright idea of finding some packaging with sugar written on it – sure enough, it is the word we used and when we show it to someone else, they take us straight to it.  It is so frustrating.  All we did was pronounce it incorrectly - it should have been identifiable but as usual they make no attempt to understand.

Driving back through Recife, Mike and I have a good look around.  Although I am know there are some favelas here (we saw some coming in on the boat), Recife looks far more affluent than Salvador.  The city is littered with attractive, modern, high-rise apartment blocks and there are attractive looking shops around.  The roads look well maintained and are clean and clear of rubbish.  It just feels safer than Salvador although for all I know, we are driving through the Kensington equivalent of Recife.

In the evening after dinner, we go for drinks on Basia with some of the other crews.  They are lovely hosts although Anna excels herself never sitting down but making sure your glass is filled all the time.  This, of course, means that I have no real idea how much I am drinking and find out later that I have drunk a whole bottle of Prosecco (Johanne will be proud of me).  The evening is slightly marred by the tale of four crew members who were attacked as they walked back to the marina in the evening after a meal.  A man followed them for a while and when they were just yards away from the marina and its security guards, he pushed between them and grabbed a shoulder bag (which only contained a wrap).  The woman was bruised where she had tried to hold on to her bag and her husband got cuts and bruises from falling over in an attempt to save her.  It could have been so much worse but just reinforces the fact that there is poverty here in Brazil and people get desperate.  It reminds us not to be complacent. 

It’s nearly midnight when we get back to the boat and take our anti hangover preparations again.  I admonish myself as that’s two nights in a row.  Still, with a long passage looming, my system knows it will get a complete detox soon!

Day 424: Recife, Brazil – 06/03/11

It’s a brilliant blue sky that greets us when we wake up although for a day standing in the sun, we could really do with a bit of cloud cover.  The fact that the carnival outings are planned for the daytime precludes the wearing of our shiny, silver, leopard print leggings that were purchased in South Africa for that very reason – phew!

We get to the yacht club to find that everyone is wearing their special carnival tee-shirts and asking why we aren’t wearing ours.  Having only arrived last night we are not yet in possession of them and I quickly search out Suzanna to get them and hand mine over to Annie to do a scissor job on it.

She cuts the neck into a v-shape, cuts a fringe around the bottom and slashes the back for ventilation – they are made from nylon or polyester and the sweat factor is immense!

Photo:  The motley crews

After posing for the group photograph, the coaches take us to Olinda, just outside Recife.  All the streets are decorated for carnival and there are street vendors selling everything that a serious carnivalista would want – sunglasses, wigs, masks, umbrellas and other decorative things that I wouldn’t know where to put.

We are led like a group of wayward ducklings through the streets of Olinda to a private ‘enclosure’, a shady, enclosed courtyard where a band plays non-stop, there is room for dancing and our entry fee includes all the drink and food you want – oh, and condoms.

Mike, follically challenged for some years now, takes a shine to some of the wigs and borrows them from Bev and Richie.  I think the long black one (tastefully tied into pigtails with condoms) brings back some memories from when he had hair almost as long, almost as dark but much thicker!  Bless!

Photos:  Mike with the wigs and the girls

As the hours pass, the courtyard fills up and the dancing really begins (as if weren’t sweaty enough already), getting more energetic as the drink flows.  Being a good girl for once, I stick to coke – having been ill for the last few days and finally feeling better, the last thing I want is a stonking hangover.

Photos:  Matt being Matt

Photo:  Jutta and Eline

Photo:  Moe, Bev, Paul and Matt

Photo:  Jutta and me

As our wristbands allow us to come and go as we please, Mike and I decide to brave the heat and the crowds outside to see what is going on.

Carnival, we discover, is not quite what we had expected.  There are no large floats, no big, elaborate processions, but a series of small ones, usually led by a band with a person carrying a banner in front.  Each of these banners and bands represents an small area of the city, a church, school, organisation etc.  The whole thing here is that people dress up, eat, drink and dance in the street.  If you are not a people spectator, there isn’t really that much to see as such but this is just a tiny bit of what we do see.

 Photos:  Carnival in the streets of Olinda

We walk around for about an hour but it is so hot and crowded that we can’t last any longer.  Walking back to the enclosure we walk up a steep hill and with all the mayhem going on going on in the streets around us it’s unbelievable to look out in the opposite direction and see the tranquillity further out.

Photo:  I bet it’s a bit quieter there

Back at the enclosure the party is in full swing.  The enclosure itself is now packed to bursting point even though lots of people have left like us to look around outside.

Photo:  All dressed up and ready to party

Photo:  An overdue cuddle from Paul

There’s a coach going back to the marina half way through the day and Mike and I (along with a VERY large group of the crews) opt to end carnival viewing and go back to the quiet of the marina and the relative cool of the swimming pool there.  The coach, however, doesn’t show up on time and after about 45 minutes of waiting (during which a street hawker manages to sell about 4 premature baby lookalike puppet dolls to members of the crews, Paul and Suzanna organise taxis for us.

Back on the boat to pick up our swimming gear, I can’t resist trying on Bev’s wig.  It’s been 40 years since I had anything but short hair, and to my surprise, I rather like it, violent colour though it may be!

Photo:  I rather like having more hair

We have a light lunch with Rosemary, Bill, Stephen, Michael and Basia and then head for the pool where we stay in so long that our skin is completely wrinkled by the time we emerge.

Unfortunately the chlorine gives Mike a raging headache and by the time we leave he is fit for nothing but his bed.  I decide to give him some peace and quiet (good wife) so abandon him and go over to Crazy Horse for a drink (bad wife) getting a lift from Annie and Jim to save Mike having to take me in the dinghy (considerate wife).  I wouldn’t be safe let loose in a dark marina at low tide with all the warps around in the water, not with the way I drive it (truthful wife)!

Jutta and Jochem drive me back but persuade me (embarrassingly easily) to stop off at their boat on the way for one last little drink.  Luckily there is only one boat, Basia, in between Chessie and Jeannius and as they are all packed together so tightly, I am able to clamber very quietly across to Jeannius at the end of the evening.  Feeling somewhat tipsy, I am glad there isn’t enough room for me to actually fall down between the boats.  I’ve never really fancied life as a fender!!!

Day 423: Gamboa to Recife, Brazil – 05/03/11

Poor Mike.  What a night!  The wind stays with us so we can sail all night but so do the fishing boats and container ships.  He spends his whole watch zigzagging through a veritable armada, changing course all the time.  He even sees one of the large container ships go in a complete circle before it goes off in a slightly different direction.  Goodness only knows what was going on there!

By the time he feels it is safe to leave his position, it’s nearly 3 am and I’ve had an extra hour of sleep.  Good job too.  I still feel lousy but it’s just my throat and the hot flushes now.

Feeling really guilty I have to wake Mike a couple of times when fishing vessels come too close but we are not under power, and whizzing along at over 7 knots with full main and genoa out, I am reluctant to alter the course very much in case I screw up.

I am standing in the galley cleaning my reading glasses (please note this, Victoria darling, it does happen eventually) when the wind dies down completely.  Then I notice the genoa flapping ominously against the mast and rush over to check the instruments which confirm my suspicions – bloody Samantha, our autopilot, is also having a menopausal hot flush and has gone into standby.  I rush outside but by this time we have turned a full 180 degrees and are heading back the way we have come so I drag Mike out of bed and start the engine, leaving him to bring us back on course.  Why does she do that every now and then?  Once it is all under control, Mike trots off back to bed when his job is done leaving me feeling useless once more.  At least I notice immediately this happens now – I just wish I had the courage of my convictions to do something about it rather than running to Mike in a blind panic.

Good winds mean that we sail well during the day getting up to 7.5 knots which is great although we get a nasty squall which brings loads of rain with it when we are about 20 miles south of Recife.  After that the wind dies down altogether and we have to motor sail the rest of the way.

  Photo:  Approaching Recife under storm clouds

Photo:  High rise blocks line the shore

I fill the water bottles up while we are still in water that looks clear and clean as I have no intention of doing it nearer civilization.  It’s a good job I do – the closer we get to Recife, the murkier the water gets, going from blue, to green to a rather brown colour.

We get the sails down and enter the long channel which leads to the marina.  Behind us rain clouds let rip.

Photo:  Rain touches down once more

The channel down to the marina is probably not the most salubrious part of town.  The water is a foul colour (and there’s rather a curious smell which I don’t want to think about) and the shores are lined with derelict buildings interspersed with beautiful churches and colonial buildings just behind and modern high rise apartment blocks.  We can see that carnival is beginning to wind down for the day although fire crackers are still going off.  Boats come streaming down the channel filled with lots of very merry people, waving and blowing whistles while jiggling around to Brazilian dance music.

Photos:  Recife down the channel at the end of the party

Although it’s only 4.30 pm as we arrive in Recife, the skies are so overcast that it feels much later.  The channel itself is about a mile long which gives us plenty of time to put the fenders on and attach the hurricane lines which will be needed to hold us in place in the marina.  As we approach the marina, I can see huge high rises still being built with a favela on the shoreline just in front, occupying prime real estate space.  I bet the occupants of the high rises just love that!

We enter the marina and are directed to the end space next to Basia.  There are marina workers in two small boats waiting to take our lines.  Paul shouts to me to throw the lines on the starboard side over to them.  Throw them over?  If you could see our hurricane lines you would know that ‘throwing’ is not an option for me.  They are enormous and unbelievably heavy.  I hoist one up and manage to roll it over the guard rail where it falls in an ungainly heap in the waiting boat.  I nearly go with it!

We do the same with the port line and then they take the final line from the starboard bow over to the pontoon.  Jim from Ocean Jasper ties the lines onto the pontoon and we pull them all in tight.  We’re in!  Back with the family, as Maggie calls out to me.

It’s a strange arrangement here.  We are strung out, bows to, 20 feet from the dock.  To get to the yacht club you have to get the dinghy down and ride over (although the facilities are meant to be great once you get there).  The marina is tidal, and Mike from Basia tells us that once the tide goes out we will be sitting on the bottom in the mud!  Mmm.  Hopefully that will help coat the bottom in an organic layer of anti fouling!!!

We can see REALLY nasty storm clouds approaching and within minutes the wind starts to howl – then the rain arrives.  Leaving Basia’s hosepipe stuck into our tank (the water pressure here is so pathetic it will take hours to fill the tank), we close up all the rain curtains and scuttle inside for a cup of tea.  We have no intention of going anywhere tonight.

I change the bed linen, we both have showers, then it’s fillet steak and black truffle infused rice for dinner and a couple of Amarulas.  Two episodes of Gavin and Stacey later and it’s bye bye time for Skiplah and me! 

Tomorrow, carnival here we come!

 

Our position is:  08 deg 04 min S, 34 deg 53 min W

Distance so far:  22466 nautical miles

Day 422: Gamboa to Recife, Brazil – 04/03/11

I go to bed slightly later than usual because I dozed off so frequently on the sofa yesterday afternoon that I didn’t think I’d sleep anyway.  It’s so hot in the cabin that I have to leave the door open – no chance of air conditioning as we need the engine on to keep our speed near the 3.5 knot mark.  I can’t believe how slowly we are going.  We have had the lowest 24-hour mileage count ever – just 98 miles yesterday.

There’s some more commercial traffic in the night but nothing to cause any concern.  We continue to motor but have to use the port engine rather than the normally faster starboard engine because today, that engine seems to be running slower than usual.  Mike thinks that a slight fuel blockage has occurred and will change the filter when we get to Recife, if we ever get to Recife that is!!

We have a bit of speed in the late morning when a passing squall gives us some wind for an almost an hour and we reach 6 knots for the first time, but then it is gone and with the engine on we are back to our 4 knots.  At least resting the starboard engine for a while seems to have cleared the blockage as it is now running smoothly again.

I feel marginally more human today, although still as lethargic, not helped by the 65% humidity.

The afternoon sees us making speeds of less than 2 knots when we try to sail.  Mike is concerned about the fuel consumption as we fight the current and has put 5 jerry cans of diesel in the tank.  I just hope that’s enough.

It’s all change again by the late afternoon.  The wind picks up nicely and we are able to sail properly for the first time.  However, the wind takes us further towards shore than we previously have been and suddenly every fishing boat along the coast seems to be out in force and while Mike sleeps I have to alter course by 20 degrees to avoid a couple of small boats.  We are still over 20 miles from the coast and the boats seem far too small to be out this far.  I feel seasick just watching them bob around like corks.

Hopefully our last night at sea (for a couple of days at least) is heralded by a glorious sunset once more and with yet again, nothing else to photograph, I snap away.

  Photos:  Our last sunset at sea for a few days

As it’s Friday night, it’s curry night and that also means that it’s Mike’s turn to cook.  Having chucked the chicken thigh meat overboard we have to use breast meat which can be a bit disappointing but turns out good tonight.  Not that Mike can have his dinner in peace.  The fishing fleet is out in full and he is constantly bobbing up and down to check that we don’t mow anything down or get any lines caught.  Checking is all very well if you can see them, but we know many of them don’t put their lights on so it’s all a bit hit (hopefully not literally) and miss.  I’m glad I’m off to bed first!

 

Our position is:  09 deg 26 min S, 35 deg 08 min W

Distance so far:  22380 nautical miles

Day 421: Gamboa to Recife, Brazil – 03/03/11

Just before I get up for my watch, Mike takes in the genoa and puts the engine on again.  We sail for all of 7 hours before the wind starts to die away.  Oh well.  Better than nothing I suppose.

My throat, which felt tight before I went to bed, is now very sore and the glands in my neck are like golf balls.  On top of that, all the tossing and pitching of the boat has made me wrench my back somehow and it is now very uncomfortable.  My stomach is also playing up again and add the hot flushes to that and you have one very miserable, grouchy first mate.

As we motor sail through the night, a large container ship makes it’s appearance heading straight for us (as far as AIS can determine).  I watch it close up on us from behind until I can’t wait any longer.  Their name still hasn’t come up on the screen so I just call for a vessel at their position.  No reply.  Eventually their name appears and I call twice again.  No reply.  Cursing I alter course by 10 degrees but am not sure it’s enough and am worried about altering them too much because we still have sail out.  If we were just using the engines I wouldn’t have worried.  Eventually I wake Mike and he tells me to alter course by another 30 degrees and the ship passes us half a mile away (instead of the 0.008 miles AIS was showing at the beginning).  Why don’t these buggers answer their radios?  They must recognise their name even if they don’t speak English.  At least a rattle in a foreign language would at least show they knew someone was out there!

When Mike comes on watch in the morning, I head straight for bed.  I feel really lousy now and have no energy, falling asleep almost straight away but not for long as it’s so hot.  I come back up and lie in the salon pathetically.  Mike says he always knows when I feel really rough now if he can feel bits underfoot that I can’t be bothered to sweep with my little green wonderbroom.

The slow crawl continues even more slowly.  With the current against us still, even running one of the engines quite hard only produces at most 4 knots.  At least the sea is quite smooth in the afternoon which is more than can be said for it in the evening.  It turns lumpy and choppy.  Sitting on the loo in the bow is like going over a humpback bridge – a wave sends you up in the air and for a split second you feel like you are floating in a vacuum before you come back down with a huge thump but filled with awe that the boat can stay in one piece with all the crashing and banging that it goes through.

We heat up the last of the fish stew for dinner.  I still feel too lousy to cook although not lousy enough to not want to eat!

 

Our position is:  10 deg 38 min S, 36 deg 06 min W

Distance so far:  22289 nautical miles

Day 420: Gamboa to Recife, Brazil – 02/03/11

I give in and sleep in the stern cabin – it’s just too bouncy and noisy in the bow.  We continue our pathetically slow crawl through the night.  We don’t come across any fishing vessels, lit or unlit, which was my huge worry with the nets they have out, but we see a lot of commercial traffic, tankers, containers and the easy to spot cruise liners (lit up like Christmas trees as usual) on the way.

Before I go down for my next sleep we relocate the stuff from the unfrozen freezer to the back of the fridge which is now turned down so low all the cans are sticking to the ice at the back.  After prising them all away I manage to get all the meat, fish and chicken breasts at the back which should keep them frozen.  The dodgy chicken thighs which I am convinced are off, take a leap over the side with no argument from Mike this time.  I hope fish have strong stomachs!  I have some home made soups in the freezer which are totally defrosted which we can eat up easily over the next couple of days – they don’t contain meat or anything so should be fine.

After my morning nap Mike tells me that the biggest mahi mahi he has seen was hooked on our line for quite some time before it managed to get off at the last minute as he brought it to the steps.  It did the usual thing – throwing itself against the side of the boat until it had knocked the hook out.  How do they know how to do that?

After lunch, and while Mike is sleeping, the wind gets up a bit and finally comes from a better direction.  I alter course slightly and manage to trim the genoa – all by myself – and by the time Mike gets up we are whizzing along (whizzing?) at between 5 and 6 knots.  I had tried turning the engine off but when I did that we immediately slipped back to 4 knots so I put it on again but a couple of hours later the wind picks up even more and we cut the engine completely and sail – properly – with full main and genoa.  We aren’t doing the speeds we would like and still have current against us but it’s so much better.

As usual, there is nothing to photograph but the sunset.  Having been asleep when Mike pulled in the mahi mahi I have no proof of the one that got away!

Photo:  Sunset off the Brazilian coast

By the time my bed time comes the wind is around 20 – 25 knots and we reef both the main and genoa in for the night just in case it picks up further.  Of course, it does the opposite!  At least with no engine on we can run generator and therefore the air conditioning.  Bliss!

 

Our position is:  11 deg 49 min S, 37 deg 00 min W

Distance so far:  22191 nautical miles

Day 419: Gamboa to Recife, Brazil – 01/03/11

We start our passage to Recife today.  Although it is only about 400 miles, it promises to be slow going as the winds are predicted to be light but right on the nose.  That’ll be lot’s of motoring then!

We start off at around 7.15 am and for a very short while, all seems quite good.  Once past Morro de Sao Paulo we are able to put the main and genoa out, cut the engines and sail properly – for about half an hour!  Then the seas become choppy and the wind drops.  Mike pulls the genoas away and puts an engine on again.  So much for sailing!

I go back to bed to get into our normal sea pattern but don’t sleep as it’s so choppy.  The wind comes round so that it is just off the nose but so slightly that it makes no real difference.  As we approach Salvador and are about 10 miles off shore, we start to pick up the adverse current – about a knot running against us.

Mike heads further east and out to sea, to try to get out of the current and to avoid the fishing vessels that we have heard are just in offshore waters without lights but with large nets – just right for fouling your propellers!

He sleeps in the afternoon but I have such a headache that I have to lie down again in the early evening.  When I awake, he greets me with the great news that once again, the freezer is defrosting itself and its contents.  Neither of us has the stomach for dealing with it tonight – tomorrow will do.

Through the day we have motor-sailed at just 2.5 to 3 knots, a pathetic crawl that will take us to the start line on he right day and bypassing carnival, Olinda and Recife altogether – not what we had planned.  Looking at e-mails we have had from the other boats, it looks like the current disappears about half way to Recife and we might just make some time up there.  In the meantime it is slow, slow, SLOW!

While we are watching TV I hear a noise coming from around the mast that sounds like one of the batons coming out again.  Mike goes to investigate and sure enough, it is a baton, but coming from the sailbag and not the sail itself.  Mike thinks it will stay in place but just after I go to bed he takes another look and decides it is definitely coming further out, and I get up and sit at the helm while he puts his lifejacket and line on and pulls it out completely, passing about 24 feet of baton through the cockpit to me.  It is now lying down the port companionway and there it will stay until we get to port.  Bloody boats!

 

Our position is:  12 deg 45 min S, 37 deg 50 min W

Distance so far:  22091 nautical miles