Somewhere outside the Amazone delta

We left Fortaleza after only 5 days. I'm sure the city is nice and
exciting in many ways, but everyone told us how dangerous it was. You
had to take a taxi wherever you were going, to avoid being mugged! It's
hard to say how dangerous it really was, but all the yachties seemed to
have the same attitude. There is a favela just outside the marina/hotel
complex, but the guards were always there to protect us so we were safe.
So very different from Jacare and Joao Pessoa where we didn't fear
anything except for walking a specific part of the road after darkness.
It was nice to stay in the hotel complex, with swimming pool, tennis
courts, game rooms and all kinds of facilities for us to use. But if
that is all you feel free to do you get bored after some days! At least
some of us do! And especially when our argentine friends had already
left and we are planning to meet them again in the next port!
Actually, we did take a walk in Fortaleza, to the Mercado Central. We
went there with a brazilian couple who wanted company. They observed a
girl who could have been a "scout" for her gang. She slipped through a
hole in the fence as we approached so maybe she had been standing there
to look for potential targets.. Maybe.. We had stripped off any
valuables like watches, belts, purses and so on, but I guess we didn't
blend in too well with the locals.. Anyway, as our brazilian friends
became suspicious we crossed the road and never saw anyone coming after
us. So who knows whether we were in any danger. By the way, the market
was well worth the visit and the dangerous 10 minutes walk each way!
Now we are heading towards French Guyana, and have covered 1/3 of the
distance in a little less than 3 days. We hope to find the current that
is supposed to speed up the boat by a couple of knots.. So far we have
had light winds and a small counter current if our log is correctly
calibrated. There are 20 deg minutes till we reach the Equator and it is
hot both inside and outside. We drink whatever we find to quench the
thirst.
We have sailed 348 nm in 70 hours since Fortaleza and the GPS states
that there are 681 nm to go before we reach Kourou, French Guyana.

Gjertrud