torsdag 25. november 2010
We are in Kourou!
Just a short update! We have stopped briefly in French Guyana. We try to find out about the Ariadne launch tomorrow, may be we get to see it from the beach. This is a community that has been build around the space center. Nice and clean in many quarters, and friendly! But also poverty in other places. The reggae music tells us we are approaching the Carribean!
lørdag 20. november 2010
The Guinea Current
At the moment we are sunbathing in the Guinea current which brings water
from the southern Atlantic up to the Carribean. The temperature is 29.2C
in the water, 28.4C in the air. There are only very light winds, but
whether we have reached the Doldrums or not we don't know. There is
after all some wind, 7 knots or so. We have been motorsailing for some
time now, to charge the batteries and to get some progress. Not that the
Guinea current doesn't provide some knots in the speed over ground, too.
We crossed the Equator again, northbound this time, but did not receive
any visit from Miss Neptun or others from her family. That is only for
the first timers. However, we know Ypake were going to cross for the
first time on this leg, so we are anxious to have their report. Did
anyone pay them a visit?
To get some protection from the burning sun we have attached a plastic
net over the cockpit, made from recycled polypropylen. An idea from the
same Ypake! Since it is just a net the wind will blow through it, if
there is some wind, and even if it is not a complete cover it provides a
lot of shadow. A cheap and good alternativ as long as we don't have a
proper bimini. So here we are, lying around in the cockpit, reading
books, relaxing and watching out for any ship that should come in our
way. So far there has not been many, but the other night there was one
heading directly towards us. Again the AIS did prove it's value. The
name of the ship pop'ed up on the screen, and in a few seconds I was in
contact with the other ship. "we are 5 nm ahead of you, approaching. If
we don't do something I think we will be passing very close. Can you see
us on your radar? " I don't think he had spotted us befoe he was
contacted, but after some seconds he answered: "OK, I turn to
starboard". In less than a minute he had turned and we could only see
the red lights. Another 10 minutes or so went by before we passed, and
it could very well be that he would have spotted us anyhow. But it feels
good to know that the other ship has seen you while there is still time
to alter the course!
We did not bring very much fresh food for this passage, as we know it
won't keep for more than 4-5 days in this heat. So now we are out of
potatoes, oranges, papaya, melon.. We still have a tomato, some onions
and a couple of lemons. So from now on the meals will be made from rice,
pasta, canned food and freeze dried variants. And there is always Corn
Flakes so we are fine!
Now I'm heading back to the cockpit to pick up another crime novel,
listen to the audio file of Bill Clinton's My Life or some other
"litterature light". That's all I can manage in this heat.
There is 404 nm to go before we reach Kourou and we have sailed 630 from
Fortaleza. Motorsailing in the Guinea current has given us a speed of 7
knots lately, but we'll soon go back to plain sailing. Hopefully the
light wind won't die off so that we'll still keep a speed of ~5 knots.
from the southern Atlantic up to the Carribean. The temperature is 29.2C
in the water, 28.4C in the air. There are only very light winds, but
whether we have reached the Doldrums or not we don't know. There is
after all some wind, 7 knots or so. We have been motorsailing for some
time now, to charge the batteries and to get some progress. Not that the
Guinea current doesn't provide some knots in the speed over ground, too.
We crossed the Equator again, northbound this time, but did not receive
any visit from Miss Neptun or others from her family. That is only for
the first timers. However, we know Ypake were going to cross for the
first time on this leg, so we are anxious to have their report. Did
anyone pay them a visit?
To get some protection from the burning sun we have attached a plastic
net over the cockpit, made from recycled polypropylen. An idea from the
same Ypake! Since it is just a net the wind will blow through it, if
there is some wind, and even if it is not a complete cover it provides a
lot of shadow. A cheap and good alternativ as long as we don't have a
proper bimini. So here we are, lying around in the cockpit, reading
books, relaxing and watching out for any ship that should come in our
way. So far there has not been many, but the other night there was one
heading directly towards us. Again the AIS did prove it's value. The
name of the ship pop'ed up on the screen, and in a few seconds I was in
contact with the other ship. "we are 5 nm ahead of you, approaching. If
we don't do something I think we will be passing very close. Can you see
us on your radar? " I don't think he had spotted us befoe he was
contacted, but after some seconds he answered: "OK, I turn to
starboard". In less than a minute he had turned and we could only see
the red lights. Another 10 minutes or so went by before we passed, and
it could very well be that he would have spotted us anyhow. But it feels
good to know that the other ship has seen you while there is still time
to alter the course!
We did not bring very much fresh food for this passage, as we know it
won't keep for more than 4-5 days in this heat. So now we are out of
potatoes, oranges, papaya, melon.. We still have a tomato, some onions
and a couple of lemons. So from now on the meals will be made from rice,
pasta, canned food and freeze dried variants. And there is always Corn
Flakes so we are fine!
Now I'm heading back to the cockpit to pick up another crime novel,
listen to the audio file of Bill Clinton's My Life or some other
"litterature light". That's all I can manage in this heat.
There is 404 nm to go before we reach Kourou and we have sailed 630 from
Fortaleza. Motorsailing in the Guinea current has given us a speed of 7
knots lately, but we'll soon go back to plain sailing. Hopefully the
light wind won't die off so that we'll still keep a speed of ~5 knots.
Gjertrud
PS: Update on the 20th ov November. This blog appears not to have been
sent yesterday when I wrote it. At the present things are like
yesterday. Position: 3deg 06,8 N - 48deg 27,7W
onsdag 17. november 2010
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.
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
fredag 5. november 2010
Breaking up from Jacare!
Stein came home after more than two weeks in the U.S.. He came from frosty nights and autumn mood in Moses Lake. And in his baggage he had a lot of things from various chandlers in Seattle. There was a birthday gift for me, iPod! (I had already got a hammock..) and also a new and better stereo system for the boat. But most important, the thread inserts for the generator did unfortunately not reach the address in Moses Lake before he left.. The public mail system in the U.S. is probably not as reliable as the freighters who have sent packages from California to Norway in less than a week! Our new Argentine friend, Ezequiel, tried to help by following us around the mechanical shops in Joao Pessoa to see if they had helicoils (threaded inserts) in dimension M9. But of course we did not find it: They had both M8 and M10, M9 but was apparently unusual. Then he helped us with an emergency repair he has used with success on his old 2CV, epoxy mass on the threads. Unfortunately it did not hold up when tightening the bolts in the end. But we can do without the generator until we get to Trinidad ..
As mentioned, we have made new friends, it's the Sundblad family from Argentina on the steel boat SY Ypake! A teenager family like us! It was about time for both Thorstein and Ingeborg to spend some time with peers. They are Ezequiel and Florence with Santiago 18, Josefina 13 and Pilar 9.And everyone speaks English even! The days have therefore been about some city tours, many swimming trips to the pool here (which was not very exciting until you got someone to be with there ..), watching movies in one or the other boat (action in one boat, romantic movies the other) a few sessions with school activities up in the marina office area and otherwise chat, chat, chat ... There have been several BBQ's too, it is apparently an Argentine specialty. One day we were served a morning tea "mate". Pilar, Ezequiel and Florence knocked on the bow and came on board with a cup and a thermos flask filled with hot water. The cup was half full with mate herbs and was filled with water from the thermos. Then the cup went around from mouth to mouth. It was repeatedly filled with water as it was very good and we were seven persons in the cockpit. We drank through a metal straw that was stuck to the bottom, and if there were some diseases among us the condition should be favorable for some disease spreading. But that is how the mate is to be consumed and shared. If you are bid mate it is as much a social invitation as a bid for a drink. And it is a big insult to say no! It is not really tea, but brewed on some herbs that are found in Argentina and Uruguai. The whole thing is an ancient Indian practice that is alive and well among the present Argentines, although there is very little Indian blood left in the silver country.
To do something in return, I made waffles one day. And it seemed as if the Argentines liked them! At such occasions, I am glad we have brought the waffle iron! Then I can offer a little piece of Norway in return for the invitations. It has always been well received, although most people in Brazil think of bacalao in connection with Norway! "Bacalao de Noruega é muito caro!" It is so expensive that it is largely out of reach, I understand. Here they must do with bacalao from Portugal..
The Sundblad family took off last Saturday, and now we've got the speed up too. We want to catch up with them again, and they have already reached Fortleza! At the moment I can summarize that we have scrubbed the hull and added a new coat of antifouling. Blue this time, but that's OK. It was what they had. We have been alongside the pier on the river bank in two days, and we have all worked hard to get a faster boat without grass, shellfish colonies and other organisms as stowaways below the water line.
I must also mention that it was an unusual sight that met us at the pier two days ago. Another Norwegian ship! It was SY Freya, who had come over from Cape Verde via Fernando de Noronha. We'll talk more with them when we are back in our berth again. There are two gentlemen on board, one from my home town Trondheim even! It's always a pleasure to meet people who speak our language, not least!
But then we will also order fuel, wash some clothes and do the final preparations. And hopefully we're off this weekend.
Gjertrud
As mentioned, we have made new friends, it's the Sundblad family from Argentina on the steel boat SY Ypake! A teenager family like us! It was about time for both Thorstein and Ingeborg to spend some time with peers. They are Ezequiel and Florence with Santiago 18, Josefina 13 and Pilar 9.And everyone speaks English even! The days have therefore been about some city tours, many swimming trips to the pool here (which was not very exciting until you got someone to be with there ..), watching movies in one or the other boat (action in one boat, romantic movies the other) a few sessions with school activities up in the marina office area and otherwise chat, chat, chat ... There have been several BBQ's too, it is apparently an Argentine specialty. One day we were served a morning tea "mate". Pilar, Ezequiel and Florence knocked on the bow and came on board with a cup and a thermos flask filled with hot water. The cup was half full with mate herbs and was filled with water from the thermos. Then the cup went around from mouth to mouth. It was repeatedly filled with water as it was very good and we were seven persons in the cockpit. We drank through a metal straw that was stuck to the bottom, and if there were some diseases among us the condition should be favorable for some disease spreading. But that is how the mate is to be consumed and shared. If you are bid mate it is as much a social invitation as a bid for a drink. And it is a big insult to say no! It is not really tea, but brewed on some herbs that are found in Argentina and Uruguai. The whole thing is an ancient Indian practice that is alive and well among the present Argentines, although there is very little Indian blood left in the silver country.
To do something in return, I made waffles one day. And it seemed as if the Argentines liked them! At such occasions, I am glad we have brought the waffle iron! Then I can offer a little piece of Norway in return for the invitations. It has always been well received, although most people in Brazil think of bacalao in connection with Norway! "Bacalao de Noruega é muito caro!" It is so expensive that it is largely out of reach, I understand. Here they must do with bacalao from Portugal..
The Sundblad family took off last Saturday, and now we've got the speed up too. We want to catch up with them again, and they have already reached Fortleza! At the moment I can summarize that we have scrubbed the hull and added a new coat of antifouling. Blue this time, but that's OK. It was what they had. We have been alongside the pier on the river bank in two days, and we have all worked hard to get a faster boat without grass, shellfish colonies and other organisms as stowaways below the water line.
I must also mention that it was an unusual sight that met us at the pier two days ago. Another Norwegian ship! It was SY Freya, who had come over from Cape Verde via Fernando de Noronha. We'll talk more with them when we are back in our berth again. There are two gentlemen on board, one from my home town Trondheim even! It's always a pleasure to meet people who speak our language, not least!
But then we will also order fuel, wash some clothes and do the final preparations. And hopefully we're off this weekend.
Gjertrud
søndag 17. oktober 2010
Two months in Jacare!
We have experienced a new phenomenon here in Brazil. Both when we were at the Port Administration checking in and when I was at the eye doctor for a check up. The limited language abilities of the Port Officer and of the receptionist at the doctor alike is compensated for by using Google translate! They were both very quick to start typing their questions and answers in Portuguese and letting me read the translation. It actually worked out quite well, even though you have to guess a little to get the meaning. So now I thought I would give it a try here at the blog, too. I have translated my last two blogs from Norwegian to English with the help of Google translate! I must admit I spent some time correcting a few words and expressions to give meaning to it, so I don't know if it really saved me much time compared with starting from scratch. Anyway, here they are. I hope you'll enjoy them, and I'll appreciate all comments on how it turned out!
September 15
With a big chopping knife he cut a precise cut, first on one side, then on the other. Finally, we were going to give it a try, and honestly, I can not understand why we have not done this before! You find them everywhere along the roads selling green, fresh coconuts. 70 centavos apiece, about 35 €cents. We're a little squeamish, afraid of doing it wrong maybe. Well, we could not do it all wrong as we have seen how the others do it. And the coconut is served sliced and ready to drink with a straw. Wimpy or not, now we did it! Admittedly, one for sharing, but it was a start! We were out walking this Sunday with people from other boats. Had lunch at a local eatery and walked along the beach and looked at surfers who had great conditions in the waves. It was actually a contest today between surfers from different schools. I think it was about time, how long they stayed up on the board. Or maybe it was the style? I actually do not know, but I think they were good! One of the others in our party was Gregory from Russia. He found it was a good time to show Ingeborg and Thorstein how he and his friends spent hours on the beaches to kick / throw wet sand at each other. Of course, it ended with soaked and sandy teens, but we have the washing machine ..
But this should be about what we eat here in Brazil. And nutrition in Brazil should include lots of fruits and vegetables! 5 a day (Norwegian saying for how much fruits or vegetables you should take every day), what is that? A couple of squeezed oranges for breakfast, plus one or two bananas and we are close to five already! In addition, sliced papaya, mango, passion fruit, melon and pineapple in between as snacks. To my despair though, I found out I'm allergic to pineapple! Got a rash and itch all over my body after Ingeborg and I had shared a fresh pineapple. But it's so good! Anyway, now I can drink fresh coconut (!), fruit juices of all kinds, guarana, acerola .. I've fallen in love with the zuco graviola, graviola juice, which is milky white, sweet and good. I sucked gorgeous juices from a caju fruit one day, but the consistency of the pulp was a bit too leathery for my taste. (Yes, it's the same fruit that the cashew nuts come from). We really have to taste our way through everything!
I must admit that I pretty much make the same dishes now as I'm used to, based on ground beef or chicken fillets. The quality of meat products are great, and costs a fraction of the Norwegian price. I'm trying to supplement with some of the new, unknown, but there is much I have not yet tried to cook: root vegetables like sweet potatoes and manioc, maize, beans .. For dinner I tried serving roasted eggplants in tomato sauce the other day, but it was not entirely successful. That is, I think it was really good, but the others need getting used to it.. (And maybe the chef must improve the cooking ..) All in all I have to figure out how to prepare all these strange produce so that it will taste good. Had I only spoke Portuguese! Over by the "saxophone restaurants", I've mentioned them before, we found little bars that sell tapioca for 2-3 reais (1,5€) apiece. They are pancakes baked by manioc flour, lovely with ham and cheese, or coconut and condensed milk in it for a dessert. It looks easy enough to cook, but easy and cheap to buy at the tapioca bars, too.
Mostly we buy what we need of food here in the neighboorhood. If we need to provision more we go to Intermares which is a twenty minutes walkaway. Then they help us to a taxi back if we buy for more than 150 reais! The goods are sorted and packed in bags of their own staff and rolled out to the taxi that they have called for. We can only sit in and pay the deductible of three reais for transport! We are getting spoiled .. If I want to experience the big fruit market I go to the Mercado Central in Joao Pessoa. Big halls filled with fruits and vegetables, meat, grains and spices.
That's all for now. Now I'm going out on shopping with Chris. I will shop for exotic fruits and also provide some shoes with worn soles to the shoemaker. Yes, you can even find a shoemaker here!
Gjertrud
October 13
Another month has passed by, and we are still in Jacaré. Truly a lovely place to be! Today is "Dia de Crianza", Children's Day, so everything is closed in the city! We didn't know it, and were surprised to find empty streets on a Tuesday morning .. Well, the weather was fine and we strolled around the quiet streets for a while; Ingeborg, Thorstein and me. Our agenda had been to find an eye doctor to do a test of the vision of Ingeborg and Thorstein. I found out that glasses are really cheap here, at least compared with Norwegian prices. So if it should be needed it would be OK to organize here. Originally we had planned to leave this river by now. But since Stein was called for again by REC we found it was best to stay here where we know it is relatively safe and easy to stay. You hear different things about the various ports and I would not like to be left alone with Ingeborg and Thorstein in all of them. The school year has begun, and both Ingeborg and Thorstein have their daily sessions with the books. Right now Ingeborg is doing a test in math, by the way, and later in the week both geography and science tests are coming up. Thorstein is struggling a bit with the Norwegian language variety "Nynorsk" nowadays. He has actually not had any of it before so it's a challenge with many unfamiliar words.
It is strange how quickly one gets used to new surroundings, and how fast all that exotic stuff becomes common. When we stay so long in one place it also means that you start to know people a bit, and they know you. Ingeborg even has a flock of fans up in the street that comes and calls her out virtually every day. Everyone is a little younger than her, but find it exciting to play with a "gringa". They barely speak a few words in English and she speaks only a little Portuguese, but they learn from each other it seems. And with the help of Portuguese-English dictionary. She listens to their music, sees the dances, learns the dances. They play some soccer and UNO (card game). The rules of the card game are certainly not as strict as she is used to, but that is the same with many things in this country. At least according to Guillermo, our neighbor on the pier who is a Brazilian from Rio. "What we have to offer is liberty.." he said. "It's a wonderful country!" Such as freedom from the bus tables. No one seems to know them, not even the bus drivers ... according to Guillermo. I was waiting for the Jacaré bus one day when a woman from the neighborhood recognized me and was wondering how long I had been waiting. That way she could find out when the bus was to be expected. No wonder it is a market for "Los alternativos": Pirate taxis that pick up people from bus stops. They pull over at the bus stop, roll down the window and shout where they are going. People who don't want to wait any longer gladly accept a seat. Occasionally there are some who shout "Jacaré!" and it has actually worked out twice for me! For the same price as the bus they take you to your requested destination. All sorts of people provides a lift and all sorts of people use the services. I feel a little less touristy when I use the "alternativo", but I guess that is a bit silly..
The first week we were here we got to know quite a few people on the other boats in the marina. French, Russian, Finnish, Polish, German, Brazilian. Twice we have had barbecue parties by the bar which is a good way to meet and get to know people. One of the fanciest boats that were here when we arrived was a fifty-something-foot long French, aluminium yacht. Red and shiny, a real jewel. Some of us imagined the crew to be a lineup including pretty bikini girls with big hats.. One day the owner came on board along with two comrades who were to participate on the journey to the south. They intend to go to Antarctica, hoping to set a record as the oldest crew that has sailed to this continent! Just listen: The owner is almost 70, the second in command is nearly 80 and the youngest is a partly retired companion of nearly 60. It had not been settled completely that they are going all the way to Antarctica yet, but Cape Horn was for sure. In addition to sailing, they were mountain climbers all of them, and still active! The owner, Jean Pierre, has sailed the Norwegian coast all the way to Svalbard, so he knows what he's up to. He was formerly general director of the French Space Agency by the way, and had thus been commanding chief for the plant for launching Ariadne rockets in Kourou, French Guiana. He kindly provided us with us a greeting to Madeleine, who runs the restaurant at Kourou. I think we'll have to stop by!
Until they went a week ago, we spent a lot of time with Chris and Daniel who were here at the edge of the pier in their steel boat Irun. They brought with them the Yorkshire Terrier puppy Hermann that we could borrow as much as we wanted. An offer especially Ingeborg appreciated. They are both Brazilians, but Chris was raised in the United States. Language-wise it was therefore very easy to communicate with them, unlike with most other crews where English does not flow so easily. Chris has taken us around the shops she knows, followed me to the hairdresser to convince them how short I wanted it to be cut (!), shown us where the exquisite shops and craft outlets in the district Tambau are located! Daniel has helped us communicate with the "steel man" who has made some new brackets and chain plates to be installed on the boat. Sure, always something to improve or add to the boat! But then last Saturday Chris, Daniel and Hermann were off to new destinations and eventually Carribean like us. Maybe we will meet them again somewhere in the Caribbean if not before. We keep in touch by mail and hope it will be possible. By the way, it was Hermann who helped establish contact with the kids up in the street, too. Ingeborg and Thorstein was taking him for a walk almost daily, up the street to the train station, down to "Por do Sol", which is the name of the area where the sunset restaurants are, and back to the marina. The walk usually took around 20 minutes, but as Diane, Jamil, Diego and the others gathered around them when they came, the walks gradually took longer, and one day Ingeborg realised she had new friends. Great!
Lately there has been a lot of Brazilians on the pier. They have participated in a joint event where 60 ships have sailed the same route from Rio to Fernando de Noronha within 3 months and visited large and smaller places along the coast. For us all the Brazilian neighbors means that it is a little harder to communicate with them. Again, I wish I had been able to speak more languages!
As I mentioned before, Stein is in the US at the moment. We rented a car to take him to the airport in Recife, as we do not feel confident that we can trust a taxi to come here on a Saturday morning at 5. There is 120 km to Recife. We even went down there to retrieve the ticket the week-end before. It turns out that internet tickets are not always the most convenient, for instance when American Airlines does not accept payment by credit cards issued by other than a small number of countries, and bank employees in this region have gone on strike! As all alternative tickets cost at least 10000 NOK more we decided to go to Recife to get it... Anyway, that way we got to see the seafront of Recife, Via Boagem too! And we stopped in Olinda which is an old town with UNESCO status just outside Recife. We found a restaurant overlooking the harbor. An orchestra with steel drums and ukulele stood in a corner of the terrace creating bossa nova rhythms. Some started dancing between the tables. They do not need an excuse to swing their hips around here, and I wish I dared throw myself into it .. But I'm afraid I fall short in these surroundings. They roll their hips from they are five years old until their legs do not carry them anymore. Wonderful!
I still have not mentioned much about the work that is or should be done to the boat before we leave. Eg. that the generator was lifted out of it's space for maintenance just before Stein left. He replaced the top gasket which has been only temporarily acceptable since it was "repaired" with mouldable gasket material in Malta. As it turned out we got a larger problem: The bolts holding the top lid is screwed into the aluminum goods of the engine. With a workshop manual on the table and torque wrench in hand bolts were tightened as prescribed. When the last bolt was screwed in, it was impossible to tighten. Long before the tension had reached the table value the threads lost the grip. The aluminium must have been too hot at some point and lost it's strength. The captain eventually realised that it must be related to the second issue that has arisen: The heat exchangers in the hot water tank has corroded through so it's kaput. A few weeks ago we began to see that it was damp, just inside the entrance. But since it was still almost daily rain showers, it took time before we realised that the water did not come from outsde, but from the serge tank of the cooling water of the generator! With holes in the heat exchanger the coolant loop was under pressure from the pressurised water system. When we were crossing the Atlantic Ocean and used the generator several times a week we noticed that the cooling water seemed to decrease inexplicably .. By then we had turned off the tap water to save water and the fluid flow was probably out of the coolant loop and into the hot water tank .. We also saw that the generator was hot and stopped at one time. Thus it has been overheated! One thing leads to another, and it is not only a good idea that all systems are interconnected. Now Stein provides some threaded inserts to replace those that have been broken so let's hope we get the generator back together. Why does every small job turn into a bigger one! We can do fine without the hot water tank for now, but it'll have to be either replaced or repaired before we move towards colder areas again. I do not know if this description was very understandable, but I guess the details are not so important to others than ourselves anyway. To have said it: We will clean the hull also before we go north. We tie Sirius up to the dock here at high tide and scrub the hull at low tide. It will be exciting, since it is the first time we try this type of dry docking! But we have seen others doing it so we think it will be OK. The paint they sell here is expensive and no good, by the way. Better to wait until Trinidad says Olli and Marja on Fågelblå. There you get Seahawk with booster ... So we'll probably lift Sirius ashore for a week when we get there, both to raise the water line and to put on the new antifouling.
I have got to stop now, although I have not mentioned the election and the election campaign we have been watching. I have some movie clips I'll get posted eventually, and lots of pictures ..
Gjertrud
September 15
With a big chopping knife he cut a precise cut, first on one side, then on the other. Finally, we were going to give it a try, and honestly, I can not understand why we have not done this before! You find them everywhere along the roads selling green, fresh coconuts. 70 centavos apiece, about 35 €cents. We're a little squeamish, afraid of doing it wrong maybe. Well, we could not do it all wrong as we have seen how the others do it. And the coconut is served sliced and ready to drink with a straw. Wimpy or not, now we did it! Admittedly, one for sharing, but it was a start! We were out walking this Sunday with people from other boats. Had lunch at a local eatery and walked along the beach and looked at surfers who had great conditions in the waves. It was actually a contest today between surfers from different schools. I think it was about time, how long they stayed up on the board. Or maybe it was the style? I actually do not know, but I think they were good! One of the others in our party was Gregory from Russia. He found it was a good time to show Ingeborg and Thorstein how he and his friends spent hours on the beaches to kick / throw wet sand at each other. Of course, it ended with soaked and sandy teens, but we have the washing machine ..
But this should be about what we eat here in Brazil. And nutrition in Brazil should include lots of fruits and vegetables! 5 a day (Norwegian saying for how much fruits or vegetables you should take every day), what is that? A couple of squeezed oranges for breakfast, plus one or two bananas and we are close to five already! In addition, sliced papaya, mango, passion fruit, melon and pineapple in between as snacks. To my despair though, I found out I'm allergic to pineapple! Got a rash and itch all over my body after Ingeborg and I had shared a fresh pineapple. But it's so good! Anyway, now I can drink fresh coconut (!), fruit juices of all kinds, guarana, acerola .. I've fallen in love with the zuco graviola, graviola juice, which is milky white, sweet and good. I sucked gorgeous juices from a caju fruit one day, but the consistency of the pulp was a bit too leathery for my taste. (Yes, it's the same fruit that the cashew nuts come from). We really have to taste our way through everything!
I must admit that I pretty much make the same dishes now as I'm used to, based on ground beef or chicken fillets. The quality of meat products are great, and costs a fraction of the Norwegian price. I'm trying to supplement with some of the new, unknown, but there is much I have not yet tried to cook: root vegetables like sweet potatoes and manioc, maize, beans .. For dinner I tried serving roasted eggplants in tomato sauce the other day, but it was not entirely successful. That is, I think it was really good, but the others need getting used to it.. (And maybe the chef must improve the cooking ..) All in all I have to figure out how to prepare all these strange produce so that it will taste good. Had I only spoke Portuguese! Over by the "saxophone restaurants", I've mentioned them before, we found little bars that sell tapioca for 2-3 reais (1,5€) apiece. They are pancakes baked by manioc flour, lovely with ham and cheese, or coconut and condensed milk in it for a dessert. It looks easy enough to cook, but easy and cheap to buy at the tapioca bars, too.
Mostly we buy what we need of food here in the neighboorhood. If we need to provision more we go to Intermares which is a twenty minutes walkaway. Then they help us to a taxi back if we buy for more than 150 reais! The goods are sorted and packed in bags of their own staff and rolled out to the taxi that they have called for. We can only sit in and pay the deductible of three reais for transport! We are getting spoiled .. If I want to experience the big fruit market I go to the Mercado Central in Joao Pessoa. Big halls filled with fruits and vegetables, meat, grains and spices.
That's all for now. Now I'm going out on shopping with Chris. I will shop for exotic fruits and also provide some shoes with worn soles to the shoemaker. Yes, you can even find a shoemaker here!
Gjertrud
October 13
Another month has passed by, and we are still in Jacaré. Truly a lovely place to be! Today is "Dia de Crianza", Children's Day, so everything is closed in the city! We didn't know it, and were surprised to find empty streets on a Tuesday morning .. Well, the weather was fine and we strolled around the quiet streets for a while; Ingeborg, Thorstein and me. Our agenda had been to find an eye doctor to do a test of the vision of Ingeborg and Thorstein. I found out that glasses are really cheap here, at least compared with Norwegian prices. So if it should be needed it would be OK to organize here. Originally we had planned to leave this river by now. But since Stein was called for again by REC we found it was best to stay here where we know it is relatively safe and easy to stay. You hear different things about the various ports and I would not like to be left alone with Ingeborg and Thorstein in all of them. The school year has begun, and both Ingeborg and Thorstein have their daily sessions with the books. Right now Ingeborg is doing a test in math, by the way, and later in the week both geography and science tests are coming up. Thorstein is struggling a bit with the Norwegian language variety "Nynorsk" nowadays. He has actually not had any of it before so it's a challenge with many unfamiliar words.
It is strange how quickly one gets used to new surroundings, and how fast all that exotic stuff becomes common. When we stay so long in one place it also means that you start to know people a bit, and they know you. Ingeborg even has a flock of fans up in the street that comes and calls her out virtually every day. Everyone is a little younger than her, but find it exciting to play with a "gringa". They barely speak a few words in English and she speaks only a little Portuguese, but they learn from each other it seems. And with the help of Portuguese-English dictionary. She listens to their music, sees the dances, learns the dances. They play some soccer and UNO (card game). The rules of the card game are certainly not as strict as she is used to, but that is the same with many things in this country. At least according to Guillermo, our neighbor on the pier who is a Brazilian from Rio. "What we have to offer is liberty.." he said. "It's a wonderful country!" Such as freedom from the bus tables. No one seems to know them, not even the bus drivers ... according to Guillermo. I was waiting for the Jacaré bus one day when a woman from the neighborhood recognized me and was wondering how long I had been waiting. That way she could find out when the bus was to be expected. No wonder it is a market for "Los alternativos": Pirate taxis that pick up people from bus stops. They pull over at the bus stop, roll down the window and shout where they are going. People who don't want to wait any longer gladly accept a seat. Occasionally there are some who shout "Jacaré!" and it has actually worked out twice for me! For the same price as the bus they take you to your requested destination. All sorts of people provides a lift and all sorts of people use the services. I feel a little less touristy when I use the "alternativo", but I guess that is a bit silly..
The first week we were here we got to know quite a few people on the other boats in the marina. French, Russian, Finnish, Polish, German, Brazilian. Twice we have had barbecue parties by the bar which is a good way to meet and get to know people. One of the fanciest boats that were here when we arrived was a fifty-something-foot long French, aluminium yacht. Red and shiny, a real jewel. Some of us imagined the crew to be a lineup including pretty bikini girls with big hats.. One day the owner came on board along with two comrades who were to participate on the journey to the south. They intend to go to Antarctica, hoping to set a record as the oldest crew that has sailed to this continent! Just listen: The owner is almost 70, the second in command is nearly 80 and the youngest is a partly retired companion of nearly 60. It had not been settled completely that they are going all the way to Antarctica yet, but Cape Horn was for sure. In addition to sailing, they were mountain climbers all of them, and still active! The owner, Jean Pierre, has sailed the Norwegian coast all the way to Svalbard, so he knows what he's up to. He was formerly general director of the French Space Agency by the way, and had thus been commanding chief for the plant for launching Ariadne rockets in Kourou, French Guiana. He kindly provided us with us a greeting to Madeleine, who runs the restaurant at Kourou. I think we'll have to stop by!
Until they went a week ago, we spent a lot of time with Chris and Daniel who were here at the edge of the pier in their steel boat Irun. They brought with them the Yorkshire Terrier puppy Hermann that we could borrow as much as we wanted. An offer especially Ingeborg appreciated. They are both Brazilians, but Chris was raised in the United States. Language-wise it was therefore very easy to communicate with them, unlike with most other crews where English does not flow so easily. Chris has taken us around the shops she knows, followed me to the hairdresser to convince them how short I wanted it to be cut (!), shown us where the exquisite shops and craft outlets in the district Tambau are located! Daniel has helped us communicate with the "steel man" who has made some new brackets and chain plates to be installed on the boat. Sure, always something to improve or add to the boat! But then last Saturday Chris, Daniel and Hermann were off to new destinations and eventually Carribean like us. Maybe we will meet them again somewhere in the Caribbean if not before. We keep in touch by mail and hope it will be possible. By the way, it was Hermann who helped establish contact with the kids up in the street, too. Ingeborg and Thorstein was taking him for a walk almost daily, up the street to the train station, down to "Por do Sol", which is the name of the area where the sunset restaurants are, and back to the marina. The walk usually took around 20 minutes, but as Diane, Jamil, Diego and the others gathered around them when they came, the walks gradually took longer, and one day Ingeborg realised she had new friends. Great!
Lately there has been a lot of Brazilians on the pier. They have participated in a joint event where 60 ships have sailed the same route from Rio to Fernando de Noronha within 3 months and visited large and smaller places along the coast. For us all the Brazilian neighbors means that it is a little harder to communicate with them. Again, I wish I had been able to speak more languages!
As I mentioned before, Stein is in the US at the moment. We rented a car to take him to the airport in Recife, as we do not feel confident that we can trust a taxi to come here on a Saturday morning at 5. There is 120 km to Recife. We even went down there to retrieve the ticket the week-end before. It turns out that internet tickets are not always the most convenient, for instance when American Airlines does not accept payment by credit cards issued by other than a small number of countries, and bank employees in this region have gone on strike! As all alternative tickets cost at least 10000 NOK more we decided to go to Recife to get it... Anyway, that way we got to see the seafront of Recife, Via Boagem too! And we stopped in Olinda which is an old town with UNESCO status just outside Recife. We found a restaurant overlooking the harbor. An orchestra with steel drums and ukulele stood in a corner of the terrace creating bossa nova rhythms. Some started dancing between the tables. They do not need an excuse to swing their hips around here, and I wish I dared throw myself into it .. But I'm afraid I fall short in these surroundings. They roll their hips from they are five years old until their legs do not carry them anymore. Wonderful!
I still have not mentioned much about the work that is or should be done to the boat before we leave. Eg. that the generator was lifted out of it's space for maintenance just before Stein left. He replaced the top gasket which has been only temporarily acceptable since it was "repaired" with mouldable gasket material in Malta. As it turned out we got a larger problem: The bolts holding the top lid is screwed into the aluminum goods of the engine. With a workshop manual on the table and torque wrench in hand bolts were tightened as prescribed. When the last bolt was screwed in, it was impossible to tighten. Long before the tension had reached the table value the threads lost the grip. The aluminium must have been too hot at some point and lost it's strength. The captain eventually realised that it must be related to the second issue that has arisen: The heat exchangers in the hot water tank has corroded through so it's kaput. A few weeks ago we began to see that it was damp, just inside the entrance. But since it was still almost daily rain showers, it took time before we realised that the water did not come from outsde, but from the serge tank of the cooling water of the generator! With holes in the heat exchanger the coolant loop was under pressure from the pressurised water system. When we were crossing the Atlantic Ocean and used the generator several times a week we noticed that the cooling water seemed to decrease inexplicably .. By then we had turned off the tap water to save water and the fluid flow was probably out of the coolant loop and into the hot water tank .. We also saw that the generator was hot and stopped at one time. Thus it has been overheated! One thing leads to another, and it is not only a good idea that all systems are interconnected. Now Stein provides some threaded inserts to replace those that have been broken so let's hope we get the generator back together. Why does every small job turn into a bigger one! We can do fine without the hot water tank for now, but it'll have to be either replaced or repaired before we move towards colder areas again. I do not know if this description was very understandable, but I guess the details are not so important to others than ourselves anyway. To have said it: We will clean the hull also before we go north. We tie Sirius up to the dock here at high tide and scrub the hull at low tide. It will be exciting, since it is the first time we try this type of dry docking! But we have seen others doing it so we think it will be OK. The paint they sell here is expensive and no good, by the way. Better to wait until Trinidad says Olli and Marja on Fågelblå. There you get Seahawk with booster ... So we'll probably lift Sirius ashore for a week when we get there, both to raise the water line and to put on the new antifouling.
I have got to stop now, although I have not mentioned the election and the election campaign we have been watching. I have some movie clips I'll get posted eventually, and lots of pictures ..
Gjertrud
fredag 20. august 2010
Rio Paraiba, Brazil!
Finally, we made it!
We had a good breeze ever since crossing the Equator, and made the last part of the crossing in just one week! It really felt good when we could sense the smell of the tropics! Green, green landscape, other boats, people.. There is a substantial tide here, and we had to time our entrance to the river accordingly. 2,4m tidal difference and a shallow river. We made it in time for the first high tide and didn't have to wait. Some hours more or less shouldn't matter after a month at sea, but at the time it felt like it did! Well, now we are here in Jacare Yacht Marina, a small marina on the riverbank of Rio Paraiba. The surroundings are Jacare, a small fishermans village, restaurants and bars at Praia do Jacare and Jacare Marina Club, a motor boat club, on the other side. It's not a very posh neighboorhood, but quite nice and safe it seems.
On Tuesday we made it to Cabedelo where the immigration authorities, customs and harbour offices are located. We took the train from Jacare, and saw how they are handling the security at the trains around here. In every train station and on every wagon of the train there were armed guards watching over us. Besides obtaining safety for the passengers they have seemed to scare potential taggers from decorating the walls: The equipment was worn, but still in it's original colours.. We were not quite sure about how to find the offices in the harbour. Thanks to a Brazilian guy, Luis, who we met on the train, we found the offices at once. Without his guidance I'm afraid we could have spent hours trying to find them.. Not many people speak English here and there are not many signs showing directions in the streets. Anyway, the formalities were no problem and we are now legally in the country for three months.
At sunset the restaurants and bars in Praia do Jacare are filled with people who come to see the sunset and to watch the saxophonist playing Ravels Bolero in his boat. He has done so every sunset for the last 10 years or so, they say.. We went there last Sunday for a nice meal and to experience this institution. Lots of people try to make money on this happening, so we only hope the saxophonist gets his fair share!
One night we were afraid we were observing the start of a major forest fire! Across the river we could see the flames spreading over quite a large area. The smell of burnt vegetation was evident the next morning, but we couldn't see any more fire. As it turned out it is the start of the sugar harvest! The initial step of the process is to set fire to the leaves, and this is what we saw! I guess they had it all under control..
We have also visited Joao Pessoa one day. This is the main city of the area and capital of Paraiba state. There is so much to see and we have only just started. Tomorrow we plan to attend to an excursion to a cachaça distillery in Areia a city, 80 km inland from here.
That's all for now!
Gjertrud
We had a good breeze ever since crossing the Equator, and made the last part of the crossing in just one week! It really felt good when we could sense the smell of the tropics! Green, green landscape, other boats, people.. There is a substantial tide here, and we had to time our entrance to the river accordingly. 2,4m tidal difference and a shallow river. We made it in time for the first high tide and didn't have to wait. Some hours more or less shouldn't matter after a month at sea, but at the time it felt like it did! Well, now we are here in Jacare Yacht Marina, a small marina on the riverbank of Rio Paraiba. The surroundings are Jacare, a small fishermans village, restaurants and bars at Praia do Jacare and Jacare Marina Club, a motor boat club, on the other side. It's not a very posh neighboorhood, but quite nice and safe it seems.
On Tuesday we made it to Cabedelo where the immigration authorities, customs and harbour offices are located. We took the train from Jacare, and saw how they are handling the security at the trains around here. In every train station and on every wagon of the train there were armed guards watching over us. Besides obtaining safety for the passengers they have seemed to scare potential taggers from decorating the walls: The equipment was worn, but still in it's original colours.. We were not quite sure about how to find the offices in the harbour. Thanks to a Brazilian guy, Luis, who we met on the train, we found the offices at once. Without his guidance I'm afraid we could have spent hours trying to find them.. Not many people speak English here and there are not many signs showing directions in the streets. Anyway, the formalities were no problem and we are now legally in the country for three months.
At sunset the restaurants and bars in Praia do Jacare are filled with people who come to see the sunset and to watch the saxophonist playing Ravels Bolero in his boat. He has done so every sunset for the last 10 years or so, they say.. We went there last Sunday for a nice meal and to experience this institution. Lots of people try to make money on this happening, so we only hope the saxophonist gets his fair share!
One night we were afraid we were observing the start of a major forest fire! Across the river we could see the flames spreading over quite a large area. The smell of burnt vegetation was evident the next morning, but we couldn't see any more fire. As it turned out it is the start of the sugar harvest! The initial step of the process is to set fire to the leaves, and this is what we saw! I guess they had it all under control..
We have also visited Joao Pessoa one day. This is the main city of the area and capital of Paraiba state. There is so much to see and we have only just started. Tomorrow we plan to attend to an excursion to a cachaça distillery in Areia a city, 80 km inland from here.
That's all for now!
Gjertrud
lørdag 7. august 2010
We have crossed the Equator!
It has taken us another two weeks before we could finally cross the Equator. The course we had laid out for the passage turned out not to be a good one.A short while after I wrote the last report we started to realise that we were being taken west by some quite strong currents. And the boat would hardly be moved by the wind! During our short swim in the Doldrums we had seen some nasty looking organisms clinging onto the hull. They were reddish and somewhat jellyish, different from the ones we have had before. Could it be these that were dragging us this much? Anyway, we decided to try and scrape it off in order to gain some more speed. This time we used metal scrapes to be efficient. During a couple of hours we had done quite a lot and decided to see if things had changed. Well, it hadn’t changed much so we needed to do something drastic if we wanted to reach the destination we had chosen. After careful studies of the pilot charts, and an old map showing the routes of the sailing merchant ships we realised we needed to go East in order to reach Brazil! There we could catch some of the southgoing currents that could carry us out of the NW currents that were effectively hindering us where we were. So we made a 300 nm detour against Africa before heading south again. And alas! Here we are, south of Equator, heading straight towards Cabedelo in Brazil. Actually, we are now aware of the powers of the NW going currents, and try to keep as far south as we can to have some margin in case the wind dies or something changes unfavorably. There seems to be no problem to get back north again in these waters!
Ours is gonna be one of the very slow Atlantic crossings, but were fine! We have water and food, and yesterday we even catched our first dorado! A small one, 3,7 kilos, but perfect for the celebration of the Equator crossing! Miss Neptun even paid us a visit, so our crossing must havs been registered with the Master of the Ocean!
So long then, until Brazil!
Gjertrud
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