SOUTH AMERICA

Northern Brazil, French Guyana, Surinam and Trinidad

 

Trinidad, May 27, 2007 (edited 02-01-2021)

 

For the photo album go to: SOUTH AMERICA

 

To-day is Pentecost Sunday or Whitsunday, the spirit moves me. Earlier, at 8 o'clock mass, it was the Holy Spirit, now Black Label rum.

I learnt that the song from the fifties "Drinking Rum and Coco Cola" is from right here. "Going down to Point Cumola" is just down the road.

 

On the 25th of April, Fleetwood made landfall in Brazil after crossing the South Atlantic Ocean, at Cabedelo on the Paraiba River. At daylight I moved further up the river to Praya de Jacare. This is where most of the cruisers put the hook down. My anchorage was at 7.02.425 N 3.51.435 W

Jacare is a spot where people from the nearby bigger city, Joao Pessao, come for the evening or the weekend to relax and watch the sunset at any of the about 6 different riverside restaurants. There is a saxophone player who plays from a small boat, at sunset time and this is amplified to all the restaurants, with their decks extended over the river's edge. It is always the same routine, it starts with a march from someone like Purcell, then "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel, then a Christmas Song "Oh, come let us adore Him"...and last Ave Maria. After that each individual restaurant has a live band or plays records at a deafening rate. Not a nice quiet anchorage.

A commuter train runs along the river from the mouth, at Cabedelo, to Joao Pessao.  The first morning Rene, A Dutch-Kiwi, of "Takaihau" accompanied me to Cabedelo to show me the four or more different offices to check in with. 

Joao Pessao is one of the oldest settlements in South America. But it has been cut off from continuing its initial growth by the limited depth of the Paraiba River.

It has some magnificent remnants of the 16th and 17th century but unfortunately much of the colonial period's structures have been destroyed or squeezed in between more recent structures.  The cathedral of Sao Francisco, commenced construction in 1589, has been turned into a national museum. It has magnificent wood carvings and the style of architecture is similar to what you see of the San Franciscan missions on the California Camino Real. Except that this church and monastery are much larger and have gone through a few more recent upgrade cycles.

 

I had visited Southern Brazil in 2002. At that time, I observed how badly the Brazilians dress. Nothing has changed; tight stretch material over bad bodies, non-matching combinations. But what they lack in dress style is more than made up in their kindness and hospitality.

It was time to move on, on May 1st “Fleetwood” headed south and arrived at Fortaleza on May 4th. The Marina Hotel has a med style moorage marina right at the edge of down town Fortaleza.

It has free wireless internet, good showers and a very nice swimming pool. To the south of the city there are high rise hotels and condominiums all along the oceanfront. And it has become a popular vacation destination for European tourists.

I filled my fuel tank with the exorbitant volume of 10 gallons of diesel, figuring I’d be motoring through the doldrums when crossing the equator. It turned out that there are no doldrums close to the South American shore, after all.

The 6th. was my last day in Brazil and the 1000 sea miles to the Iles du Salut in French Guyana took a week to sail with the benefit of the strong current.

I crossed the equator on the 9th of May. That was the 4th crossing of the equator, on this journey and, realistically, most likely the last time in my life time, by sail boat. By the time I complete my voyage via North Europe, the Med and back to the West Coast I’ll be close to 80.

The famous “Devil’s Island” of the book and movie “Papillon” is part of the three islands of Iles du Salut.  As it turns out Devils Island, Ile Diablo, never had a prison on it. The prison was on Ile Royale. The only prisoner ever kept on Devil’s Island was Alfred Dreyfus, for 15 years wrongly accused of treason around the turn of the 19th century and rehabilitated by amongst others, the famous letter to the editor of a leading Paris newspaper by Emile Zola: “J’accuse!”

I also found out, in visiting the very interesting museum that “Papillon” never escaped from any of these islands but rather from a prison on the Guyana main land at Cayenne.

 

I anchored at 5.17 N 52.35.300 W on Ile Royale. The islands reminded me of the Marquesas, very quiet and laid back, no cars, very tropical. The woods team with monkeys, pheasants, peacocks, Iguanas and a rabbit like rodent called “Agouti”. It has a head like a rabbit and It hops around like a rabbit; best thing is to take a look at the photo album. It is supposed to be a Creole delicacy. They are also found here in Trinidad. There was no place to check into, so, I have no proof in my passport that I was ever in French Guyana.

A day is all it takes to see Ile Royale, I left on the afternoon of the 15th for the 170 miles to Paramaribo up the Surinam River in the former Dutch Guyana. I arrived there the evening of May 16th. 

It is very easy to get set north of your destination with the strong current. It happened to me both aiming for Ile Royale and the mouth of the Surinam River. You need to aim south of your target by anywhere from 20 to 40 degrees. I had 150-mile days to Ile Royale and 160 to Surinam, from Surinam to Trinidad I sailed 162 miles days for a 36-hour period. I saw the GPS hit 10 ½ knots over the bottom.

That would have been as much as 4 knots of favorable current.

The fishing is also very good in these shallow waters. One morning I collected 17 two-inch long flying fish from the deck, for the breakfast fry. Usually, I’d be lucky to find two or three of more than 1 ½ inches in length.

I thoroughly enjoyed Surinam. I would have stayed longer had it not been that I became very nervous about the anchoring conditions.

The tide turns every 6 hours and the second morning I had a nasty wrap of the anchor rode around the keel when the tide turned and it pulled the heavy plow anchor up and I just missed a nasty collision with a nearby pier, by inches.

I had had a similar experience on the river at Praya do Jacare. When I came back from clearing in “Fleetwood” was not at its last anchoring spot. Fortunately, fellow French/German cruisers had put another anchor on “Fleetwood”. In the turning of the tide the chain had become entangled in the Danforth blades. Jean Pierre suggested I anchor from the stern. This did help from a wrap around the keel. I also changed to my heavier plow anchor. But on the Surinam River the current ran much stronger and put too much strain on the transom hung rudder, when I streamed the anchor rode from the stern. In retrospect I feel that I could have avoided much of the problem by reducing my rope line scope and relying on the 30 plus feet of chain in these shallow waters.

The best place to anchor, to make your entry in town, is at the Pilot Station.  I anchored at 5.59 N 55.15.445 W. For a longer than a few days stay it is best to move to the town of Domburg, about another 8 to 10 miles up the river, which has a regular marina.  I was told to get a visa, when I cleared in with the “vreemdelingen politie” (foreigner police). But because I was leaving that same day, I managed to have them dispense with the visa and I have since been told that a Visa is only needed when staying more than a week. The people at the Pilot Station can give you directions.

There is much to see and do right there on the river bank. There are restaurants, shops, internet cafes and a flower market. Further up the river are the government buildings, the old fort “Zeelandia” and the president’s palace.

Paramaribo is one of the few wellpreserved cities of the colonial period that I have seen on this two-year voyage. There are no high-rise buildings crowding out the traditional architecture. Most of the buildings have a stone foundation, stone stoops with porches and white clapboard sidings and black wooden shutters.

The downtown cathedral of Peter and Paul is the size and shape of a gothic European church, with tall steeples but it is built entirely from tropical hardwoods.

 

The population is made up from African slave descendants contract laborers that were brought in after abolition from Java and India. These two latter groups have maintained their traditions and language and you can sample their food at restaurants and food courts and listen to their music on a number of radio stations. 

On May 18th I pulled the anchor during slack water and arrived in Trinidad the morning of the 22nd of May.

I have not quite decided what to think of my new environment. The cruising crowd is quite different from what I have been used to these two years. The Americans and Canadians are by far in the majority. Many of the very large and expensive boats here probably never venture much beyond these islands. The attitude of some of the Trinidadians is a bit surly.” I am doing you a big favor to wait on you”. But I may change my opinion yet. There is much to do and see here.

I am moored, med style in the Power Boat Marina. Two evenings ago, I went on a tour to see the Leather Back turtles lay their eggs. That was an amazing experience to see these six-foot long mothers dig in and pop out their eggs.

It’s now the 30th of May and I will be taking off for Puerto Rico and Norfolk, Va., as soon as I manage to post this to the web site. Last evening, I had an exceptional good experience in seeing the Trinidad/Tobago national bird, the Scarlet Ibis in the Caroni Swamp. An open skiff with a young tour guide took us through the mangrove canals. We saw several kinds of Herons, Cormorants, a close look at a Tree Boa snake all curled up on a branch over the water. Then towards dusk we watched from a safe distance the Scarlet Ibis come in pairs and flocks to roost at a nearby island. The weather was perfect and the, almost full, moon came out by the time we were on our way back. The bright deep red of these birds is hard to describe. The photo album will give you a picture of it. These Ibis start their lives out as White Ibis but through their diet of tree crabs the Karotine changes their entire plumage and legs and beaks to a bright red.

I splurged on duty free Black Label rum. A 1 ¾ liter jug costs about US$8 which is less than what you pay for a fifth with the excise taxes in. You need to show your departure documents.

 

The next edition should come from home shores and then you get a break when I will be visiting family and friends on the West Coast during July and August.