Here on the Rio Paraiba we feel very safe—we’re about four miles up the river past Jacare and just before Joao Pessoa. We took the tender to shore and then took a taxi to Joao Pessoa where we stopped at a big hotel (Tropicana) on the beach in the hopes that we would find someone who spoke English. We had only a little bit of luck there so struck out by ourselves. […]
We are still anchored in the river near Jaoa Pessoa, which (I forgot to tell you) is the easternmost city of the Americas, both North and South. Late this morning, Grant, Phil and Will went to town and returned about 5PM—blessed quiet here on Indigo! Actually they went to several towns, just looking around and checking out the babes on the beach. More bikinis and thongs, but more cute girls too. […]
We left the river this morning and headed out. On the way, we went fishing (trolling) but no luck at all. It was one of those lazy days of just going along in the ocean—the coast is beautiful—and around sunset, we go to where we wanted to be. The only problem was that there was a huge sandbank protecting the entry to the area where we wanted to anchor. […]
Today we went to Olinda, which is about a 40 minute drive from here and one of the closest towns. We had a kind of bad experience getting there—first, we took the tender to a very small marina just a short distance away from the boat where we were supposed to meet a taxi. There was obviously some confusion, but finally—and I do mean finally—two guys in a beat-up van showed up to take us to the town. […]
This morning, we had breakfast on the boat with the Dutch hotel owner and two of the three archaeologists I referred to in yesterday’s entry and they then took us on a tour of the fort after explaining what they are doing. The boys seemed interested but they have both been to the fort in St. Augustine and this was much more basic and not as developed. […]
Well, we are still here at Itamaraca and we all agree it is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. Phil and the boys and I set off on a tender wide around the island of Itamaraca and you know Phil, we had to go fast and we had to go all the way around, no matter how rough it was. It wasn’t like seasick rough or even slightly dangerous, but it was a lot of bouncing and hitting. But the coast was beautiful and we were glad we had done it. […]
It’s a quiet morning here—still beautiful, but a little overcast. Grant and Will are in the water cleaning the waterline of the boat and checking stuff underwater. Grant then worked in the engine room with Roddy almost all day. Phil went to the beach and met with Luigi, the Italian architect, who lives here six months of the year. I got to stay on the boat reading. […]
Grant worked with Roddy all day and Will worked with Grant. It’s a cloudy dreary day—the first real one here—so it was a good day for working on the boat. Late in the afternoon, the crew took Will and Grant ashore to play rugby in the sand; they all came back exhausted. Phil spent the day with Luigi who introduced him to John Pollok, who is the retired head of the police in Recife, near here. […]
Today is bacon and eggs for breakfast day. We all had lunch down at the beach at the “restaurant” we went to a few days ago. It was a big group with the crew, Luigi and his girlfriend. There was also a big party going on there so we ate on the sand on plastic chairs pulled around makeshift tables. But it made it more fun and the fish was great. Later the boys went wake-boarding with Captain Toby and Will learned more about how to operate the boat and Grant learned more about towing a wake-boarder. […]
We all slept a little late today—Will Proctor is the early riser among us. Our plan was to leave the area today about 1PM and we were armed with suggestions from John and Luigi but the boat had other ideas. After a short voyage, we had to come back because the engines were overheating. You boat owners know about that kind of thing! […]