can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

American Spirit II - Day 417; We Tie Up at the Most Dangerous Marina We've Seen on Our Trip So Far;;Clearing In is Arduous; and We Spend Our First Full Day in Recife, Brazil; Friday, February 27, 2015



One year ago toad:

"Day 55; Mike Settles in & Getting Ready for our Longest Leg; Thursday, February 27, 2014. The sailboat anchored behind us woke us up at 6:30 AM because they thought their bow anchor was under our boat. It wasn't, they pulled it up 10 feet from our transom. This sailboat was not part of our rally but was headed for the Marquesas, where we will be going in 3 days. We'll see them again.

**********************************

Up at 6:45 AM. Turned on our VHF radio and navigation so that Civetta II could see where we were and call us. I called Civetta II at 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM, but they did not answer my call. Who's on radio watch, Vlado?

Breakfast was at 8:15 AM and consisted of bacon; eggs cooked in bacon fat (a Joel favorite); chilled guava; and brown bread...for Joel and me. Jeanine had an orange, guava and 2 bacon. Some rain clouds were threatening, then finally hit us. We decide to wait going in to the marina until the rain and more importantly the wind, dies down. We call the marina on our VHF radio, but no one answers. Why? Because, we find out later, they don't have a VHF radio to answer us with. That's a first. Joel then calls the Marinapark Hotel, with the phone number in my cruising guide, at 9:10 AM. He gets an English speaking person, who tells him that 'Armando' will be at the marina in an hour. This is the same Armando that Folie a Deux said good things about. That he was very helpful; and could be communicated with in Spanish. She also gives us Armando's cell phone number. We call him at 10:15 AM, and he answers the phone. However, he doesn't speak a word of English; and none of us speak Portuguese or Spanish. So he will be of no help when we try to tie up in the marina. We talk about blowing up the dingy and doing a reconnaissance before taking the boat into the narrow marina area. We ultimately decide against this, and decide to take the boat in and do a reconnaissance with it. We can always come back to the anchorage and anchor again, then take the dingy in. While we're waiting Joel dismantles the hydro generator and ties it to the transom. We know the dock we'll be med-mooring to is dangerous, as it put a hole in Folie a Deux's hull and punctured their dingy. We also inflate our four fenders and attach two 40 foot stern lines to our transom.

Civetta II calls us on the VHF radio channel 72 at 9:14 AM. They're 1 1/2 hours away from us. From 9:23 AM to 9:53 AM Joel and I load 6 jerry cans of diesel, 30 gallons, into our main tank. At 9:55 AM Joel orders two new bilge pump float switches and a coffee mug from West Marine, that Heidi will pick up and bring with her when she leaves Saturday heading to us.

Civetta II anchors near us at 10:40 AM. In the driving rain.

At about 11:00 AM we weigh anchor and head to the marina, about 100 yards away. As we enter the marina we are astounded by what we see. Half way down the string of mostly sailboats med-moored to a dock, we see that a sailboat has a line from its bow all the way across the channel and is tied up on a breakwater. If we'd tried to come into the marina at night we would have run over this rope, probably fouling our propeller or worse. At any rate, we drop our anchor and then I throttle up the engine in reverse, heading toward the steel floating dock. Joel tell me to accelerate so I can keep steerage in the wind which is trying to blow us from right to left. I do so, but its a little unnerving. Med-mooring is something that is done in Europe and the Mediterranean almost exclusively, but never done in America. We have slips, where you tie up to 4 posts dredged and pounded into the bottom; attached to a dock. Med-mooring is cheaper construction-wise; and you can fit more boats into a med-moor marina that one with standard slips. Since Armando is not at the dock to help take our lines, Joel lassoes two cleats; and we pull our boat closer. We're staying at least 10 feet off of the steel, sectional pontoon docks with large pilings in front of them and steel bands around the 3 foot in diameter pilings. It looks like a piece of junk. The dock. I've never seen a dock in so much disrepair in our travels around the world. Nothing else comes even close. It'd be condemned in the US. If you tie your transom too close to the steel, floating dock, when the tide goes down your boat will drift closer to the dock, and the dock will than damage your boat. Severely. I mean so severely you could sink. That's how dangerous this dock is. We then call Civetta II and tell them to tie up next to us. They do so at 11:50 AM. They then blow up their dingy and we tie it on our port side and rear of our boat. We will use the dingy to transport ourselves from our boats to the dock. Its the only safe way to do it. Cumbersome, and wet. But at least its safe.

The floating, steel pontoon dock makes a lot of noise. Like metal on metal; like a car crashing sometimes; like someone pounding a steel plate on the 'Gong Show.' With a spring sounding every now and then. The dock is made up of 14 separate steel pontoons, each about 15 feet by 7 feet, with 6-12 inches separating each pontoon. If you stiop your foot into the gap between the pontoons, you could break your leg. And the steel pontoons and our boats are in a constant state of movement. All the time. Its very unnerving; and amazing. Instead of a name of 'Marinapark Marina,' it should be called 'Marina Junk Marina.' I'm not kidding. But its better (we hope) than anchoring out. At least while being tied to the dock we have power to charge our batteries.

At 1:15 PM Vlado from Civetta II and I head out in a taxi to clear into Fortaleza. Each new state we enter into in Brazil we have to clear 'nationally' into. Like leaving Florida and clearing into Georgia. A less arduous clear-in than an international clearance. As we're walking thru the hotel to get a taxi parked out front a staff member from the sailing vessel Argo, anchored outside the marina, tell us that Fortaleza is not safe and that we should take a taxi everywhere we go and not walk anywhere. My Brazilian cruising guide says the same thing. That because of a large number of younger people living in Fortaleza it has more crime than most places. Our first stop is to the Federal Police office; also called Immigration. Then we head to the Port Captain's office. There we are put thru the mill on clearing in. It takes an hour, and at one point I don't think that Vlado is going to be allowed to clear in because he is missing one piece of paperwork. But because I am there and have that piece of paperwork, after he sees what it looks like, he goes thru his valise and finds the right paper. Because the person cleaning us in doesn't speak a word of English, Vlado and him are trying to communicate in Italian, which is similar to Portuguese. But its a slow process. As we're clearing in I look out an open window and can see and smell raw sewage running down the curb outside the office we're in. A really bad smell.

After we finish clearing in, we head to a MacDonald's. We stop and have a small lunch. The MacDonald's is unique in that it is outside. I mean ALL outside. There is no glass windows or doors. You just walk up to it from the sidewalk, off the curb. Its all outside. No drive in, of course. Amazing.

We're back at the boat at 3:45 PM; then put on our swim suits and head for the pool area. Its a fresh water pool, very, very large; and with an artistic shape and a wooden walking bridge going over part of it. And a water fall to stand under and get a massage from. Very nice. We swim, then shower, then some internet. A couple of young ladies at the pool are wearing Brazilian swim suits. I'm going to call them 'G String' swimsuits. The bottoms at least. Joel says people in St. Petersburg wore swim suits like that when he was young. They didn't in Chicago, where I grew up. At least at the beaches I went to. I head back to the boat and from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM we host a cocktail party on our boat. Jack and Vlado from Civetta II join us; along with Meagan and Erik from a boat next to us not in the rally. The young couple are boat-sitting the boat next to us; are from Minnesota; and are leaving for home via an air plane March 4.

Civetta II and us head to the hotel at the marina and have a buffet for dinner. A very good salad, entrees, and dessert.

By 8:30 PM we're back on the boat. I'm in bed soon, after filling out a dozen post cards. Joel and Jeanine follow me to bed later, time unknown.

Brian Fox

Previous | Next