4th July 2005, Fortaleza

Natal is a miserable sort of a city and the people are not to be trusted; they robbed us both legally and illegally. The only safe anchorage is off the yacht club, but they charge an exorbitant fee for landing the dinghy and for filling the water tanks they charge the price of bottled mineral water! We attempted to bypass the club and remain independent of them, but they have an arrangement with the police which makes it virtually impossible to complete our port entry or exit formalities without their cooperation!

A couple of days after arriving in Natal we awoke one morning to find our inflatable dinghy missing. It had been tied securely along side us, but in such a way that a stealthy fisherman could quite easily uncleat it and tow it away, without having to step on deck and that is clearly what had occurred during the night. Angrily looking all around with binoculars I spotted it on the far side of the river, amongst the mangroves. After launching our solid dinghy, I rowed the half mile or so to retrieve it. It was tied to a tree at the high water mark, but unfortunately our almost new outboard was missing. What a blow! The thief obviously fancied the engine but rejected the dinghy....the cheek of it! Never mind, our old Mercury is in running condition again after having it rebuilt in Jacare for a very small price, so we are not outboard less. We spent the next two days visiting the police and talking to fishermen, even offerring a reward for its return, but to no avail. From now on, at night, we tie the dinghy alongside, but lift it up clear of the water on a halyard, so that it can not be easily taken. We live and learn.

A couple of nights later, on spring tides, the wind picked up and we were woken by a bang, a scrape and by Merlin healing over. The mooring of a small yacht to windward of us had parted, the yacht hitting us. As she swept past on the current, I got a rope aboard and secured her behind us. Luckily, there was no damage to either boat and the owner reclaimed her the next day. I actually thought that the club might waive some of their fees after we had helped them out, but no such luck.

I think I must say something a little more positive now, or you'll think that we're hating it here and we're not. All along this coast the widespread use of sail and oar never ceases to impress me, and ashore donkey carts and bicycles are the normal transport for the poor. Far out to sea, say 20 miles out, we constantly dodge around 'Jangadas' out fishing. These are flat bottomed skiffs with so little freeboard that the deck is constantly awash and consequently the men have to stand, one of them steering with an oar, while the flimsy craft dances along. The rig is set on an unstayed mast with a characteristic bend aft towards the top so that the sail is almost the shape of a gaff mainsail. At night their numbers seem to multiply, so that it's sometimes difficult to pick a passage safely through them. As they only show an all round white light, it's impossible to judge their course, especially as they alter course so regularly, on a whim. One night, a fishing boat crossed in front of us so closely that even in the darkness we could clearly see the boat, not just the light. He seemed to be dallying right under our bow. Not knowing which way he might turn next, it was futile for us to alter course, being so much less maneuverable than him, especially as we were with twin running genoas boomed out to either side. Bela grabbed the fog horn from below and sounded it; long and loud. He slipped away to one side...

In Fortaleza, where we are now, there is the choice to anchor inside the harbour wall, close to a beach with palm trees growing on it, or to enter the marina by a large hotel where security guards patrol. My normal inclination would be to anchor by the beach and the trees, but I'm learning that in Brazil it often simply isn't safe to do that. The anchorage in Fortaleza is close to a rather poor and notoriously violent area of the docks. Locals as well as other yachtsmen have advised us not the stay there. So here we are in the marina! Adam is loving it. He plays in the swimming pool and there is a man dressed up as a clown who organizes kids games every afternoon. Also, Karina, Adams friend is here.

Fortaleza is a major resort city, so we were surprised by the rather run down and dirty appearance of the city centre. In Brazil, the people are either rich or poor. The poor are very poor and live in hovels. The well off, or rich, live in apartments for one reason; security. Houses are too difficult to make secure. All apartments have steel barricades and security men guarding the entrance. A typical apartment has separate maids quarters! The rich inhabitants of these fortresses do their shopping in super modern shopping centers, again behind a security screen, of course traveling by car and parking within the security patrolled environment. So the old, historic city centers have been abandoned to the riff raff! Sad really.

We plan to make just two or three more stops in Brazil, before pushing off towards French Guyana in a month or so. We had planned to enter the Amazon delta, but after studying the chart showing the entrance to the River Para, the main channel, we've decided to probably give it a miss. It looks like a very difficult entrance to make; strong currents and unmarked channels to negotiate passing between sandbanks ten miles off shore. We've found that the Brazilian charts are inaccurate and the light houses are usually not visible, or if they are, then often they are in the wrong place, so we will limit ourselves only to harbours with straight forward entrances.

Old people are conspicuous by their absence in Brazil. The environment here is very aggressive; Days of torrential rain followed by bursts of intense, hot, sunshine. Everyone we know, including ourselves, has spent much more time than usual being ill. While we were at Jacare, everyone one the anchorage came down with a very nasty flue. An elderly German yachtsman was even admitted to hospital with it! Since yesterday, Adam has caught my cold and is running a moderate temperature. So the result is....no old people. In the tropics, I think islands, with their plentiful supply of sea air, are healthier places than the mainland.