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American Spirit II - Day 410; We Clear In To Recife; Merlyn of Poole Joins us Later in the Day; and American Spirit II Hosts a Dinner Party for 9; Friday, February 20, 2015



One year ago today:



There is nothing to put here because I can't find 'February 20, 2014.' It appears I left the date off my log for that day. I'll have to find and fix that problem later.



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I start a new log book today. My 7th one. The log books I use to make notes during the day to collect information I type in my log later are bought from Staples, are 5.5" x 4.25" in size; and have 200 lined pages in them. So being my 7th book, I've already used 1,200 pages of notes to write my 410 logs. That's 3 pages or 6 sides of paper per day.



Up at 6:30 AM. I guess because I went to bed so early last night. Joel sees that I'm up and gets up himself when he sees me making coffee. The tide is going out, strongly. By 'strongly' I mean that the tide moves at 4-5 knots flooding and ebbing in Recife. Wow! Its like we're back in the Tuomotos Atolls in French Polynesia.



At 7:00 AM I call Civetta II on the VHF radio and suggest that later in the afternoon we move to the other yacht club, the Cabanga Iate Clube. That club is the premier marina in Recife and has two swim pools to boot. The Cabanga is only 1 mile away but can only be entered at high tide.



At 8:00 AM I call the Pernambuco Iate Clube and Port Control, with negative results.



Breakfast at 8:00 AM consists of bacon; eggs; potato; chilled mandarin oranges; and brown bread. Jeanine is sleeping in, so she'll eat later.



Joel and I inflate the dingy; and at 9:00 AM leave the boat. Our first stop is a French sailboat next to us, where we talk to a lady on board named Nora. She tells us where to go to clear in to Recife. I have a book that tells us where to go, but having her confirm it is good. She also says that there is a water taxi to the north that will take us across the channel to the city, where we can then check in. We're not going that route and will be getting a 'land' taxi to make our rounds.



With the tide coming in Civetta II is turned around 180 degrees and is so close to the dock now that they put two lines on the dock and can step onto the dock. Vlado checks with the marina manager and is told that the cost for being on a mooring buoy is 30 Real ($10.59) per day and on the dock using their power is 60 Real ($21.70) per day. My Brazilian Cruising Guide says the first 3 days of a mooring buoy are free, and that the cost after that is $5-$6 per day. I guess the book needs to be updated.



So now Vlado and I go to the marina, which is quite interesting. The marina has two buildings, an area open on all sides surrounding a building structure that houses bathrooms and showers. This building is from the remnants of a tug boat; the cabin and windows of the bridge of a tug boat. Fascinating. The restaurant's outdoor eating area is built around this structure. Across from this eating area is the kitchen, in a separate building. We find the marina manager and ask him to call us a taxi. Like everyone else in Brazil, he speaks zero English. But Vlado communicates with him speaking in Italian. A cab arrives a half hour later, and we're off to clear in. However, our first stop is to the marina a mile away, the Cabanga Iate Clube. We inquire within to ask if they have space for 3 sailboats, and to our surprise we are told no, they don't. That is too bad because this yacht club is very secure, is air conditioned, has a restaurant, and two swim pools. We're glad we just didn't drive up in our boats because we would have been turned away.



Our next stop is to the Port Captain's Office, the 'Capitania dos Portos de Pernambuco.' Upon entering 4 other sail boaters are seated in a waiting area having their paperwork processed to clear out of Recife. Vlado talks to one of the ladies there (there are 2 couples) who speaks Italian. Its like an old reunion. Both parties are happy they've meet someone who speaks a language they know. We're in the port captain's office for 20 minutes, and are told when we get our paperwork back that we have to clear out again when we leave Recife. Our next stop is to Immigration or Federal Police, the 'Policia Federal.' Our taxi driver takes us to a federal office building, but the guard turns us away, saying that we have to go to another location to clear in. We go to that location and find out it is the federal jail. We hand our passports to someone thru a 12" x 6" window; a someone we can't even see. A few minutes later we get our passports back with a 3" x 1 1/2" piece of paper allowing us into the jail complex. We enter thru a turnstile that is 7 feet high and are then escorted to a building where we will have our papers examined. As we enter the complex Vlado is carrying a knapsack dry bag and I'm carrying a canvas boat bag with my papers, a boat VHF radio and my camera inside. Neither of these bags are checked, looked into. Oops. I guess the authorities in Recife are lucky we're not packing Mac 10 sub machine guns to break our cousins out of jail! At any rate, once we start to go thru the process of clearing in, one of the two officials dealing with us says that our entire crews have to be present to complete the clearing in process. But then he realizes that we've already cleared into the country internationally in Salvador, and he's OK with our crew NOT being here. Furthermore, he then says that we don't have to come back to clear out of Recife because we're going to another Brazilian city, Fortaleza, to clear out internationally to Grenada. We are so happy we could cry. Yeah! Once back in the taxi, we head back to the marina.



There Joel has put all the empty jerry cans (10) on the dock as we're going to fill them all up with diesel in town. But before doing so, we decide to leave our mooring ball, drop an anchor and then back down to the dock. This type of mooring is called 'Med-Moor' because it is a technique of docking used exclusively in the Mediterranean Sea; 'Med' being short for 'Mediterranean.' Who knew? In America almost no one med-moors; and before this trip I never did. In America we have boat slips with four poles in the water that you tie up to. In med-mooring there are no poles to tie up to. So its cheaper to have a med-moor marina than an American one. At any rate, I back up the boat as Joel lets out anchor chain. In order to keep control of the boat you have to go fast in reverse, faster than I am comfortable with. But fast we go. Its a perfect landing, with Jack and Vlado from Civetta II on the floating dock to catch our two stern lines. Once those lines are tied up, we put a line from our starboard bow cleat to Civetta II's port bow cleat, pulling our boat 'straighter' into the current. Voila! Done. We keep more distance from our transom to the dock because our hydro generator sticks out behind our boat and we don't want to damage it again, like it was damaged in Salvador when the tide lowered and the boat backed into the dock breaking or damaging the hydro generator in three places. So we use Civetta II to exit and enter our boat from the dock.



Jeanine has made up some tuna fish so we have tuna fish sandwiches before departing again. Vlado brings our cab driver a sandwich and a drink so he can have some lunch, too. After eating the sandwich I realize that I shouldn't have. I don't feel good. In the heat, and it is very hot, eating takes on a different feeling. And because we almost never eat lunch while under sail, its a meal I probably should have skipped. I may skip dinner later. She's also cooked up some hashed browns from our bunch of potatoes, that are continuing to go bad at a rapid rate. Joel and I pass on these, as we're already full.



Then we load up the empty diesel cans, 10 of them, into our small taxi and head off to get them filled. After filling them at a BP gas station. I'm using Jeanine's credit card to pay for the gas,but the card doesn't work. That's common for us as the credit card companies are, for me, occasionally; and for Jeanine, all the time, not letting our cards work in a new country or city until we call and get it OK'd. So now I have to use my credit card, which I'm not happy to do. The charge for the gas is 679 Real, or $239.57. That's $4.79 per gallon. We head back to the marina, unload the cans onto Civetta II and American Spirit II; where Vlado puts 4 of our gas cans into his main fuel tank and we put 6 into our main tank. Then back to the taxi with 8 of the cans to redo the whole process. Jeanine has called the credit card company to fix her card problem, and the call, while being on hold, costs her $70. So I use her card this time, and it works. Back at the boat again, we load the 8 jerry cans onto our port and starboard sides. When Merlyn of Poole gets in later today they will want fuel, and will use some of our diesel to pour into their main fuel tank. Then they will take these same cans, go to the gas station, fill them up and return them to us. They don't have enough cans to fuel this way, but we do. Another advantages of being in a Rally.



While Vlado and I are gone, Joel works on some projects on the boat. The main project is to fix our bow thrusters. When I backed up to the dock, they didn't work. They worked in Salvador, but don't work now. Having bow thrusters is a big plus when med-mooring. To work on the problem, Joel has to empty out the V-Berth, as the bow thruster wiring and battery are located under the mattresses there. But before starting that project, he empties out the rear starboard cockpit locker (lazarette in sailing terms), to check the fitting attached to our rudder to make sure it isn't coming loose again; and to spray are area with Teflon spray so that the rudder won't squeak when working.



At 2:50 PM Vlado and I are back at the boat and the cans are deposited on our gunwales.



At 4:02 PM Merlyn hails us on the VHF radio, saying that they see our AIS beacon and are an hour from the marina. The tide is gushing in at 4-5 knots at our marina, making the water bubble as it hits the floating docks and sounding like a raging spring. I tell Jonathan on Merlyn that he has two options: tie up to the mooring ball that we vacated earlier, waiting for the raging flood tide to abate, then drop an anchor and back his way down to the dock; or come straight in, turn 180 degrees, head into the current, drop his anchor and back down to the dock. He gets here at 5:00 PM and elects to drop his anchor and back down to the dock with the raging current. But when he drops his anchor, he does so across our anchor chain. Not good. I call him on the radio and have him pick his anchor up again, because if he snags our anchor he may pull it out and then we'll be crashing onto the dock, breaking our hydro generator for good this time, and creating all sorts of mayhem. Isn't sailing fun?! So, after dropping his anchor again he backs down to the dock, but its not a good landing. He almost hits the boat on his port side, so throttles forward again and then comes back again. In the process his anchor windless stops working. So he doesn't have enough chain out to reach the dock; but he has enough to get close enough to throw 2 lines to the dock and another line to us. Until his anchor windless starts working again. It does soon. Once he is safely tied up at the dock and to us, Jeanine gets out a bottle of carmelized vodka, and we all 9 of us toast Merlyn's arrival with shots. Shots we sip, not pound down.



Then its shower time. The shower and bathroom facility is typical of what we've seen around the world. Functional, but not pretty. And smelly. We have one shower stall, one toilet and 2 urinals. I shower. Of course, it goes without saying that there is no hot water. The water's not cold, so its not too bad. The water itself has a heavy chlorine small, so I'm not drinking any as I shower. Once I get back to the boat, Joel leaves for his shower.



Dinner tonight is going to be shells and pasta, pollenta with pasta sauce and Parmesan cheese and butter beans. And chocolate chip cookies for dessert cooked by Jenny on Merlyn. Jeanine cooks the shells and pasta and pollenta on Civetta II as they have a large cooking pot and galley stove there; and I cook the butter beans on American Spirit II. Butter beans spiced up with 'vegetable magic' spice New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme. Everyone brings their own plates, silver ware and wine glasses; as we don't have enough for 9 people. Probably few boasts in the rally do. Dinner is supposed to be at 7:00 PM, but is pushed back to 7:10 PM. Since our boat is in the middle of the three, dinner is in our cockpit. There are 9 of us; Jeanine, Joel and me from American Spirit II; Vlado, Jack and Lupo from Civetta II; and Jonathan, Jenny and Sigi from Merlyn of Poole. This is the largest number of people we've had on board for dinner in 13 months. For lighting we have a table top cockpit lamp; and three small, pocket sized flashlights hung on string above the dining table. After dinner, some of our guests hang around for coffee and tea. By 9:30 or 10:00 PM everyone has gone. Joel is in bed by 10:30 PM; I am typing a log; and Jeanine is in the cockpit on her phone doing internet. She is an internet junkie. I've never seen anything like it. If she lost her phone to do internet, she'd probably commit suicide. And I don't have a body bag on board, so some boats do. She's so addicted to it that after dinner as everyone is sitting around talking, she's doing internet. Not really proper etiquette when you invite guests over for dinner. And she's so pre-occupied that she doesn't even notice that I clear the table and do the dishes, which is her boat duty, not mine.



I'm in bed by 11:15 PM, as Jeanine is up in the cockpit still doing internet. Go figure.



Brian Fox


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