It'sabsolutely beautiful here - we initially anchored opposite Jacare Village Marina where, for a comparatively small fee you can leave your dinghy securely and use the facilities. It also has a bar serving food which is quite handy!!!
The marina is run by two French guys and Nicholas who runs the bar speaks excellent English and the marina offer a service to help with booking in, of which we took advantage. You have to go to The Policia Federal, which is on the outskirts if the town, and then customs and immigration at the port. There are a number of forms to complete and Nicholas did this for us as this can be a stumbling block - apparently some of the questions are not that clear! As the Skipper and all crew members have to appear in person, the service includes him taking us in his car to the various offices. It certainly made life easy for us and we were able to do it all in one morning where as we have heard that it can take some days!!!
As we are planning to take some trips inland whilst in Brazil, we decided to book into the marina. It is only quite small and was filling up fast – and a number of the boats were staying there for a few months as it is getting too late in the season to travel to the Caribbean due to the hurricanes and for those people wanting to go there next rather than cruise The Guyanas etc, it is a time for a visit home!
Chris always worries about getting into a marina as Moontide does not handle well in confined spaces (not like the modern fibreglass boats that can turn on a sixpence!!) and if there is wind blowing then things can get quite tricky. On Friday 6th March we went in and it all went off without a hitch (as usual) with marineiros standing by to take ropes and one in a dinghy to give us a shove if necessary (it wasn’t!). There was a small issue though – we couldn’t get off the boat!!!! We were in a small space next to the support for the pontoon and were too far away from the main pontoon to climb off and at too much of an angle for the ladder to reach the pontoon support!! I think they thought we had 6 foot legs! No immediate problem as we had all our food etc for Friday. On Saturday morning we climbed on to the boat next to us (currently unoccupied) and got off that one. Later on that afternoon we were pulled in much tighter and can now step on & off very easily. It is a small space though and the boat on our starboard side is not too happy as there is quite a lot of pressure on his fenders. We feel it’s ok though – or is that because we’re made of tough old steel? | Random shots of the bar !! |
Lovely as it is here, I do have to say that it is not that quiet. During the day the fishermen or other workmen tend to have their radios on and in the early evenings the river boats cruise up and down all playing different music. The boats then congregate outside the river bars just up from the marina to listen to a saxophonist who plays Ravel’s Bolero every night at sundown! We have not got the full story yet but when Tony & Jan were here about 12-14 years ago, he was playing it each night out in the river – we’ll find out more! |
'Fraid I've not put up any more pics on the gallery as yet - the internet connection can be quite so and I want my tea!!!
So enough for now TTFN and will add more later.
So enough for now TTFN and will add more later.