I
spent a very quiet night at Ilha de Paqueta, though I had snuggled in
so close to the shore that between the gentle wind swinging us toward
the beach and the falling tide I woke up at 7 AM in 3 meters of
water. That set off the "shallow water" alarm so I had to
alter its limit to 2.5 meters. After breakfast I shaved to make
myself more presentable.
I
worried a bit about weighing anchor. The 7 kt wind was pushing the
boat to the beach and with 3 meters of water I didn't have much room
for mistakes. My worry was that if somehow the boat turned sideways
while I weighed anchor I'd be presented with a juggling act of
clearing the anchor from the bottom and making way out of the cove.
I need not have worried. I used the winch to draw the boat over the
anchor, making sure that I didn't go too fast and overrun it. When I
was over the anchor the depth had increased to 5 meters but even that
depth was shallow and I managed to crank like mad and get the anchor
up without changing the attitude of the boat. At 7.45 AM we were
underway and motored toward Bracui with no problems in the calm sea
and wind.
On
the way in I hailed the marina in both English and Spanish on VHF 16
and got no response. No worries. I would just show up and see what
happened.
Fortunately
the jetty that I had seen on my approach to the channel into the
marina turned out to be a well-fendered fuel jetty. As I crept up a
man came out to take my lines and soon I was safely tied up. He only
spoke Portuguese but fortunately he found someone, who spoke a bit of
English and was extremely helpful. Soon they knew who I was and what
I needed and the English speaker came aboard and showed me on the
close up satellite photo from MarinPlotter where to go, and to look
for people who would be waiting for me. I did this and soon I saw
that I needed to berth side-on to a jetty along the shore so I
approached it clock-wise so that when I went into reverse the prop
walk would bring the stern into the jetty. This all worked fine and
soon I was on my way to the office with all of my documentation.
The
office was modern and well staffed. The girl dealing with me spoke a
bit of Spanish and I told her that I wanted to keep Pachuca in the
marina 3 months, explaining that I expected to make a 2-month trip to
the USA. She said No Problem, which was music to my ears.
At
this point I'd better explain my approach to the issue. I was not
inclined to "shop around" the various marinas for the best
price to meet my needs. Pato had advised this marina, and that was
good enough for me. Nor was I inclined to try to save a few dollars
by staying only one week at the marina to give me time to arrange
travel to the US, then put out to sea again. I figured that between
the time it took to arrange my travel and the time it would take me
to make the final preparations for the trip and travel to Rio I might
get at maximum two more weeks exploring the islands. I preferred to
spend the entire time in the marina and use it to explore points of
interest such as historic Parati by land.
The
girl asked me if I wanted to pay for one month or all three. I went
for 3 months because I wanted the security of tenure. The cost for
the 3 months was "2,997.41" which I take to be 2,997 reais.
I asked what that was in US dollars but she couldn't tell me.
Again, I was not inclined to equivocate and bargain, so I said OK.
If the 2,997 reais is correct and I apply the very crude exchange
rate of 2.3 this comes out to roughly $1300, which seems incredibly
cheap at about $14 per day, or less half of what I was paying in
Argentina. My Visa statement and an accurate exchange rate from the
internet should settle the question, and I'll report the outcome in
this blog.
Then
it was time to move the boat to its "permanent" location.
A young man was put on board to direct and help me, and two others
went to meet us at the jetty. The berthing is Tahiti style. I was
forced to spin the boat around in the narrow fairway using forward
gear the the prop walk of reverse. At one point I threw the young
helper the boat hook and he snagged the rope that would hold the bow
of Pachuca out from the jetty. I backed in and after the expected
adjustments the boat was tied up with two lines from each corner of
the stern and one from the bow. To jump on and off the boat I would
simply put pressure on a stern line to bring the boat closer to the
jetty then clamber over the Monitor platform. I tried to get one of
the men to use one of my serious 22 mm mooring lines for the stern,
but he insisted on using the ultra light and supple line that I had
thrown to him to position the boat. I will not leave the boat
unattended until I replace those light stern lines with the strong
ones.
The
boat was safely berthed at 10.30 AM. The engine had 295.7 hours on
the clock. After tidying up the foredeck I cracked open the last
cold Heiniken and while I was enjoying the first glass the office
girl came back about something to do with my 3 month permit from the
federal police. I think that I must see them, and she agreed that
tomorrow would be OK. I told her that tomorrow I would drop by the
office with all of my documentation before proceeding to the federal
police (wherever they are) and she seemed happy with that.
While
she was here I asked the girl if there was Internet available. There
is free WiFi internet available on shore, but it does not reach out
to the boats. That was good enough for me. In the afternoon when I
visited the shore for the Internet work I would take fresh clothes
and my kit bag and ask where the showers are.
There
is also the issue of shore power. The Brazilians supply 220V which
is great, but I'll have to dig out my cables with a view to using
either a converter or a new Brazilian plug. Shore power though the
boat's 60 amp inverter would be very nice, though I definitely do not
need to use the fan heater.
An
hour or two later one of the marina staff visited me about connecting
me up to shore power. I hastily dug out from the starboard quarter
berth "deep" storage the cable that I had used in
Argentina. He talked about me going to Angra to purchase a Brazilian
plug more cheaply but he saw that wouldn't happen soon so he returned
with a new one which cost a hefty 80 reais but connected the plug
and soon I had 220V power to the power board inside of the boat.
Then
I went ashore to dump the garbage and find out where the showers
were. I returned to the boat feeling clean and refreshed.
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