What IT Was

Thank You, SM, for your valiant attempt to guess what the ruins near the Bracui Marina represent.  As with you, its grandeur and style suggested to me some religious institution, such as a seminary, convent, or perhaps an ordinary school.

Although the ruins have been preserved, there is no plaque describing their history, so I asked Ricardo, my boating neighbor.  His answer is perhaps an indicator of the attitude and priorities of early Brazilian society.  

The ruins are of a sugar mill dating back to the 19th century.  I commented to Ricardo that it must have been one large mill, and according to him it was a large operation and Bracui (still referred to as Porto Bracuhy) was a busy port.  The sugar milling operations have moved to the north and are heavily mechanized, rendering the mill and port of Bracui a historical footnote.

Visit to Paraty and Another Grumble

1667 to 1844

Nuked Up Angra

18 August 2012

I decided to make my visit to Paraty yesterday, a Friday, instead of Monday. 

I started walking just after 9 AM wearing my straw sombrero from Mexico that had survived the passage from La Paz intact.  Thirty minutes later I was at the bus stop and 20 minutes after that I was on the bus.  The fare turned out to be $R9.50 instead of the $R2.60 to Angra, and I came to see why – Paraty is much farther away than Angra.  We arrived sometime before noon, which I figured would give me a good 3 hours for a look around.

I saw two Information with Internet places across the street from the station and I figured that they were commercial operations.  I walked into the one at the left and nobody spoke English and they charged me one Real for a small map of the town measuring 6” x 8”.  It didn't take me long to find the “Centro Historico” and the water front.

The Centro Historico is chained off with limited access to traffic.  Being a Friday in the off season the town was remarkably quiet.  I took some videos of the natural harbor and boating facilities.  The near side was filled with tourist boats.  On the far side I could see slips with some sail boats in them.  Nevertheless the entire area, including the approaches to the harbor, appeared to be very shallow and I was glad that I had visited by bus.

I spent a couple of hours walking around and photographing. Toward the end I heard a couple speaking English and they turned out to be English, visiting Brazil for one of their children's wedding.  They told me a bit about Rio and I told them about the cataratas at Iguazu, which they plan to visit. 

At 3 PM I decided to return to Bracui, and on the way out I found the banks and tried my luck with my Visa card at Bradesco, with no luck.  I could not see and HSBC bank around.  After a 30 minute wait I was on the bus back to Bracui and on the way saw signs that indicated a nuclear power station.  I took a quick photo of it from the bus as we rushed by.  I must admit that the well sheltered bay of Angra Dos Reis is a great place for such a plant.

I had envisioned several visits to Paraty, but for me one was enough. The old precinct is interesting and well worth a visit, but for me it didn't have the impact that I had expected.  I thought about that and concluded that Mexico had spoiled me, with its broad sweep of antiquity, much of it still alive and functioning naturally.  I found Paraty to be a tiny precinct, highly commercial, and more like a theme park than a real place, which was fine with me, but for one visit only. 

------------

This morning I found the battery bank to be down to 12.0V.  I hit the “start” button of the engine and after about a second everything died.  I had been noticing lately that the starter bank has been dropping voltage throughout the day as though it has been joined with the house bank.  This should not be because the Voltage Sensitive Relay (VSR) is supposed to isolate the starter bank when it drops below 12.8V.  I used the combiner switch to yield a bank of 6 large batteries at 12.0V and started the engine with no trouble.    There could be a problem with the VSR, and I plan to do some snooping around next week.  In the meantime, I'll manually switch off the starter bank when the engine is not running to make sure that it is physically isolated from the house bank.  (I'll see if the VSR circumvents the isolator switch.)

It appears that running the engine an hour or 80 minutes a day is not sufficient, so from now on I'll do 2-hour runs until I get the batteries well charged.  [Note: I found out later why the batteries had been so drained: I had accidentally flipped the refrigerator thermostat to "high" and the compressor must have run continuously to turn the refrigerator into one large freezer. That thermostat is in a very vulnerable spot and I must put a guard over it because this has happened before.]

How I miss the electrical setup of the old SABB engine!  I had frequently seen the Balmar delivering the full 160 amps into the house bank, knowing that the smaller alternator was delivering another 18 amps to the starter bank.  The alternator on the Volvo engine is rated at 115 Amps which I was not that happy about when we planned the installation but I accepted it because I figured that would get me by.  In fact I've never seen it deliver more than 70 amps, and during my 1500 RPM charging runs it delivers about 50 amps .  (If I heard right, its output is related to RPM.) This translates to many more engine hours to keep the batteries charged, and more precious fuel during a long passage.  During charging runs I am forced to run the engine at 1500 RPM, otherwise the battery fault alarm will go off; and this puts a lot of strain on the mooring lines.  This “battery fault” hair trigger is  another extremely annoying characteristic of the Volvo setup.

I'll deal with this after I return to Australia.  I'll start off  by discussing the problem with Volvo.  If I do not get sensible help from them I'll go elsewhere and attempt to have the Volvo alternator replaced with the Balmar (which I still have), using the same external regulator as before, which is still mounted in the electrical closet.  I want to totally bypass that bullshit Volvo electrical management system.

My Ship Came In

I decided to make a visit to the local shop for a walk more than anything else.  There was always the chance that fresh fruit and vegetables had come in so I took a shopping bag.  At the least I would return with a loaf of bread and a bottle of rum.

It was very fortunate that I had taken the shopping bag with me because the fruit and vegetable man, whoever he is, had paid a visit.  There were big fresh carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, garlic, and bananas, both ripe and green.  I loaded up Big Time with the vegetables and bananas, and skipped the loaf of bread although I couldn't resist getting four of their fresh-baked buns.  Unfortunately there was no rum so I took a chance on a bottle of  “Askov” vodka, at 35 Reals for 900 ml of 35%  alcohol.

On the way back to the boat I spoke with Ricardo who told me about a better provider of fruit and vegetables, “Alex”.  His shop is only 50 meters past the guard post on the way to the beach and I had missed it, but when Ricardo told me that it was across the street from the machine shop (which I of course had spotted) I knew exactly where it is.  Alex supplies hand picked fruit and vegetables, including lettuce, which I haven't seen since Argentina.  I will be visiting Alex next week.

After sunset I had to make a decision on the Vodka.  I had no ice or additives.  I improvised by pouring it neat into the stainless steel cup then squeezing into it juice from the limes that I had purchased at the shop.  Let's call it a Pachuca desperation cocktail, which tasted OK but packed a big punch.

After complaining to Brenda that I had not been able to find meat for the pressure cooker she had responded that there MUST be meat somewhere near by, given that there were people living all around.  Armed with this encouragement I had checked the freezers of the shop a few days earlier and discovered that they had in fact frozen meat, and I had purchased a slab of what appeared to be beef.

There had been a happy confluence this day of the advent of the fresh vegetables with the thawing of the meat which I had put out in the morning, and in the evening I began to work to work on the pressure cooker meal.  I have never thought of myself as a cook but I realized that I was enjoying cutting up the fresh carrots thinking of what they would do to the stew.  (Onions are a sine qua non to my meals, but I've come to realize that the humble carrot is also indispensable.) Into the pressure cooker I threw in two large carrots, several potatoes, and several cloves of garlic, all chopped up.

Then I began to work on the meat, which was labeled “Carne Congelada de Bovino”, dated 12/09/2011 with another date of 12/09,2013, which I presume is the “use by” date.  I looked up “bovine” in the Oxford dictionary, but found it to be not helpful, defining it as “(1)  of or like an ox (2) dull and stupid”.  It could be pork but it looked like beef to me; but it didn't matter.  I spent a lot of time cutting away the fat while dicing the meat.  I suspect that as at the my previous boat Angie's  mooring in Rockingham, Western Australia, the local crustaceans would by now have discovered Pachuca as a source of all sorts of culinary goodies thrown over the side.

The vodka cocktail was really good.  It set me up well for a great meal and a good movie.  By then I had already decided to visit Paraty (spelled as “Parati” in the charts) tomorrow (Friday).  To that end I had charged up my video and still cameras. 

Dinner With Friends

What Was It?

Add caption

... Well? ...

I did a lot of computer maintenance over a two-day period. 

For the Toshiba I ran a Windows 7 full system backup and for good measure I produced another System Repair CD.  I then backed up the photos and videos again into their own directory for easy retrieval.

The next day I ran Macrium Reflect to produce an image of the entire C drive of the Acer machine.  I also backed up its photos and videos separately.

All of these backup files are stored in the external Seagate 1 terabyte drive named “Data”.

Yesterday afternoon I went for a walk out through one of the security gates to  visit a nearby beach and community.  Unfortunately I was not able to find a shop selling fruit and vegetables (The nearby shop has not stocked bananas and carrots for over a week.) but settled for a cold beer at a beach side table enjoying the splendid views. 

On the way to the beach I took the accompanying photos of ruins near the marina and next to the hotel.  I'll leave it to the reader to guess that the buildings represented, and I will reveal all in the next exciting chapter of the blog.

Last night I met Francois, “Marian”, and Henrique for dinner at Phillipe's.  I was soon introduced to one of the iconic drinks of Brazil with an unfamiliar name that I cannot recall, but included plenty of ice, a chopped up lime, and a bit of sugar.  It reminded me of my favorite drink in Mexico, the Margarita. 

Before dinner was served Francois and I exchanged contact information and rough outlines of our plans.  I will have left Bracui well before Francois returns from Europe in early January.  He expects to set off for Cape Town with a crew of four friends on about 9 or 10 January, heading SE.  I expect to set of from Florianopolis, 370 miles down the coast at about that time.  Blue water sailing in close company is impractical but we'll keep in touch via Sailmail and HF radio.   

Over  dinner I asked Francois and Marian how their visit to Paraty went.  Francois had been there before and told Marian that it would be good, but Paraty exceeded all her expectations to the point where they stayed a third night.  Apparently a visit to Paraty is like going back in time to the Portuguese colonial era.  I was warned to visit now rather than during the High season, and to avoid weekends.  Henrique told me that I can catch a bus to Paraty on the highway and he offered to drive me there, but I didn't want to trouble him so I told him that I would walk those few kilometers.  I plan to go on Monday, prepared with fully charged still and video cameras.

Dinner for me was a wonderful big and thick medium rare steak, and I meant to tell Francois what a great wine he had chosen – went down like velvet compared to the wines that I am accustomed to drinking.  I had taken cash to be ready to jump in and pay for my meal, but Francois handled the payment so deftly and quickly that all I as able to do was to thank him afterward for dinner and his generosity.  He had become interested in the MarinePlotter software that I've been using and we agreed on a visit to Pachuca at 9 AM this morning for a demonstration.

I knew that Francois and Marian would not have a lot of time because they had to return a rented car by 1 PM (on their way out of the country), so I made sure that everything was prepared for a fast and efficient demonstration. I moved the Toshiba laptop to the cabin table so that they could sit on each side of me for an easy look at the screen.  I put the two little GPS antennas on the table and connected them to the laptop so that Francois could see the entire package at work.  I made sure that I had fast access to some screen photos that I had taken on the way to the Horn as well as the video of the approach to the Horn.

It all went very well.  We zoomed in on the Horn area so that he could see the advantage of actually being able to see the ocean bottom.  We zoomed in on the Bracui marina and they could see the boat in the exact position that we know her to be in at D jetty.  The satellite shot must have been recent because they found his 54-ft ketch GLENNIV tied stern-on.  We panned over to Trisan de Cunha and had a good look at the area and discussed anchoring spots.  Then we visited Cape Town and had close up looks at two marinas.  I showed Francois how easy it was to download Google tiles.  I wasn't able to show all of the features – for example, although I mentioned that MP can handle ENC and RNC electronic charts I didn't bring one up.  However, there was enough to give  Francois an idea of the power and usefulness of MP, and he plans to download it soon after returning home in Switzerland. I handed him a piece of paper bearing the URL of the Club Cruceros web site  and asked him to contact me if he had trouble downloading  the software onto his XP machine.  He asked me about payment and I told him that MP is free.  (David's gift to mariners.)

During our session Henrique showed up with a copy of just about every paper chart of this area, along with other material.  He told me that he could supply me with any chart that I wanted to purchase.  I had a look at the material but decided that I will rely on my electronic charts of Brazil.  What I really  need is a chart covering the South Atlantic ocean from South America to Cape Town, and I'm hoping that he can bring one in from Rio.
Then it was time to say our farewells.  For Marian it was Goodbye, and I was so glad to have met such a pleasant, alert, and cheerful person.  With Francois it was the hope that we meet again.

Quiet Days and Bookends

I've been spending my time doing housekeeping and maintenance tasks against the background of the near perfect weather here at Bracui.

Today I managed to plug the Acer netbook to wall power.  The 3-prong Brazilian plug that I had recently purchased in Angra would not fit and the wall socket appeared to be a standard USA 2-blade 110V.  I went back to the boat and found the 3-prong USA plug, fitted an adapter to make it a 2-blade connection, and that worked fine.  Now I don't have to work in the office using the slow "point and click" screen keyboard of the Toshiba because its keyboard is faulty.  ... And it means that this marina is using 220V on the jetties and 110V in the office.

The charge for the American Airlines round trip ticket to the USA showed up in my Visa account, the final confirmation to me that all now OK with that.  Today I had the office staff print out my E-ticket.  They also printed for themselves a short document translated into Portuguese in which I stated my departure and return dates as well as contact information while I am in the U.S.A.

I spent hours preparing a DVD covering my passage to the Horn and stay in Argentina and reviewing the videos and photographs that I took revived a lot of memories of the Horn adventure.  To be honest, I can hardly believe that I did it.

I cannot resist presenting two hitherto unpublished photographs that could be seen as book ends to the Horn adventure.

 Rick and Bob

The first bookend is of the last thing that I saw at Marina de La  Paz when I set off for the Horn.  To the left is Rick and at the right is Bob Carroll being helpful as ever, pointing me in the direction of the Horn.

Survivor

The second bookend is of me at the end of the journey.

Polishing Metal

Before Polishing

After

Note previous location below

Starboard Side After Polish

12 August 2012

I put in two hours of work immediately after breakfast while the sun was still low and the day cool.  The task was to finish off some welding work that had been done in MdP.

The riggers had been unable to fasten the rear of he new wire rails because the U-bolts that had been welded to the frame as attachment points did not allow enough room for the fitting. This had worked OK previously because the rail had been fastened through he U-bolts with heavy cord, but the new rails would be connected to the frame with turnbuckles.

The riggers returned to Buenos Aires with the rails completed and ready for new and larger attachment points at the cockpit frame.  Pato didn't waste much time in finding a welder to to the job, which was to cut off the old U-bolts and weld new ones.  On the upper port rail I asked that the U-bolt be welded 1 inch higher than before, to correct a mistake that I had made when telling Scotty where to weld the fittings. 

The man showed up a day or two later and he seemed keen and enthusiastic.  However, it bothered me that he had come late in the day, which might put him under a time pressure, there was a bit of a breeze blowing, and worse, he would use stick instead of MIG welding.  Stick welding stainless steel presents problems, one of which is that it puts more heat onto the parent metal than  MIG welding. 

Nevertheless the man must have known  what he was doing because he did a very good job.  The welds around the roots of the U-bolts were built up nicely and showed no overlaps or pitting.  The welds had to be strong because my life might depend on them.

A day or two later he hailed me from behind the gate separating the two clubs and asked for payment.  I knew that the areas around the welds would need a good buffing and polishing but given his prompt and good welding I decided to let that pass and do the buffing myself.   I went back to the boat and paid him through the fence with my thanks and a bit of a bonus.

This morning attended to the buffing and polishing.  Fortunately I had a full bottle of metal polish in stock, and I started to work not knowing how long it would take or the quality of the result.  After two hours of work I stood back and assessed the result and couldn't complain.  There is some discoloration but it would be noticed only by someone who was looking for it. 

I did find a section 5 mm long on outboard side of the weld of the upper port U-bolt that was not built up but appeared welded at the root.  Had I seen this in time I would have called the welder back, but I made the usual mistake of having a quick look and relying on the expert.  I am sure that the weld is strong enough but nevertheless I may tie a loop of  rope through the upper turnbuckles and around the frame for my crossings to Cape Town and Australia.  In Australia I'll get Scotty to look at the welds.

The alert nautical types may notice that I have not put split pins inside of the turnbuckles.  The riggers gave me the small pins for the job but I decided to wait and allow the rails to stretch and settle down before I do the final tightening and pinning.

Visit to Angra

Bus Schedule to Rio

Great Tourist Information Team

Fresh Fish Market

Angra Waterfront

11 August 2012

I walked to the bus stop at 7.45 AM and the bus to Angra arrived at 8 AM as that passenger's hand written schedule had predicted.  I arrived at Angra about an hour later and crossed the main street to the Tourist Information center where  was attended to by the same person who had been so helpful on my first visit.

The first question I asked was where I could find a computer store where I could purchase a Brazilian plug for my Acer's power transformer.  He showed the location of two places on the map then gave me directions.  I then asked a few questions about the plug (e.g. “Will the same plug fit on 110V and 220V outlets?”)  I learned that Brazil has recently switched from a 2-pin to a 3-pin plug with the round pins in an arc rather than a triangle, and that one plug should be good for both voltages.  He was surprised that the Bracui Marina is on 220V because the town of Angra is on 110V.  I asked why Brazil is on two voltages.  It appears (and I am prepared to be corrected by electricians) that 110V is the standard, but houses, organizations such as hotels, and marinas and presumably whole towns can go to 220V by going to 2-phase power.  In the town of Angra, for example, anyone wanting to run an air conditioner must put it on 220V 2-phase.

At the corner to where I had been directed I found two computer shops on adjacent corners.  I purchased the plug and lead for the Acer transformer in one of them for only $R10, but nether had one that would suit the Toshiba transformer (2 pins at the transformer end, not 3).  That was OK.  I need a Brazilian plug for the Acer because I expect to use it in the hotel in Rio and with its short battery life I must have wall plug power.  The Toshiba is the one with a healthy battery life but at last count 15 keys were not working and using the screen keyboard is very slow going.

The second question had been where to find a bank with an ATM that could handle my Visa card.  I was pointed to Bradesco across the street and HSBC farther up the road.  I tried Bradesco first because its branch in Ilha Bella had recognized my Visa card.  Unfortunately the one in Angra would not accept my PIN number.  After a few tries on different ATMs I gave up and walked over to HSBC, which not only recognized my VISA card but also had a hefty limit of 1000 Reals.  I withdrew the limit, which gives me a present total of just over 1100 Reals.  Assuming I pay $R500 for the hull cleaning and polishing I'll still have $R600 to carry me through to Rio, which should be enough.

By 10 AM my business in Angra was completed.  I headed back to the Information center, showed them the plug that I had purchased, then asked them where I could catch the Costa Verde bus to Rio.  He showed me the bus schedule, which listed 17 buses running per day from 4 AM until 10.40 PM.  I started to copy down the bus schedule and he suggested that I photograph it.  What a great idea!  I pulled out my camera and took the picture.  He then showed me on the map where to find the bus terminal.

I then walked to the bus terminal, and I'm so glad that I did because it was much farther than I had expected.  But it was in the right direction for me, and I noted where I would get off the bus from Bracui so that I could simply walk across the street to the “Terminal Rodoviario” inter-city bus terminal.  I strolled through the small but modern terminal and saw that one could take buses to the big cities such as Rio, Brazilia, and Sao Paulo, as well as other smaller destinations such as Ubatuba.

I then went back to the Information center for yet another “last” question.  He teased me about the number of “last” questions that I was presenting, and I told him to expect more because I would be around until December. He replied that this is the off-season in Angra.  In December the town will be packed  with people.  I consider myself very fortunate to have arrived in Angra during the off season, with all of the advantages that it presents to an English speaker trying to get his bearings.  I have great understanding and sympathy to those whose holiday time is constrained by responsibility to work and children at school, but anyone else who has a free choice on when to visit Angra would be nuts, in my opinion, to come in the high season.  The winter climate is wonderful, with very little cloud and rain, and the temperature moderate but definitely warm enough for swimming in the ocean.

In answer to my question, when I arrive at the Rodoviario terminal from Rio in November I can catch the bus to Bracui at a stop in front of the terminal.  They will not charge me extra for my luggage.  The only risk is that the bus may be too full by the time it arrives at the Rodoviario stop, in which case I would probably take a cab to the center of town to catch the bus to Bracui.  The exercise made me realize that I will have to travel as light as possible.  That will be easier on my way to the USA, but more difficult on my return because I will be bringing equipment for the boat.  I figure that my absolute limit is the backpack,  a laptop bag, and one duffel bag.

I was going to take the bus to Frade then get off at Rio Bracui and walk to Bracui but the next Frade bus was one of the ones passing through Bracui, so I was back at the marina at 1.30 PM.

Enclosed are photos that I took from the bus on the way to Angra, and in Angra itself.