Sven and Itaparica

Another beautiful day, another wonderful guest. Sven arrived on sunday
around 6pm in the harbour. We met in the bar overlooking the water, had
a beer and then got on board. I always LOVE seeing the reaction of our
guests or visitors when they see Alita live vom the pier and on board.
Eyes wide open, a big smile on their face and a fascinated "wow" sliding
over their lips. You can see pictures and have an imagination, but to
see it in real is something different. Oh how I love this moment. This
reaction to me shows the "yes, I have booked the right trip and will not
be disappointed" feeling and that is a good thing. We want happy guests.
Sven said: "You've got pictures in the internet but you don't really see
the real dimensions. It is way bigger than I thought." He only saw the
pictures on the website. It is very difficult to capture the size. But
then also it is good to have a surprise, a positive one for the guests.
The first thing we did yesterday is go to the massage. Since I had
planned my third visit the guys decided to join me and also get a
massage. We all loved it. The days started relaxed. While the guys had
theirs I went into the ocean to jumo around in the waves a bit. Then we
passed by the Faro do Barra, went to lunch (Marcus desperately neede
Acaí) and then did the Gorcery shopping. Back at the boat I followed my
logistic manager job and stored all the food. Once finished with that we
went to the historic part of the town for dinner and showed Sven around.
This morning we left for Itaparica. Unfortunately there was no wind most
of the time, we had to motor. Just before we reached the anchorage the
wind picked up. Oh well. Once at anchor I jumped into the water first
the moment the engine stopped....I was sooo desperate to go swimming
again. Here in this bay there is a huge sand bank in u-form which just
started coming out. Sven and I decided to swim over there when we saw a
bit coming out. That was great. It was about 400m one direction, so not
very far. We both swam in freestyle. What a cool feeling to see
untouched sand in front of you as we stepped out of the water and set
foot into this lonely "island", leaving our footprints as we jogged to
the end and walked back. The sun was already low but behind clouds,
still a beautiful light. Should have brought our sundown drinks....The
sandbank in total is maybe 100m long (at the time we were there). This
was a very unique experience that would be hard to do from land (unless
there were some tourist shuttles...). Those are the times you really
appreciate you're on that sailboat with the freedom to go anywhere along
the coastlines and into rivers. Especially as we can take the center
blade up and go into shallow waters of only 3ft.

Sven is a very sportive man (of course, he is studying at the army). He
showed me some more exercises I can do on the boat that still get my
adrenalin and blodd flow going. That's good. We both did our exercises
on deck today - I did it on the trip, he did it after swimming. A good
motivation to have someone on board who also loves sports. Cool.

Here are some pictures of our happy new guest and a view of Salvador
from half way through the bay. The first 3 pictures are still from
Salvador. Enjoy.