11.09.2012

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.

09.09.2012

Salvador pictures

On friday there was a holiday here in Salvador. Independence day. I took a walk around the upper, old part of the city. See yourself here: http://sailing.smichah.de/#17.6

In the following you find some of my favourite pictures.
Salvador is a big city, over 3 mio people, most of them poor. Rich and poor live door to door which results in the contrast in buildings as you already saw in previous pictures, e.g. from Recife. But it is more extreme here.  Funny enough, as in all the cities in south america I know, the part of the poor people is the more colourful one. And the more touristy. The colours make it attractive for tourists. All of a sudden poor is "in" - and gets richer. With the funny effect that often the buildings are beautiful and colourful in the front, but poor in the back. See yourself in the pictures.

Rich is white, mostly with a bit dark blue in form of stripes. That's how all the expensive motor yachts around us look like. And the new, high tower appartment buildings of the richer people - with tiles all the way to the top. It looks like we're the only cruisers here. All the other boats are here for show, to be cleaned during the week from their paid babysitters and sometimes taken out to do what they were made for - glide through the water - by their owners and their families, friends or people who need to be impressed. Oh, and of course if they are taken out for max. 2 days (friday afternoon til sunday noon), the women need a big suitcase trolley and the guys a shopping cart full of drinks and food to sruvive this extremely rough and long trip. You sit at the bar, drink a Mojito and look at the scene. Better than a movie, I can tell you. The creme de la creme of Salvador. Thank god our boat is beautiful enough to be accepted here. Today one guy even talked to us - a richer guy who has just ordered a brand new Alubat 52. Overall there are maybe 10 sailboats here. All except for us and the 50ft Lagoon Catamaran suffer the same pain, that they are not allowed to do what they were made for but lie there fixed to a pier most days o the year. In the contrary to the motor boats the sailingboats are not inhabitet by an army of washing and repairing soldiers. They just quietly ly there, listening to the sound of the wind an imagining how it would be out there. Only the swell (waves) pushing into the harbour lets them get a sense of the free world.

Talking about exclusive boat: our little Alita is very exclusive now that I had to re-sew the whole UV-protection cover and fix some holes. I added some little funny friends. Marcus wanted the crocodiles, but they always want to eat my fish and frog:



  







Back to the town. Enjoy the pictures.

See all the tankers waiting in the background. Love this picture. Salvador and Faro de Barra to the right. 

Salvador upon arrival. 1,5 hrs to go from that point of time to the harbour around the corner

Salvador or New York? Look at the lifts going from the ocean to the high buildings through the green


House for sale

Historic center Pelourinho








Look at the loving picture in the window and the poor lonely boy lying underneath the window



View over Bahía Marina

Tree growing out of the wall. Not coming from down below.

Who wants Pop Corn?

View over the Bay to Itaparica, the island we're heading to on tuesday


Alita from above. I love being up in the mast, anjoying the most gorgeous views. I couldn't care less that the boat was constantly moving around in all directions, I really had to hold on. But I was double secured against falling down...


Hope you enjoyed the selection. Go to the photogallery to see them all
http://sailing.smichah.de/#17.6