Birthday Cake for an Island
08/11/02
Yesterday was the 499th birthday of the island, and there was a festival at the Porto. They had live music, and people selling food. I had a couple different kinds of desserts, all very good. We met a nice couple who spoke English. He is from Italy and she is from Sao Paulo, but they met at school in Berkeley, California.
Later on, they brought out a birthday cake for the island, with dolphins on top. Of course, I got a piece. The dolphin is the symbol of the island, and everything you see has a dolphin on it. During the cake cutting, there was a minor tragedy. A man appeared in front of the cake, obviously drunk, holding a roman candle in his hands. He held the cylinder up in the air and lit the fuse. The cylinder sends up fiery balls that go up in the air and explode with a loud bang. He was not watching where the cylinder was pointed, and as a result the fiery balls hit the overhang of the roof on the bandstand, and shot straight down into the crowd of people gathered around the cake, exploding as they hit the ground. There were screams and general pandemonium for a minute, but nobody appeared to be seriously hurt. At once, a crowds of guys accosted the drunk who was responsible, and an altercation started between two groups of people. Luckily cooler heads prevailed and a volatile situation was avoided.
There had been a fishing tournament that day, and a great amount of time was spent giving out trophies. There must have been at least 20 trophies, including three trophies that were sardine cans encased in Lucite, given for the smallest fish.
The next morning was spent recaulking ports that were suspected of leaking, including the aft port over my bunk, and two of the big windows on the galley, as there had been leaks in the galley too. In the afternoon we took the dinghy to the next beach over and went snorkeling. There were many colorful, brilliant fish. Eric spotted an eel. After that, we went to the local snack bar at the beach for a beer. While we were there, we saw the couple that we had met the night before and invited them over to join us. We talked to them a while, then invited them to come in the dinghy and see the boat. They came along, and were quite impressed, as neither of them knew anything about sailing. Afterward, Eric took them and David ashore and left me on the boat.
Our New Friends at the Beach Cafe
David and I went in for lunch, and ate at a “self-service” restaurant, which is a buffet. The food was all quite good, with a good variety. From there I took the bus into the village of Remedios and found a gentleman who was renting bicycles. He rented me a mountain bike for the day for 10 Reals ($4), with no deposit required. I neglected to check the brakes on the bicycle before I took it, and they were a bit loose, which made me nervous when going down some of the very steep hills. I was at least able to climb up the hills, with the low gear, but it was very strenuous. I drank several bottles of Gatorade. I explored the main road and some of the back roads, where goats were feeding all around. There are beautiful beaches everywhere. On my way back I stopped by the Dolphin Hotel and checked my e-mail again, then headed back to the village, returned the bicycle, and exchanged more money. I walked around the lower part of the village, near the beach, and went into a nice café that was filled with native paintings and sculpture. On my way back up the hill I noticed a Pizzeria that looked interesting.
A Deserted Beach on the Other Side of the Island
I then took a bus back to the Porto, and had a beer at the snack bar while waiting for everyone else to show up. David had gone scuba diving in the afternoon and Eric was still on the boat, as I could see by the dinghy trailing behind FIONA in the harbor. David came along and the South Africans also showed up, the doctor, his wife, their two young children, and one of the crew. They joined us for a beer, and I talked to the crew member. His prior experience had been working on large motor yachts, mainly as service, not related to sailing. Both he and the other crew member had only dinghy sailing experience, so everybody on the boat was quite new to offshore sailing. He said it was very tight to have six people on a 36 foot boat, but they were getting used to it.
When Eric showed up, I bought him a beer too, and the guy from the dive shop found David and took him back to the office to re-swipe his credit card. Eric and I weren’t sure when he was coming back, so we started walking towards town. Soon after we left he came with the dive shop guy in a truck and gave us a ride into town, where we ate at the pizzeria. The pizza was quite good, though the bathroom was unusual. There was only a toilet in a room, with a filled laundry basket in one corner. I could not figure out for the life of me how to flush the toilet, as there was only a bowl on the floor with water in it, but no tank anywhere. I looked all around outside but could not find a lever or a chain anywhere.
After dinner, we went and got an ice cream and were waiting for the bus, when we saw our Italian/Brazilian friends again. They were also waiting for the bus, and though we were going west, decided to get on the Porto bus with us, so they could talk to us one last time.
The next morning we went produce shopping, taking the bus to the Supermercardos. The produce there was not very good, but we did get some good onions, pears, and local pineapples. After we took the stuff back to the boat, we went back into town so Eric could change more money, looked around a little more, and found a museum which showed the history of the island. It was all in Portuguese, but I was able to figure out that the island was discovered by Amerigo Vespucci on August 10, 1503 (this was the day that was being celebrated). After that we took a shortcut back to the Porto and arrived at Elda’s Cantinho just as they were opening, for our last lunch at Fernando de Noronha.
Cantinho del Porto
We were back at the boat by 1330 in the afternoon and packed up everything quickly. We were lifting the anchor by 1430. After we left the harbor, we raised the sail and went on starboard tack to clear the island. During this time Eric noticed that the jib sheet winch on the starboard side was frozen and wouldn’t turn. This is a big problem, as we need that winch operational before we go on port tack, and we will be on port tack for the first 1200 miles of this leg, at least. Eric disassembled the winch while we were on starboard tack and fiddled with it until it started turning, applying winch grease and WD-40. After going another hour on starboard tack, we tacked over to port tack and have been there since.
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