08 March 2010; Belem, Brazil.

I had gone to bed early as I knew it would be a long standby from the Belem pilot to the anchorage 6 hours up the river. I had confirmed my pilot time in the afternoon and so I thought that all was well in the world. Barely two hours in bed and I got a call from the pilot station confirming that they would be there on time. Nice to know but it had already been confirmed by the agent earlier in the day. Luckily the lady calling had a nice husky voice, so it was at least pleasant to listen to. She then proceeded to give me the coordinates of where the pilot would board. I think that she had been selected for her knowledge of English, as her nautical knowledge was way below par, she could not even properly read out the position in degrees, minutes and seconds. So it took awhile before I had the numbers on paper. I had the navigator plot the coordinates in the chart only to find out that the position given was somewhere inland, where I absolutely could not go thus I decided to continue to the original position indicated in the chart; I was now wide wake and I decided to stay on the bridge but lost two hours of valuable sleep. It was a clear night and thus I could help out looking for the pilot boat incase they had indeed decided to park themselves somewhere else, wherever that might have been. However the boat was in the normal position as expected and at just after 3 am. we had the pilot onboard.

He brought the good news that during the night there would be more water in the river than originally predicted and thus I could maintain a higher average speed. The less depth there is under the keel, the more the ships shakes, due to squat, and the more you have to slow down to prevent it. The shaking can be so pronounced that it changes fresh milk into buttermilk and yoghurt if you do not pay attention. With being able to go faster and less ebbing tide against us, I was could arrive a bit earlier than expected. This I did not mind at all as we were planning to use tenders rented from the shore side. That always gives a bit of a fuss, before the boat operators have figured out the best way to come alongside and how to make fast. We had ordered two of them but the boat operator threw a 3rd one in for free so by 10 am our official arrival time we already had a lot of our guests ashore.

The three shore tenders awaiting the first guests to arrive. Before they started their service, they were cleaned and sanitized by our housekeeping department.

They transported our guests from the ship to the little port of Icoraci from where shuttle buses were arranged for the transfer to Belem. I could not anchor at the inner anchorage opposite the city, further up river, as the pilots had predicted that on departure there would not be enough water to sail over the shallows between the inner and outer anchorage. It worked very well, except that occasionally the tenders had to wait with docking, as there were more boats, including little local ferries that wanted to dock, than space available. For Brazilian standards it all ran extremely well. It is all part of the colour-locale and being on an Amazon expedition.

Most boats are owned by the skipper himself and they operate independently or under a hire-charter contract for a tour operator. Hence a lot of skippers turn their boats in little works of art.

We were delayed in leaving by an hour, as the last HAL tours returning were caught in traffic. You do not expect traffic jams and road blockages in a city in the middle of the Amazon forest but Belem is a big city and they also have them. I was finally on the way just past 7 pm and then tried to make as much speed as possible to catch up the lost time. When entering the Amazon, I will have the tide against me again and I was hoping that by leaving on time here, or even before the original departure time I would get some extra leeway. In Macapá the ship has to be cleared again for all the Amazon ports and we never know how long that is going to take.

As mentioned before, we are now in and on the Amazon and the river dictates our progress and not the cruise brochure. Tonight we will pass over the equator to the North side and then tomorrow afternoon we will re-cross to the Southside again. Even that is being dictated by the river.