Salvador

Me too I want a really braod rimmed straw hat, next time we see some we'll buy one for me as well. The one I have now doesn't let the air pass trough and smells like rot.

Hakan decides to stop at Maceio because a cold front is heading towards us. We have had and will have big weather. When we can avoid it, believe me, ..., we do! Maceio is small and pretty, no skyscrapers, no beggars, but the dirt is still there, they use their rivers and their seas to evacuate their trash. The bad news is that we always seem to be on the way of the going out garbage, this time we literally have to walk with our feet our ankles our legs into the fawl smelling human crap. It is repulsive, sickening, nauseating, depressing and all possible variation on the above mentioned emotions. But then we wash our feet legs ankles knees and all polluted areas, we walk the streets, the beaches and we are overwhelmed by the beauty of it all, you turn your head from the horror to find paradise... Brazil and its opposites, Brazil and its passions. I believe it to be very hard to come to this place and not to be profoundly moved by what is offered to your senses, your values. All the time I have to readjust the way I understand the world I live in.

East wind is calling us at sea again, I'm happy to leave the dirt, sad to leave the sweet town. 3 or 4 days at sea, I haven't taken any seasick pills. The wind is good, the swell is very large and the water is pretty. Fauna is going to visit us but we don't know it yet. The current seems to be with us, we see the town getting smaller and smaller very fast, for tiny sailboat standards that is.... The sun is leaving us for a while, having other appointments elsewhere. We see it turning orange when sinking into the land. As it leaves us the wind takes the opportunity to come in and blow at us with quite some strength, my hair is being pulled out, my ears flapping like Dumbo's cry for cover. I get in and come back out dressed like it is winter.... but hey, it is winter! Waves join the swell, the hull is being battered, and we behave like dies being shaken before an important throw. The night is long, as usual.

When the sun comes back for us to see, the wind disappears like by enchantment, they seem to be avoiding each other... quarrel? Relationship problems? I don't know, and will not know, but I observe, and see that it is not only humans that are prone to social difficulties. We turn on the engine. The swell is huge, large and high. The breath of the ocean is impressive, if I close my eyes I can't even feel going up and down, for it is so large. The absence of wind makes the water like a mirror, smooth, drawing abstract shapes to calm the soul, I look at the reflexion of the sky, the reflexion of the water itself, I listen, I smell I understand that I am just like the ocean, just like the wind, and that they are just like me. Then I see that it is not that we are alike, it is that we one.

Aware of the harmony we sit at the side of the boat, watching the water pass us by. Look look, a green and yellow turtle is swimming alongside Mardek, the design on its shell matching the drawings of the water, it's yellow face seems to smile. A lot of insects are on board as well, hurds of flies, flocks of mosquitoes, tribes of unknown mutants and a cricket singing for us at night, so we don't feel too far from where we should be, on land.

Day, night, day, night time is losing all meaning, just the temperature and light gives us some clues. Miles are being swallowed, we're waiting for it to pass. We eat fruit, and more fruit, and we look for coverage. Coverage from the heat, coverage from the cold, from wind and water. Too hot in the sun, too cold in the shade, to hot protected by the wind, to wet when not.

Cargo ships passes by, fishermen are anchored in open sea. A dolphin jumps right in front of us, exhaling loudly, and then disappearing again. I'm very aware of the complexity of underwater life, but all we ever get to see are tiny glimpses of it, we're floating on top of it, we're strangers using the edge of their dimension to travel ours.

Blue flying fish give us a bit of entertainment, and a baby swordfish must have been pushed on board by a bitchy wave. The fish is dead now, long and beautiful. I stare at it a long time before taking it by the tip of my fingers to swing it over board. Now and then we see a spray shaped like an inverted shower. We're left to imagine the weirdness of what produced this cute fountain... Whales! Then 2 of them come closer and give us a little more to see. Their huge backs calmly, slowly entering our dimension. They are just a few meters from us. Are they following us for a while? They are bigger than the boat, dark and mysterious, we look, jaws dropped at those giants giving us a little of their wisdom. Then they disappear again. I feel honored by this sight, gratitude fills my being. I'm so impressed by the calmness and strength of these whales.

When the night has just arrived we enter Salvador, the city where the music never stops, where capoeira dancers play at pretending to knot their bodies together but they never even actually touch. We enter land, another world. We're preparing for other adventures. Somehow I always need a full day for my body to recover from a passage, sailing is not a physical thing because you're obliged to stay put, no moving allowed, no walking, no dancing, no nothing, but when I get back on land, exhaustion is always there, my back crying for vacation, my knees begging for a lie down, I carry my body with my mental strength, and that one is quite weak as well. Another paradox, sailing is very physical!

21.07.2005 / Salvador (Brazil)