The Mouth of The River

This morning, at around 7am, we arrived at Macapa Pilot Station situated at the mouth of the great River Amazon. There are actually two entrances to the river, this being the more Northerly one. We will be touching on the other in about a week’s time, when we visit Belem, the last of our Brazil ports. Between the two, is an island roughly the size of Switzerland, which gives you some idea of the scale of things in these parts.

As this is our first day on the river, Tracey was up at the crack of dawn, heading for the top decks with her camera in search of moths and bugs, while I had a minor lie-in. My voice is all croaky, so I’m claiming the lie-in as a medical necessity. I’m convinced that my being vocally challenged is nothing more serious than having talked to much in my classes over the past five consecutive sea days.

Speaking of which (or, should I say ‘squeaking’ of which…); Art and Craft classes have been moved back to their temporary location as they try to sort out the recurring plumbing problems. I had a surprisingly large number of participants considering the warm weather and the main event passing by outside. I struggled with my voice, but I made it nevertheless.

…And that’s it for my classes for a week. My next class won’t be until we leave the Amazon – it feels like the end of term, which is probably a good thing, as it will give my voice a chance to heal.

After classes, we went upstairs to see our first sunset on the great river.

It’s been extremely hot and humid all day. This evening, the bugs homed in on the Magellan, to such an extent that every single light around the outside of the ship was covered in clouds of black mosquitos, moths whizzed around manically and black beetles scuttled across the decks.

After dinner, we took a walk to the front of the ship, where the bugs weren’t quite so thick, and a light breeze blew as we looked out over the dark of the river. After that, we retired to the pub where we played, of all things… darts. Neither of us is very good, and we didn’t play properly; mostly, we need to try and improve our darts-throwing technique. Instead of the proper 501 game, which involves lots of maths and the abilty to finish on a double, we were content to work our way around the board. I have to tell you that Tracey beat me twice, and my skills at throwing darts with any degree of accuracy seem to get worse with each game… any throwing tips would be greatly appreciated…