[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-iQZv03JXSRY/U06eZTBiuII/AAAAAAAAbRc/-paovg9OBeA/s144-c-o/P4090409.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection3Stage19Brazil2AmazonasDeltaToSaoLuis#6002909510772111490″ caption=”What is leftover for a stray dog?” type=”image” alt=”P4090409.JPG” ]

Good to have my very first full rest day after Belem. Strong wind and heavy rain ,ost day
Pos: here
Loc: Ilha do Atim
Acc: tent

The channel I came from was fully dry on low tide, always amazing, but also scary. I really don’t want to be stuck and sit there for hours to wait for the water to come back. Then I rather stop in time on a good place!

It had the strongest thunderstorm I experienced for a long time last night, with long, bright lightning where I felt the electricity in my body, noisy thunderstorm right after the flash indicating the storm is right above me. All escorted with heavy rain and wind, but my tent held up well. I was just wondering about me being a single lump on a wide flat sandbank…is a tent also a “Faradayan cage”? And does my inflated thermarest insulate me from a possible lightening strike? I must admit to have been worried a slight bit about this force of nature.

My decision to have a full rest day here formed during the night when it did not stop raining. It was high time, I was on the water already since Belem with no full rest day. My body would like it, my skin sores also. High tide was running away, today around 2 pm, but the up to 20 knots wind and lots of rain all day confirmed my decision to be right. And especially for an upcoming 20 km crossing.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh4.ggpht.com/-JQVBAH__nsM/U06eQMaxP1I/AAAAAAAAbRM/nngFgRQ65Tc/s144-c-o/P4090405.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection3Stage19Brazil2AmazonasDeltaToSaoLuis#6002909354380050258″ caption=”One of the highest hut on stilts I have seen on my trip!” type=”image” alt=”P4090405.JPG” ]

During the next seven days to full moon, the tide difference would be rising again up to six meters, now being “only” four meters, also me nearing Sao Luis. It will be hard to paddle around low tide during the day. I may need to take it very slow, until the relationship between the tides is shifting again. Currents will raise accordingly. This IS a difficult area here, though seas are relatively easy mostly, if I am not paddling around a headland. But most of the slim, long jutting out headlands are behind me, what’s coming now is rather a lump of smaller islands, where I don’t know about the water level in between.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-k8f2aikI37U/U06eTMCbYEI/AAAAAAAAbRU/w3_tt1X1IPI/s144-c-o/P4090407.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection3Stage19Brazil2AmazonasDeltaToSaoLuis#6002909405817561154″ caption=”View from the balcony of the high hut” type=”image” alt=”P4090407.JPG” ]

I would love to have reached Sao Luis already! 180 km straight line left…sounds little, in normal conditions maximum five days, but here? I assume ten or more days…