Wed 26/02-2014 Day 608

[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-rWwvC9iNabs/Uyr0aO7cxnI/AAAAAAAAaAw/SVAOs2f4tsQ/s144-c-o/P2260061.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection3Stage18Brazil1CayenneToAmazonasDelta#5992870985691088498″ caption=”This ugly wild beach is really blocked for landing with fat logs and has a lot of current” type=”image” alt=”P2260061.JPG” ]

 

What a horrifying wild coast!
Pos: here
Loc: Sucuriji
Acc: room police station
Dist: 59,2 km
Start: 3:35 End: 17:10

This night in the early morning around 3 am, the bugs were NOT at bay any more. I was packing and launching in a cloud of fat mosquitoes. Horrible! Covered up to the max, sprayed on all ends (especially on my butt, where they amazingly still find a way through the fleece and windshield layer…), inhaling a shed load of bugs even through the head net which is never so good as I barely can see and work with it. Survivor’s camp is nothing against this torture…

I was happily afloat and away from most bugs, still my rudder fin was heavily stuck with clay despite having had the launching string attached. No way to pull it out from the kayak, so a dark night’s swim is the next job. Thank goodness air and water temperatures are all convenient and not freezing at all. Back in, I started to really *paddle* hard, as I had still 50 km on my GPS to Sucuriju, knowing the distance would be at the end almost 60 km. I was hoping for a good tidal pull the last hours! Amazingly at 3.30 am when I was expecting the tide to be at the highest, the water level was not there where it should have been according to yesterday, so I was lucky the tide was now still running up for about 2-3 hrs and here out of the channel it was really pulling a bit. So I made good progress even at night, and had covered already 15 km when light came. The remaining GPS distance still was cut down only by 10 km, as I was turning around so many corners hand railing my way in the darkness. Don’t even think the chart is precise here…

[pe2-image src=”http://lh5.ggpht.com/-a-_NG13WPU0/UyrzfbttM-I/AAAAAAAAaAY/jyn7zeBUJhs/s144-c-o/P2260058.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection3Stage18Brazil1CayenneToAmazonasDelta#5992869975510823906″ caption=”Such a lovely sunrise on the water! Always a pleasure.” type=”image” alt=”P2260058.JPG” ]

The first morning hours the coast was even looking kind of  friendly with a sandy foreshore on a friendly looking forest, easy to land if necessary. The chart showed an area upfront some inland lakes. But this friendly looking coast turned back to the steep clay ledge wall very soon, and the logs, decorating the shore and exposed by the falling tide, were thousands, piled on top of each other in many layers. Still, for a while, it was looking there were a few spots where you could possibly land in between, but when I tried it was soft mud, no sand any more.

All the time on the falling tide I was paddling as close as possible to the fat log’s area, as I had an about 20-30 m wide strip of a bit of a current there. Not really an eddy though, but when I dared to glance to the left, where the main current of the outgoing tide of the mighty Amazon river was running, I’d rather not want to be there… what a ride must that be going in the other direction!

Unfortunately, there were a few jutting out points where the main current came very very close, and I had to paddle for my life to get past the point, always in the danger to get stuck on a log or even worse, pushed sideways under one. It was the heck already more than time for the tide to turn! Was this beast not giving me a chance at all? Since I left Cayenne, I had no other tidal reference point on my chart any more, just my own observations. And those were that the high tide was not only shifting daily to about an hour later, but rather as I was progressing toward the Amazon river, it was shifting even more to turning later. So no current change yet, at 3 pm…

On one particular point, I could see the main current running very close, I was sitting on it for a few minutes, progressing with maybe 1 km/ h only, fighting the hell out of my body to get around. If I’d be stuck here, I’d had either to wait more, or I won’t make it to Sucuriju today. And if I’d have to give up here, I’d have to land somehow on this now really horrifying coast with a multiple layers of huge logs, about 50 m reaching out off the 2 m clay edge where you may eventually find dry ground. If you can make it with your loaded kayak in the upcoming afternoon chop to that spot in one piece…

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-npqcWMV2yQU/Uyr0VrZpMlI/AAAAAAAAaAo/Mkqyczzb8LU/s144-c-o/P2260060.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection3Stage18Brazil1CayenneToAmazonasDelta#5992870907434578514″ caption=”A wrecked navigation sign, having floated like a ship, but thrown at some water state high on the beach” type=”image” alt=”P2260060.JPG” ]

But I was fighting all close current points successfully, always finding some easier water behind for a while, where I could make at least 3-4 km/h. I was eventually really getting good at estimating the flooded logs, nothing like the quite popular “rock” hopping, but rather like “log” hopping all the time. For once, I was running my kayak right on the middle of a just barely covered perpendicular log, and I was sitting with my full weight on it, stuck for a few minutes. Oh sheesh…but with shifting my weight and hopping and pushing I was off without having to get out. Fortunately this was a corner of lesser current…

Was the current evergoing to turn and to help me today??? Finally, eventually, the tide was looking like it was already well up on the coast ahead, the strong chop in the afternoon breeze went down as the first clay ledge was covered, I felt a bit of a push from behind, speeding up slowly to 5 km/h, then 6, then 7 and 8, up to 9 km/h, nearing finally Cabo del Norte and the turn into the Amazon river mouth. The coast became a little less wild looking, maybe because the tide was covering the logs, still I had to paddle as close in as possible, hitting a sunken log end more than once. Dangerous game…

But as frightened I was going around Cabo del Norte, and as impatient I was for the tide to turn, the more perfect the timing was now when I was there. The breakers were a reasonable size and force, even going down more as I got around the corner. Thank goodness…where there is no more resistance on the coast, there is no more breaking stuff… but it could have also been different, who knew before hand?

I paddled eventually with good speed, not more seeing any counter current, just choppy waves, quite exhausted around the corner into the river mouth of Rio Sucuriju. Not after crossing a wide surf belt though on turning in impatiently too early to the huge sandy spit guarding the north entrance of the river. But this was all an easy game now, having the current behind me, and the breakers being low. And I’d rather be stranded on a sandy spit than washed right past the correct river entrance, I guess… 🙂

I spotted houses! Really good looking houses, with antennas, sat dishes and small wind wheels! The 21st century has also arrived in Sucuriju! I didn’t had much of an idea of the size of the village, expected not really to have electricity and communication, rather a few huts on logs on top of the swampy area only.

I landed on the largest looking wooden jetty, where a few fishermen were active working on their stuff. they were very friendly and helpful to get me landed, unloaded and my boat dragged up, obrigada! Then one old guy decided to get me to the one and only two story wooden house among may be 50 huts and houses, loaded me and my gear bags on a boat and drove me about 100 m back to that smaller wooden jetty. It was the military police station! Great! In all other countries, those guys were always helpful to me, also here now. Thanks!

Two officers were greeting me there, and invited me to stay in the second story where they had their two bedrooms. The lower ranking officer was moving with his hammock into the hallway, but he didn’t mind, thanks! The guys have a 14-days shift, then they are going back to their homes and another shift arrives. I had a room to myself, bug free, but no air condition though. The electricity generated by the wind mills is switched on here, like in most remote places, between 6 and 10 pm only, and I could at least have a ventilator running in this time. Good for my skin after the bucket shower!

The houses are all built out of wood on stilts, the floor not bothering with any drainage. You just shower out of a bucket and the gray water is running down on the swampy ground, the same in the kitchen. They do have an outhouse a bit further behind the house though…All houses and jetties are connected with a wooden walkway, no natural ground is accessible. What a way to live! I will sightsee the village tomorrow more, as I will stay a few days here to recover, and to wait for the Pororoco tidal wave on new moon to pass safely on March 1st!

10 comments on “Wed 26/02-2014 Day 608

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Edda Post author

Glad you are safe and sound after such a vile stretch of coast line. A few days rest will do you good and it sounds like a good place to sit out the Pororoco.

Randall Lackey

Reads like you have had some tough days to deal with, followed again by more nice rewards from the good people along the shores of Eastern S.A. Glad to know. that in general the locals are being good to you.hope you enjoy your stay,rest well and recover fully and ready for more of the Hell the ocean is throwing your way. Take care.

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