In Recife I decided to take a trip entitled “Beer Experience”. Few itinerary details were provided, but I thought it would be interesting to get an insight into Brazilian brewing techniques.

Like most of the other attendees, I was a little surprised to be ushered onto a catamaran that set out to cruise the complex of waterways separating the many islands in this area.

It soon became apparent that the “experience” was to consume as much of a local brand as you were able to (at 10am!) while drifting around the waterways listening to all the local popular music hits. (i.e. a “booze cruise”)

Oh well! I might as well go along with it:

Now I know what you are going to think, yes I had consumed a little alcohol, but just after the above photo was taken, honestly, a fish jumped out of the sea and landed on our boat at my feet.

Instinctively, the captain quickly flicked it out of sigh with his foot, obviously intending to have it for supper. But he was too late, too many of us had seen it. So he picked it up and to the cries of “put it back” he graciously released it back into the sea.

That just seemed very strange. I don’t know if it happens frequently, or if indeed it had ever happened before, but I felt a little sorry for the rod and line fishermen on the banks who might have waited all day for a bite, while we had them jumping on-board.

After the cruise we did in fact visit a brewery, we saw that the ingredients and techniques were basically the same as in the UK and, as the top photo shows, we continued the “experience” by sampling some of their range of brews.

I had a fairly quiet afternoon.

We left Recife that evening with the band playing for a sail-away party on deck as we set sail for Cape Verde. The journey would take us right across the Atlantic Ocean, nearly to the coast of Africa and also back across the Equator into the Northern Hemisphere.

Sunday 12th March 2023: A Day at Sea

Early on Sunday afternoon we passed the island of Fernando Noronha about 200 miles off the Brazilian coast:

Then, just before dinner that evening the captain announced that we had a medical emergency on board and were turning around for a three hour journey back to the sparsely populated isle of Fernando Noronha.

We arrived about 9pm. It was dark, the sea was fairly rough and the unwell passenger, on a wheelchair, had to be transferred from our ship into a small launch that had set out from the island.

Understandably, it was a difficult and seemingly a dangerous operation, and the wide awake patient must have felt a little concerned as he was manhandled across in choppy conditions. But they managed it, and it was reported a couple of days later that his recovery on the island was progressing well.

Now delayed by six hours, we set sail with the engines on maximum power to try and make up the time lost before reaching Cape Verde on Thursday.