April 14, 2012-Holiday in Fortaleza

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Fortaleza Yacht Club

We’ve had a nice holiday in Brazil luxuriating at one of Fortaleza’s finest hotels (aboard Wings in the hotel’s marina of course). We’re swimming each morning in the hotel pool, having wonderful meals in the great Brazilian restaurants on Fortaleza’s beautiful nearby beaches, taking endless walks around the old central district, and shopping everywhere. Yesterday we topped it all off with a beautiful lunch which turned into a whole afternoon, accompanied by a very nice bottle of Chilean white, at the Fortaleza Yacht Club.

A couple of years ago an old classmate of mine saw my photo of Judy having a drink at a beach hotel in Langkawi , and commented, maybe wistfully, “your whole life is like an unending vacation”.

Sometimes, like right now, it seems that way and we love it.

But there is no such thing as a free lunch. Mind you I’m not whining about it but to have this kind of life we have to work at it. We work at it by keeping this boat running, by sailing it through storms and high seas, from one third world country to another, and by dealing with about a million bureaucratic and cultural obstacles each and every day.

Still, we love it. It’s why we do this.

However, this holiday is now over and we have work to do. We have to leave the easy and enjoyable life we have in Fortaleza and get this boat up the coast and into the Caribbean, which means dealing with the routine of watch-standing, three on and three off, with officials and formalities in three new countries, with unknown boat problems (and there certainly will be some), with the doldrums, the shallow waters of the Amazon Delta, and god knows what else. It will be nerve wracking but we’ll get through it. And you know what? We love that part too; sailing is still great.

We leave tomorrow; it’ll take a month, more or less, and then we’ll have a Caribbean Holiday.

Click here for a few more photos from the day we checked out of Fortaleza.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Fortaleza, Brazil