Fortaleza, Brazil – March 28

Back during their days in the Mediterranean Armando talked Scott into adding a couple thousand extra miles to the journey and stopping in Brazil. Forteleza, a beautiful coastal city in Brazil, is Armando’s home town and he wanted Scott to see it. And Scott wanted me to see it. So plans were made to meet in Brazil.

This was also the end of the line for Danny. Danny’s wife Rhonda was also joining us in Forteleza. After a week in Fortaleza Danny and Rhonda were going on to see the rest of Brazil, including the Amazon.

And because it wouldn’t be a party without her, Madeline, the dear, crazy Cornish woman that Scott and Armando met in England, was between jobs and looking for an adventure. Scott had no trouble convincing her to meet us in Brazil.

Scott and Armando also picked up a new crew member, a friend of ours from college days, Bill Sage. Bill is a commercial real estate agent in Traverse City, Michigan and real estate being as it is, it seemed like a good time for him to get out of town and forget about the economy for awhile. Bill would be replacing Danny as crew and will be doing the leg from Fortaleza to Trinidad.

So we had a pretty lively group gathering. Saturday, March 28 was arrival day for most of us. My flight arrived at 2:45pm Saturday afternoon after a 17 hour journey. I arrived carrying a boat transmission in my suitcase. It got a lot of chuckles and I believe I will finally get that wife of the year award.

Rhonda arrived at 4:30 having traveled the longest – Vancouver, BC to Toronto, to New York, to Sao Paulo, to Natal, to Fortaleza, over 24 hours of travel time. I may have gotten the names of the stops wrong, but not the number. She left 8 hours before I did and arrived 2 hours after.

And finally, Madeline had the shortest and easiest journey of all, London to Lisbon to Fortaleza arriving at around 8pm. At one time during the planning Madeline actually suggested that I fly to London and go from there. It would have been shorter.

After a couple of trips to the airport we all gathered at the Marina Park Hotel where Severance was docked. A lovely 5 star hotel situated right in the middle of one of the most dangerous parts of town. The hotel was well guarded, but even short trips required a taxi.

We had all booked rooms at the hotel. After checking in we gathered in the cockpit of Severance, we had a lot of catching up to do. As we sipped wine and ate cheese and sausage we made plans for tomorrow. We travelers were exhausted so there were no early plans. At noon we were meeting Armando and Sonia and Armando's parents at the beach for lunch.

The Marina from inside the hotel lobby.

The view of Severance from our hotel room.