13 December 2010; Alter do Chao Brazil.

This is a totally different port than the rest of the Amazon ports, including those that we visited. It is not a port at all, it is a beach resort and we land our guests right onto the beach. The resort, which is only small, is located about 25 miles up the Rio Tapajos past Santarem and tucked away in a crescent bay with a very long sandy beach. It has proven very popular with the guests in the past and we now have it once a year in the schedule. For us it is one of the ports where we have to send an “advance party” ashore as we do not know what to expect. With a high river level, the tenders can sail into a sort of Marina and dock at a little pier. When the water level is low the beach can stretch for half a mile and the tenders have to dock at a sort of contraption that the locals call a floating pier provided it is there. Hence reason to be there early and sort things out before the guests are ready to go ashore.

With that in mind, I scheduled an early arrival. Parintins is not that far from the river Tapajos and with the extra current in the back, I did not have to run any extra engines either to make the schedule. Apart from the tender pier issue there was another reason to be early and that was to find the best anchorage. With the various water levels, nobody knows exactly how much water there is and how close we can go in. So with the pilot I developed an approach plan with first proceeding to the 25 meter line (17 meters under the keel) and then slowly keeping moving forward to the 10 meter line, where ever that might be and then take it from there. Thus we lined the Prinsendam up at sunrise on a straight angle to the beach, came down to a speed of 2 knots and slowly moved forward while diligently watching the echo sounder. The beach and river bottom is fairly flat and only slowly rises, so there is no danger of sudden bumps, the gradient goes up very slowly; otherwise you cannot do this with a big ship.

Air photo of the beach. Googled from somewhere off the internet. During our call the beach was completely deserted.

Going slow costs time and thus I was early. About one mile from the beach, I was down to 10 feet under the keel and there I stayed. Dropped the hook and knew that I would have enough water for the ship to swing around if needed. However as there is no tide, the ship lays on the wind which is always off land here, except during heavy rains squalls. So it seldom swings behind the anchor. No rain expected today (and it is supposed to be the rainy season) and thus we were in business. By 06.30 the Chief Officer, by now well trained in invading Brazil, took the first tender ashore with sailors, carpenters and upholsterers. (The locksmith was present as well, as you never know……..) There was indeed a sort of floating pier, and it only needed a little bit of TLC to be acceptable for our standards and by 07.30 the tenders started their clockwork run.

We were scheduled to be there until 1500 hrs. and although a lot of guests expressed their approval of the place and requested a longer stay, most were back by 1 pm. Lunch was a bigger draw then the beach it seemed.

Going out was the same way as coming in, sailing past Santarem and back into the Amazon River. As the sun was behind us in the afternoon, we were heading back East now; all the guests could see a final wedding of the waters, where the Rio Tapajos met the Rio Amazonas. Today the line was quite sharp and we sailed through it right in line with the boundary. Where the two different waters meet, there is turbulence in the water (sort of mixer idea) and you could feel the vibration through the hull of the Prinsendam. Most peculiar. Not very strong but being tuned into any sort of unusual movement of the ship and sitting on a steel chair, I could really feel it.

Tonight we are sailing down the river again and that should bring us to the Macapá pilot station around 0900 hrs. tomorrow morning to say goodbye to the pilots. Our Amazon expedition has almost come to an end.