-----Original Message-----
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Monday, June 29, 2009, Ilha
de Paqueta, Guanabara Bay,
0940 local time Monday, June 29, 2009 (0840 GMT). Lat/Lon: 22º45.6'S, 43º06.3'W. Location: Ilha de Paqueta, 10 NM N of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Course and speed over ground: None, raising anchor. Wind:
NE <5. Sea: Flat, glassy. Sky: 1/8, dense morning fog has just
lifted. Air temp: 77ºF outside and 73ºF
inside. Barometer: 1018mb. Water temp: 73ºF. Humidity: 72%. Current: None. Sail/engine combination and tack: Sails
furled; engine idling; weighing anchor in 15' depth with 35lb Bruce anchor,
100' 8mm chain, and 15' nylon snubber. Fishing: Two-foot long snook
acrobatically jump inside the harbor.
Doug even got out his rod and cast a few times, but no luck. Last 24 hour run: At anchor for the past four
days. Forecast: Continued settled
weather. Thoughts: We love
Chorinho (choro) is a type of Brazilian
popular music, says my aged “Harvard Brief Dictionary of Music.” We were sitting in the courtyard of Casa des Artes, eating delicious Brazilian food out of paper plates,
and listening to the group of 13 or so musicians play this style of music in
the traditional manner: sitting around a table and playing for each other. On the last Sunday of every month, the sleepy
little
Though
just 10 nm north of
Dozens of
wooden fishing rowboats were moored in the SW corner of the harbor, next to the
ferry terminal and in front of a Catholic church. I can’t tell you much about the history of the
island because it has no mention in any of our guide books or cruising guides
and the only tourist brochure is in Portuguese!
Our Brazilian friend Susy on s/v Samba, whom
we met at the Clube Naval Charitas
yacht club, our “home” in Rio, told us
that we mustn’t miss Ilha de Paqueta,
especially on the last Sunday of the month.
She was right.
Jose,
founder of the Casa de Artes, spoke English. He explained to us that this style of music, chorinho, comes from the turn of the century, and that “choro” means tears or crying, as if the instruments
themselves shed notes of tears. I think
it means the listeners’ tears, because those are what fell down my cheeks when
I heard the first expressive notes played.
There were several mandolins and guitars, a flute, trumpet, trombone,
tuba, saxophone, clarinet and even a tamborine played
like a hand-drum. No singing. Men and women, young and old, these excellent
musicians were sitting around a table and joyfully making music, a real jam
session (pic 2).
Choro itself is polyphonic, meaning that each piece has several melodic or
independent lines all going at the same time, creating a very intricate
sound. Every so often I was reminded of
American ragtime, with the turn of a musical phrase or chord change. The whole family is now hooked on this
musical style. I’ve asked Jose to
recommend some choro albums that we can purchase.
As you
can see, we are enjoying our time in
We’ve had
a nice routine this past month. While
I’m on my early morning jog on the beach, Doug and the girls stow the bedding
and prepare breakfast. If it’s a
weekday, then school rules the day.
Eliza and Abby usually row to shore before lunch for “gym class,”
swimming laps at the club pool. And
Doug and I always have boat projects to do.
Most recently, he and I have spent a lot of time on shore at the club’s
outdoor restaurant, more or less connecting to the fickle WiFi
system, ordering boat parts and school books to be shipped to us here.
Then on
Saturday or Sunday we go into
with views of Rio's
iconic statue "Cristo Redentor" on
This was
same harp festival that lost one of its harpists in the Air France
catastrophe. We attended a full Mass in
Gregorian chant at the Sao Bento Monastery; an opera concert by the Brazilian
Navy Orchestra in the stunning Nossa Senhora do Candelaria church (pic 6);
and a street festival and Mass celebrating
A
continuous tapestry of religious images was created, about one kilometer long (pic 8 & 9).
After a
full outdoor Mass took place, this colorful, ephemeral carpet later became the path
on which scores of priests, monks, and other Catholic officials walked in
remembrance of Jesus. I even took
communion on the street while the live Christian rock music blared. The performers were all young priests in
black robes with white collars. This is
--
Kyle
The
S/V
Estrela
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 1:45 PM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Saturday, July 4, 2009, Clube Naval Charitas,
1700 local time Saturday, July 4, 2009
(0840 GMT). Lat/Lon: 22º55.96'S, 43º06.37'W. Location: Clube
Naval Charitas,
We’ve traveled thousands of miles, crossed several
oceans, explored continents, yet we didn’t feel complete. There was a hole in our hearts. Something was
missing from our lives, our crew, our boat. But
all that changed yesterday, when a four-footed furry friend joined Estrela’s
crew. We’ve named him Chorinho, Choro for short
(pronounced “Shoro,” rolling the “r” sound), after
the Brazilian music style—our
He was a stray hanging around the yacht club. Susy, who fed him,
was urgently trying to find him a home before the yacht club got rid of
him. So who was the honored guest at the
yachtie pot-luck that she had organized three days
ago? Kitty! How could we resist the adorable furry-furry
who wrapped himself around our legs while we were trying to talk about boat parts
and other exciting stuff that yachties talk
about? “Isn’t he cute?” Susy said, wearing her best saleswoman smile. “I’ll bring him to the vet for a check-up and
even give you my extra kitty bowl if you take him!” The girls played with him all evening. I gave him my leftovers. Doug thought, “hmm, nice kitty,” and kept on
talking about boat parts. Susy took me aside as we were leaving the party. “I think you’ll have to convince the captain.”
Back on Estrela, I couldn’t think about anything
else. I couldn’t go to sleep. I kept Doug awake, talking about cats and
boats. This isn’t the first time that the cat issue has come up. But something has always stopped us. Either we couldn’t find a really special
kitten, or the timing wasn’t right, with us about to leave for inland travel or
soon to sail to a country with animal quarantine rules. I had even checked the US Customs website and
learned that foreign cats with proper vaccination papers are not quarantined on
arrival. Now, however, we’re on the last leg of our journey, with lots of
sailing ahead and no big land trips planned.
And this Brazilian kitty is very special.
We had a crew meeting the morning after the potluck and
decided to name him Choro and give him a
sea-trial. We are about to sail 60nm SW
of Rio to a famous Brazilian cruising ground called Ilha
Grande (the tag line is “365 anchorages, one for every day of the year”),
planning to stay for one month before returning to Rio to get Estrela ready for
the big trip up the Brazilian coast. If
he adapts to life as a sea-cat, then he has a home with us. But if he is miserable, then we could still
bring him back to
So yesterday morning found Susy
and me whistling for the kitty (yes, he comes when you whistle) and then
watching him trot across the grass towards us, black tail straight in the
air. What surprises were in store for
him this day! We popped him into a
borrowed cat-carrier, drove to the vet and had him poked and prodded, de-wormed
and vaccinated. No fleas! And by the end of the exam, he was
purring. I’ve been to the vet scores of
times and I’ve never seen a cat purr while lying on the cold steel table. Next stop, the pet shop for food and kitty
litter, and then before he knew it, his new home. We rowed him across the anchorage, Choro mewing from inside the cat-carrier.
Meanwhile, back on Estrela, Doug and both girls were feverishly fabricating kitty accessories, beginning with a litter-box system and scratching post. Doug is more of a dog guy, but you never would have known from the intensity and creativity with which he attacked these two challenges. With Yankee/salty dog ingenuity, he took a piece of close-celled foam, cut a large hole in the center and dropped in an old salad bowl. Next he traced and cut the foam into the size of the outside of our toilet basin. This formed a collar around the ex-salad bowl, which together fit snugly inside the toilet. Add a little litter, and voila! Choro has his own stable, seaworthy litter-box. When it is our turn to go we just remove the litter-box. For the scratching post, Doug sewed together scrap pieces of outdoor carpet, using carpet tape, his sailor’s sewing kit, and Velcro. We now have a detachable, single sheet of carpet protecting our table leg, on which Choro can exercise his claws. Abby even made a cat toy with string and an old mahi mahi fish tail.
So far Choro has used all our
new inventions and has started to explore Estrela, his big, floating, kitty
gymnasium.
---Kyle
The
S/V Estrela
copyright © 2003-2009 Doug and Kyle Hopkins.
All rights reserved.