We are now back
in the Northern Hemisphere.
Coming up the
coast of Brazil, we passed over the Equator into the Northern Hemisphere before
reaching the mouth of the Amazon River. Going
upriver we passed over the Equator into the Southern Hemisphere. We crossed into the Northern Hemisphere a final time coming downriver.
Other than
some pockets of civilization, some like Macapa quite large, all we saw today
was ship traffic, the occasional small ferry hugging the shoreline and isolated
dwellings at the edge of the forest.
At Macapa the
river pilots disembarked. VEENDAM still
had hours to go before reaching open ocean, but the need for pilots had
past. Just downriver from Macapa were about
15 freighters at anchor awaiting their slot for picking up pilots and beginning
the trip upriver.
I use the plural
of pilots because the constant need to have one on the ship’s bridge
necessitates two pilots per ship.
VEENDAM had two pilots and two trainees aboard.
During a
passing rainstorm, we saw Regent’s MARINER headed upriver.
Near sunset we
passed the easternmost point of land on the river. We still had to cross the sandbar, but the
Amazon was astern of us.
Our next port
of call is Castries, St. Lucia on March 17.
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