August 1,

The wind and pelting rain had awoken me at 0134. The rain stopped around 0230, but the wind didn’t. It was strong enough it actually rocked the boat and lulled me back to sleep. I don’t know if I have mentioned the wind. It has been pretty much constantly blowing on this third section of our Amazon Adventure. Jeff said the FB speed is around 10mph. I would bet it could be more if the wind was pushing us instead of confronting us. Anyway, the rain came back pelting the windows again, by 0330, reawakening me. At 0340, the horn blew off three long bursts, and at 0345 the FB was docked at the town of Almeirim, population of almost 35,000 per Wikipedia. By 0410, we pulled away and went back to cruising. I was going back to bed when I noticed that my socks were wet. The floor under our windows was wet from the rain getting in? I was able to go back to sleep. I reawakened at 0800, but napped until 0830. Jeff said he’d been awake since 0540. We ate breakfast in our room. Bread and nutella with the last of our walnuts.

Now the Amazon starts to split up as it makes its way to the mouth meeting the Atlantic Ocean. Our FB took the more southern branch. Next we stopped at Gurupa, from 0915 to 0945. This town has a 33,000 population per Wikipedia. After Gurupa we were navigated into the Furo do Ituquara branch. We set out for lunch. There was a huge line-up, our first big one, but there are a bunch more people on board. We both had fish, taking it into our room. After we finished, I went out to find the housekeeping lady…we are out of TP. Finally found her, showing her the empty roll and our key with our suite #11. She said something but there was no internet so I couldn’t translate. The lady with the dogs was there and translated for me. It pays to make connections. Anyway, at this time, around 1230, we turned down a smaller channel, called Furo Tajapuru. Both banks were dotted with houses and some churches. We intermittently saw dolphins and some small white bellied bird with black wings, and a brilliant blue diamond patch on its back. They were darting about the front of the FB. This small, southern-moving channel is a regular thoroughfare! I saw a couple of big cargo ships and many small local long-tailed boats. I also saw a couple of bags come off the back of our boat and a local boat went out to pick them up. We passed a little village called Soa Francisco – it had the first larger wooden boat I’ve seen. We saw some sort of fishing lines across the channel. The FB does hot tangle them. Huh? There was a school “bus-boat” parked at one point with pink buildings. Maybe it’s the school? Questions! A little motor boat caught up and attached to us by a rope. The driver climbed on board with bags of fish/food stuff to sell to staff that were waiting for him. I noticed a man working on the hull of the boat. The FB meandered more south and some east some west. The captain is lost!😂🤣 The mouth of the Amazon is like a delta very spread out. There is a big island at the mouth where we end..it’s bigger than the size of Switzerland according to S!

Anyway at 1700, we had supper of crackers with the last of cheese, and salami we had brought. We also had the last of our rum with some lime. We were done with rice and noodles on board. At 1750, the FB turned down a very narrow channel – it wasn’t even on my mapping program! We were going north and east now… going every which way!!! ⬇️↗️↘️⬆️!  There were some people swimming in the river, many more in small boats. Some of these people even waved. We went up to the rooftop – I noticed we are finally going east. The sunset evolved into a small wonder.

At 1940, we pulled into the city of Breves, population just shy of 120,000. Limes/citrus were unloaded and so were eight brand new tuk-tuk type trucks. Right next to the dock many townspeople were enjoying the cool of the evening at a kiddie and recreational area. We pulled out this energetic city by 2040. We were both tired and turned in by 2130.