Suriname, you were enchanting once again

As I type this I’ve already left the country and am on my way to Grenada with Arnold. But in 23 days I never found the time to write down everything we got up to. A lot has happened!

We got a royal welcome on arrival, because the tide was spot on: we had the current with us all the way to Domburg and enough wind to sail until past the “Bosjebrug”. That’s the enormous bridge built by President Wijdenbosch in the hope that it would help get him re-elected. Unfortunately for him, the voters didn’t fall for it.

Erik, the new owner of the “River Breeze” restaurant and moorings, was already waiting on the jetty when we arrived. That same afternoon we had a lovely swim in the rather green but still refreshing water of the pool, and straight away tried to organise a jungle trip before Mark had to go home again. In the end we managed it: the de Man family and Mark flew by small plane to the furthest inhabited spot on the Upper Suriname River and spent a few days there. I stayed on the boat as babysitter and handyman.

At first it was strangely quiet as far as sailing boats went; the only other one was a boat belonging to a Dutchman who’s been there for years. But of course we caught up with Gerben and Louis van der Veen again. Gerben runs the fishing company his father started with three of his brothers. His uncle Ype, one of those brothers, is our neighbour in Harlingen. Louis lives in Harlingen but goes to Suriname every year end — I see him more often there than in Harlingen! Later on Marion and I went to their Christmas party on the “Vier Gebroeders”, their fishing cutter converted into a luxury motor yacht, and caught up with everyone there.

After I’d put Mark on his plane home, we went to see a few more sights and carried on working on the cursed hose between the electric toilet and the black water tank. Kommer Jan, being the slimmest of the three men on board, was best suited to hanging upside down under a settee fiddling with the hose. All in all we spent a good two days mechanically removing the urine scale that had built up over 15 years.

The following Sunday I was able to pick up the big Toyota Alphard van, which seated all seven of us, then collect the key to the house Marion had rented, and then head to the airport for the second time to pick up Marion, Arnold and Ella.

The house was a beautiful bungalow with three bedrooms (with air conditioning), a large veranda, living room and kitchen, and a lovely little pool. Absolutely perfect, and only about twenty minutes from the boat.

Meanwhile Tanneke turned out to be a true tour guide, and we did the following excursions:

• The Brokopondo dam, followed by lunch at the Afobaka resort, and then a self-guided tour of Jodensavanne, the first place in South America where Jews were free to practise their religion and other freedoms, such as keeping slaves.
• Fort Zeelandia (with exhibitions on the history of Suriname), which is also where the December Murders took place, followed by lunch and a stroll around Paramaribo.
• Fort Amsterdam, again full of history. Both are must-sees, but Zeelandia is more conveniently located.
• By 4x4 minibus to Brownsberg, where we were tortured for an hour being driven up a sand-and-mud “road” through the rainforest to the top. Up there we went for a walk (most of us to a waterfall) and enjoyed the view over the wide surroundings.
• Lunch at Peperpot, a former plantation, after which the de Man family and Ella did a four-hour hike through the rainforest. According to the guide, the other three members of the Verruijt family weren’t properly dressed (no long trousers and long sleeves). Erik said later that this was nonsense, but we thought four hours was on the long side anyway.
• The de Man family also went to Frederiksdorp and Bakkie; Marion and I had already seen those and happily stayed home. Arnold and Ella were going to do a quad bike tour, but unfortunately Arnold fell ill.
• The big bang (literally) was a visit to “Owru Yari”. That’s the biggest party in Suriname — the best comparison is King’s Day in the Netherlands, but only in Paramaribo. We went there (a tip from six years ago) in a hired korjaal/water taxi, together with all the other sailors and even a few Germans from a visiting tall ship. Just before noon not much is happening yet, but at twelve o’clock on the dot it all kicks off with tons of live music but above all pagaras. Those are the big rolls of firecrackers that the Chinese community sets off in the Netherlands. I think the videos speak for themselves.

In the meantime I’d kept in touch with Wim Korte, who had left Lisbon a month later on his Pelagia. With his regular crew Jantien and Norbert (whom I’d met two years ago in the Azores) he had left Mindelo on the 17th, and he arrived in the middle of the night of the 30th to the 31st. Just in time to come along to the Owru Yari festival. So they were thrown straight into the Surinamese deep end at lightning speed!

We also found the leak we’d still been dealing with. It turned out a hose in the toilet was leaking, and we only discovered that because the toilet had been taken apart to flush the hose with citric acid. On top of that, a new chartplotter has been installed, which Mark had had shipped and Marion had brought along. So we’re completely up to date again and hopefully, for the first time in years, leak-free.

And then it was time to go again. Kommer Jan and Sietse were due to fly home on 1 January, Arnold and Ella on the 2nd and Marion on the 5th. Tanneke was going to sail with me to Bonaire. Unfortunately things turned out differently: on the 1st Tanneke heard that her father was in hospital. In the end Tanneke flew home with her men (trip number 3 to the airport), so Arnold is sailing with me instead. Because of poor weather, Ella’s plane arrived in Suriname late, and we had to take her back with us because it wasn’t flying back until 9 hours later (trips 4 and 5 to the airport — I pretty much know the way by now). Fortunately Tanneke’s father turned out to be okay and was allowed home the very next day. All this did make for a rather odd departure, with lots of chaos and forgotten things.

After a few busy weeks with plenty of Parbo Djogos (litre bottles of beer for sharing), delicious food (satay, roti, etc.), family, crew and friends (Pelagia) and contact with other sailors (Mana, Just Fantasy, Oceanix), I’m now at sea with Arnold, and it’s both lovely and peaceful and something to get used to again after lying still for so long. The course is fine really, TWA 100 / TWS 14 at the moment, and we still have about 500 miles to go. For those to whom that means nothing: a beam reach, sailing nicely, and another 2.5 days to go.