January 9, approaching the Amazon

Friday, Jan. 9 Day 7 of our journey
It's been just a week and 2427 miles since we boarded the Prinsendam and we are just hours from crossing the equator. Unlike other cruises, the crossing ceremony won't take place at our first crossing or even the second but on the third, in the Pacific. For this time we will cross in the wee hours of the morning so there will be no Neptune ceremony until later.
Our position at 1:45pm is 01° 30.32'N 49° 04.25'W. The seas are less than a foot, the water coffee-with-cream brown, the relative humidity 90, air temp 78F. Our heading is 324.5 The wind is 5 knots coming across the deck at 90° . The water color is a result of the waters of the Amazon flowing into the Atlantic but more on that later.
We have been told several times that the Amazon and Antarctic portions of this cruise are an adventure, more of an expedition than a cruise. I think it is the ship’s way of saying don’t expect much ashore other than primitive conditions. Today the port lecturer told us that as of tonight we are no longer passengers on a cruise ship but explorers. He said we will visit the Amazon region on its terms, not ours and it will be nothing like our expectations.
We’ve received several notices to please conserve water during our days on the Amazon as the ship cannot make fresh water from the river as it does at sea. According to the Captain's one o'clock announcement from the bridge ) we are cruising at only 11 knots in order to cross the bar outside the Amazon. During the captain's daily announcements we would like to strangle most of the passengers who talk though it making it difficult to hear. From what we could hear we may have only 6 or 7 feet beneath the keel during this crossing. I'll try to get a verification later. (Confirmed: We had 6 feet)
From the Captain's comments it sounded like the trip up the Amazon was not for the faint of heart navigator. It is not expected to be rough but the stabilizers cannot be used as there is much debris, including large fallen trees, in the water. Because of the serpentine twists in the river, there will be a great deal of rudder use, causing listing of the ship in many areas.
The channels and delta area change from cruise to cruise so the ship's officers rely heavily on local pilots. At some points in the river we will not be able to see land, on others we will travel very close to the shore on one side or another.
We expect to see land on the starboard side between 6 and 7 pm tonight and on the port between 8 and 9. We'll travel up the river, drop anchor about 4 am off Macapa* where the ship will be cleared by local authorities. We will then proceed to dock at a small pier at a sawmill operation.
HAL had arranged for free shuttle buses for those not on tours but I don't think there is much to see in Macapa whether you're on a $50 tour or a free shuttle. We will visit a village school that is supported by HAL. We're brought along colored pencils and markers for the kids in the school.
After dinner I saw a half dozen or so people looking out the doors to the promenade deck. When I went over to take a peek out this is what I saw.

The little guy was about the size of our June bugs and his buddy HUGE. And yes, those are pincers. And, they weren't alone.

I'm rethinking forays into the jungle if this is what lands on the ship in the middle of the river.




*With apologies to the romance languages, the program I am using does not have special characters for accents and my cheat sheet is back in Falmouth so you will have to use your imagination on some spellings.