1 The Caravel of the 16th Century
This story started in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The JAX Beach sunrise by the peer was transformed into the sunrise at a touristic beach in the Northeast coast of Brazil.
A small village was named Pipa after an old kind of lighthouse. A lighthouse without illumination. A rock mimicking a Wine-Barrel, a Pipa. Same cylindrical shape, just like a lighthouse, to warn ancient sailors about the nearby land. A historical naval landmark.
This narrative initially shows beaches between the first View of the Land, the Terra-a-Vista, by Portuguese in Brazilian territory and the Pipa ancient lighthouse rock. Then beach after beach were visited, first North, then South of Pipa. These photographic trips imitated Portuguese sailors looking for an ocean passage to Bengal Bay.
This story is a dream conversation between someone on this little ship, a caravel of the 15-16th centuries, and beach bums of recent times. This caravel was a Brazilian monument.
Imagine the size of this boat that crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1500 AD. This little ship is called a Caravela, a Caravel.
Caravels contributed to the Spice Trade. Spices brought to Europe from India and other nearby regions are the excuse for this story. Portuguese navigators discovered Brazil trying to go to India, to the Bay of Bengal, via the Atlantic Ocean.
At this point, we are still in the Pipa sunrise part of this story.
We have been planning this introduction at Praia do Amor, Love Beach, Village of Pipa.
The Portuguese, at the end of the 15th century, were tired of sailing around Africa to go to the Bay of Bengal in India.
The trip from Portugal to the Bengal Bay was long. The caravels had to navigate through West Africa, South Africa and even East Africa to reach Mozambique, Madagascar and Sri Lanka, territories associated with Portugal.
Sailing around Cape Town was dangerous. Check google maps to see the trip around this African Southern tip.
A new concept, a round earth, suggested the possibility of a different, maritime route. What about the idea of sailing West, reaching Bengal Bay and India via the Atlantic Ocean?
New sunrises in the Atlantic Ocean. Caravels would surround the earth toward Bengal Bay. May be an easier way than around South Africa. Really? This challenge was worth trying.
A little land in the corner. Is that already an Indian territory full of spices?
Or is this land a surprisingly new territory?
Perhaps the Atlantis Island?
Were the Atlantic Ocean and the imaginary island named after the Greek boss known as Atlas? Did the little caravel reach the island of Atlantis on the way to India?
Not really.
A secretary is valuable to select the topics for discussion. Particularly, secretaries that can deal with computers without damaging hardware or even software. Secretaries that do not demand high salaries or benefits besides the food they can steal.
More about my secretaries later. Apparently, we are still linked to History, or stories starting as sunrises.
Sunrises at an unknown land, not the well-known sunrises of the East-Atlantic near Portugal. Ooops, the trip was about “spices”, not beach volleyball.
What happened` to this caravel that left Portugal via the Atlantic Ocean in 1500?