15 June 2012 Caravelas
Arrived here on the 9 June in the afternoon and entered the River thru a well buoyed channel. Once inside the River is 30-40 foot deep and approximately 800 meters wide fringed with Mangroves and Palm Trees along the bank. On the way up River the depth comes up pretty quick once going to starboard. Our Max-C chart kit gave us a very good chart of the river,but with all rivers sand banks change and it is always use full to have local knowledge which we got from Mauricio. At present we are about 5 miles up River anchored outside of Sanuk dive centre in 15 ft and 100 meters from the shore. Mauricio and his wife Tiana are very hospitable, he showed us around the place and has invited us to use his wifi and his home . We have been so lucky in having met all these wonderful people in our travels. Yesterday he invited us along with his neighbor who speaks English and Translates for us for a delicious shrimp lunch.
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Comments [3]
2 June 2012
We only left at 8am after heavy a shower had passed and had a nice sail hard on the wind until 15.00 when the north east increased to 20+ knots and beating became uncomfortable, so we headed for Barra da Riacho and reached that little harbor just after sunset where we dropped the hook in 18 ft of water. This spot turned out to be a little rolly the next day so we moved behind the harbor wall.
Barra da Riacho is a very small harbor serving the paper factory a little further in land . Small ships and Barges come and go about 2-3 times a day. Going ashore is not possible as it is a port. The Entertainment was had watching the tug boats rotate the ships into the small areas. We decided to just relax, read and play more scrabble or squabble until the nose on Snatch was pointing in a southerly direction .That happened 6 days later when we had a light SSW and we were on our way to Caravelas at last. Light conditions stayed all day with not much more that 8 knots during the night we had some heavy rain showers and they had Bert's name on them as usual.
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30 May 2012 Vitoria
Vitoria is not a cruisers choice place to stay. There is heavy industry on the other side of the bay about 4 miles away and the noise and dirt are ongoing for 24 hours. So we only stayed here 3 days to rest, stock up on fresh veggies and buy more diesel at the marina fuel dock. This new diesel once again had a lot of black rubbery flakes in it that blocks the filter. All cans we filtered we had carefully cleaned and dried out before filling them, so there was no chance of it being from them. So once again all remaining diesel was filtered through fine fabric from one can to another. The marina charges have gone up 300% since last year March our friend Shirley paid 7.- Real per day and now it costs 20.- Real per day per person and that is at anchor outside the marina and far out as it is very shallow. And only using marina shower and dinghy dock and wifi.
Maintenance :The exhaust water pump had started a small leak so I replaced that with a reconditioned unit and then fitted a new seal in the old one. Also one of the batons on the mainsail had jumped out of its pocket and needed some suturing with needle and thread.
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Been the end of May the SW should be coming thru regularly but all we got was NE-N and as the bay in Buzios is open to the NE it became rather uncomfortable so we decided to sail back to Arial do Cabo and hang out there, and explore the village and the city of Cabo Frio on the other side of the peninsula . Every day we down loaded the weather but no front in sight. Then on Friday we saw the SW for Tuesday following , the next day the same sight showed no more SW but all light variable winds for the next 6 days. We left the next morning at first light and after motoring 50 hours non stop with only the main up arrived in Vitoria. This is a big commercial harbor with one Marina in it and only a small anchor place .Today we did some stocking up and went out for a great Sushi Lunch.
Relaxing now around the swimming pool and catching up with e-mails and enjoying a nice cold beer. Tomorrow with a bit of luck the wind should be favorable to move on a bit.
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15 May 2012 Rio to Arial do Cabo.
We left Rio at 4.00 with the main up and no wind. The sea was confused with big holes in it and the sail helped to dampen the motion a bit. Once again the predicted E wind did not come up. From all the motion the Diesel Filter before the pump was getting more and more blocked so that after daylight we had to shut down and put in a spare clean filter. This procedure had to be repeated a couple of times until we decided to suck straight out of Jerry cans. We arrived at Arial do Cabo at about 20.00 and anchored in Ensenada de Forno. The next day as it got light we saw our friends Anna and Johan anchored much deeper in the bay close to the beach. They left soon after for Buzios where we saw them again 2 days later after a very nice slow sail . Buzios is a very touristy place with loads of posada's and lots of shops like one would find on 5th avenue New York. Really very up market and pricy.
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8 May 2012: Copacabana Beach
After doing some scouting around yesterday and shopping we asked information at the mall, which bus to take to Copacabana Beach where upon she told us they have a free shuttle running every 30 minutes. Now that is what Yachties like to hear. So today after the rain clouds cleared up a bit after last night rain we strolled into town. All prepared sun tan lotion , Sarongs ,picnic was a cloudy day not many people around but still a nice outing. The following day was much hotter and more people around but truly over rated much better bods on the beaches in Miami and also a lot cleaner.
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