30 June 2012.
We departed at 1500 for an overnight to Santo Andre, what first looked like a wet sail turned out to be quiet a magic sail. None of the threatening black clouds got us. By 3 am we had to slow down to 2 knots as one can only enter at low water to see the Reef. The Joao de Tiba River is only 200 meters wide but the entrance is tricky with only one way point outside then it goes straight for the beach, up the back of the Reef, there one passes about 5 meters from the reef the water is 20 ft deep before one enters the actual river and from there it is 2.5 meters average depth. We are lying in front of some nice houses and a good restaurant. Met two local yachts here, unfortunately they left the same day, but we will meet up again in the next anchorage.
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26 June 2012 Caravelas to Cumuruxatiba
After spending many relaxing days and meals together with Mauricio and friends we are finally ready to leave with so many fond memories of this beautiful river anchorage. On Saturday we had a lovely sail on Sanukstar out to the reefs for fishing and spear fishing Visibility unfortunate not so good, on Sunday we spent most of the day in the comfort of Mauricio house it rained all day and we watched the formula one and I made us all lunch.
26 June 2012 Tender up and motor on bracket, for an early start next day. But in the morning it rained and the wind was very strong so we played games and did lots of reading.
28 June 2012 Departed at 9am with a nice South breeze down River had a good Sail out to the Reef anchorage for the night, to shorten the distance tomorrow. We both jumped in and cleaned the bottom of Snatch, it had a few barnacles to many. Next day up early and on the way to Comuruxatiba arrived at 1500. Tide was still pretty high and difficult to spot the opening in the Reef to head in. We then noticed a fisherman waving frantically with his hat in hand. He passed us on to a friend once we got to him, that had a sailing dinghy and he sailed ahead of us to the anchorage. This was a very touching moment for us. There is no charts for this area and the cruising guide is not very clear with no way points or bearings. The evening was a bit rolly as with most anchorage behind a Reef the swell does come over a bit at high tide.
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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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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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