Brazil and beyond

One of my New Years resolutions was to get our blog up to date. So here goes!

We spent about a week in Jacare, on the East Coast of Brazil after crossing the South Atlantic. We took the easy way out for check-in and check-out using the Marina Manager to go to the various offices. It still took half a day - both in and out, but to check in on our own the estimate was at least two days. Well worth the small fee.

The rest of our time in Jacare was spent mostly with boat projects and visiting with a small group of cruisers who had also just made the Atlantic crossing. Projects included tuning the rig and a temporary repair of the hull leak using a combination of underwater epoxy and a waxy compound on the outside of the hull. Hopefully enough to keep us dry before a proper fix in Grenada.

The Marina has a small courtyard with a bar and kitchen. The occasional caipirinha (Brazil's national drink) was consumed. They tend to taste a lot like another and occasionally like still another!! We eventually ventured out to a small village just up the river and heard the local Sax player who plays every night at sunset. Two or three large platform party boats passed by the Marina each evening for the same experience. Mostly our time in Jacare was a brief interlude before heading North.

Once projects were finished, and personal batteries were recharged, we'd had enough caipirinhas and mosquito bites (the mosquitos were horrible), we started to look for a good weather window to head to Grenada. The area just North of Jacare has conditions much like the ITCZ and I guess could be considered part of the same. This translates into cloudy, wet and usually calm conditions (or conditions ideal for a powerboat!). After looking out a week or so we realised that for the first part of the trip this was going to be our fate, so three of us headed out.

Traversing the river was again interesting but uneventful, this time with no rain or wind. We then had to head a number of miles East to avoid a large shoal off the Brazilian coast. During this time one of our buddy boats picked up something on their rudder. After initially stopping, then reversing, and then circling they had no luck in dislodging it. So the dauntless skipper tore off his clothes, dove in and pulled the offending article off the rudder while we watched and thought 'glad its not us'! After many congratulations via VHF from both us and our other companion boat we continued on our way.

For the first few days we motorsailed and occasionally sailed under light to very light conditions. Luckily the wind was mostly on the beam so the light wind was of more value than on the Atlantic crossing, where it was right behind us. The most important bonus was a push by the coastal current that at times was over three knots in our favour! As we got further up the coast, travelling in a NorthWest direction, the trade winds started to fill in from the Northeast giving us a great beam reach sail and still a good push from the current.

There are some worries of piracy all along this coast but these concerns become more significant as you get further North off the coast of Venezuela. In consideration of this reality we plotted a course at least 50 nautical miles off the coast and then 50-75 miles northeast of Tobago. By this time one of our fleet of three diverged further north to go to Martinique, leaving two of us to head to Grenada.

As there had been some pirate activity between Grenada and Trinidad we kept North and approached Grenada along it's north coast. For the last 24 hours we decided to 'go dark' and run without running lights or AIS transmission. We left our radar on primarily to keep track of our buddy boat and avoid colliding with her during the night. By this point the wind had shifted to our aft quarter, then to our stern and dropped to a point that the diesel drifter (our engine) was in use.

We had an uneventful night and arrived of the north coast of Grenada in the early morning, just after sunrise. We then headed down the coast to St. Georges and the awaiting marina.

The Marina only had stern tie slips available but the professional staff made the tie up easy. Now for a few rums and a good night's sleep!

A few may ask whether the piracy concern is as real as it seems. I was one of those sceptics, thinking that the risk was highly overblown and still feel that the risk is extremely small (Kim is not as skeptical as me, and had done plenty of research in advance, and communicated with CSSN, as well as the Tobago and Grenada Coast Guards regularly to minimise our risk). On entering the Marina we passed a large catamaran with a series of bullet holes on its port pontoon. They had been South of Grenada when approached by a small fishing boat with a group of armed men aboard. Luckily, they were able to use a combination of wind and diesel to outrun the small boat but not before the bullets flew. We have no plans to sail further South to Trinidad.