ILHABELA

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 JUNE 18 – 24

Ilhabela is the the sailing, diving, wreck capital of the state of Sao Paulo and one of the largest islands in Brazil with an area of 750km2.  It is very touristy with a population of 20,000 that increases 5 fold in the summer season.  The middle class here are descendants of the slaves that were brought over to work the sugar and coffee plantations (that no longer exist) and call themselves “Caicaras”.   The major economy is tourism and our tour company was named “Caicara”.

There are 2 marinas listed in our guidebooks and we head to the nearest one, it is dark and the mooring balls only have a small loop on top and no way to reach underneath to grab it.  So we go to the next, Yacht Club Ilhabela, and as we are scoping out the mooring field with the balls having the same configuration as above and very challenging, a appoyo (launch) comes out and guides us deeper into the field and hands off the ball.  Since it’s late and it has been another bouncy 8 hour crossing we head to bed.  Next morning the wind is blowing and it is rainy and there are always things that need to be done so we stay aboard.
                                   

  

                                                                       

The wind has settled and the appoyo from the yacht club has come out to take us in to register.  We are allowed 4 free days on the mooring and use of the club’s facilities—pool, workout room, computer room, restaurants, etc. (the best we’ve seen so far although the wifii signal is the pits off the boat).  The Yacht Club is the host to the largest sailing regatta week in Brazil. We head out on foot to explore the town.  First stop is a tourist kiosk where we sign up to go for a day’s excursion by jeep over the mountain.  We shop at the local market, walk thru town and happen upon a  designer store named “Marcos”.  We talk with the manager, whose daughter is living in Toronto.  Most Brazilians that we meet are very disillusioned with Brazil and it’s governance, no wonder as the the Reia continues to lose value. It is lucky for us as 2 years ago it would have been 2 Reis to a dollar and now it is 3+.  We have dinner out to give Pati a reprieve from cooking and enjoy a wonderful Gelato Ice Cream.


                      

                                            
                                         

Next morning we take our jeep ride over the mountain through the “Parque Estadual de Ilhabel” to the Praixa (beach) Castelhano. A 2 hour ride through the mountain parque where we see the wonders of tropical flora- giant tree orchids, ferns and bromeliads, air plants, parasite trees. We arrive at the beach, drop off a few people and head out again to the base of the hill that leads to the waterfall where we hike 1.5 hours to the top. Back to the beach where Marc does some body surfing in the waves and we are served lunch, reminding us of lunches on Thailand beaches  - fresh fish, salads, Caipirinhas ( official drink of Brazil with Cachaca). We met a couple from Salt Lake City who will be teaching English on the mainland, a couple from Sweden/Brazil and a young Lesbian couple.  I walked the beach and  find “sand dollars” which I offer to our newfound friends.

Not that we use it much right now with all the moorings and anchorings, but the bow thruster is not working again.  That makes 2 fixes and 2 f--k ups.  Marc is furious.  At least we have the wind generator working.  Anybody out there have any boat issues?  HAH…..  NEXT STOP--------PARATY.

        

SANTOS

SANTOS

 JUNE 11-17

We had planned to head to Sao Sabastio but had to re-route to Santos, the largest port in Brazil for container ships.  We needed to do repairs that were never done right in Piriapolis.  There appears to be an incredible shortage of competent repair people throughout South America.  The expected SW winds have not appeared and we are getting 35-40 knots from the East on a broad reach which means a rolling sea. For all you sailors, you know this is the worst.  I try to sleep and feel like I am riding a slo-motion electric bull in Texas.  A sleepless night ensues and a full day of rain.   Santos is a dangerous place.  So on our approach after midnight while Pati is asleep Marc sees a boat on radar which is heading right at us.  He does an avoidance maneuver but the bogie does not relent and continues to point directly at us.  Marc throttles up for all we are worth and the bogie just passes us and starts to follow us on our tail.  This does not give us a warm and fuzzy feeling but we are able to distance ourselves from this threat and we make our way into the harbor.   We arrive at “Iate Club Santos” @ midnight and pull into the first dock we find.  

MARINA LIFE

                   

After a much needed 9 hours of deep sleep Marc goes to shore to check in and finds an English Speaking Brazilian Sailor, Guilherme Kodja and he helps us begin the hunt for a mechanic to fix the bow thruster and wind generator.  Gui lines us up with a mechanic and invites us to join him and his brother, a dental surgeon for dinner.  He becomes our new best friend.  He was an attorney in the US for several years but decided that sailing was his passion.  He co-owns the company “Set Sail”, and is the rep. for Leopard Catamarans, and author of books on Marine life around this area.  He joins us for brunch the next morning on the boat to discuss possible diving sites and recommends marinas as we head north.    His son, 14 years old, is looking to spend a year or two in the states with friends in Belmont, Ma.

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SANTOS SUNRISE

BIRTHDAY WISHES

Gui expresses a desire to break away from the yachting business because of the downturn in the Brazilian economy.   Marc shares with Gui information about one of his ventures, VisionScope and Gui gets excited and voila they are now working on VisionScope Brazil.   Gui has arranged for Marc to be invited to present VisionScope @ a Brazilian Football (Soccer) Team Physcian’s conference in Florianapolis on July 18.  Ghia has also paved the way to have his company, SET SAIL, sponsor us for a slide show presentation of our Newfoundland/Labrador sail in 2002/2003 with comparative input from our Patagonia sailing journey around Chile in 2011/2012 in exchange for a week of what would be very expensive docking at the very upscale and terrifically located Rio de Janeiro Yacht Club.    

Authored by our friend Guilherme Kodja and a gift for us.

And as for wildlife, well Marc is still looking for thong hoppers (Brazilian bikini glad ladies with very thin bikinis) but because it is winter here they have not appeared.  But on our crossings from Port-to-Port we occasionally spot another “bird” specie, a few “Magellan” penguins who have migrated from the “Falklands”.  One of them swam right up to us as to say “howdy!”  When we were in the Falklands we had barely gotten there before all the nest were emptying to head north.  Mind you each species has different habitats---The Magellans dig tunnels and live underground,  the Gentoos build birds nests on the land and the Kings just hover around each other. We are also confronted with fishing boats of various sizes and line configurations as well as large container ships—makes for interesting sailing.

And last but not least we had the bow thruster fixed again and got the wind generator,  that was blown out in Patagonia with a 70 mph gust, operational.  

Tomorrow is Marc’s birthday, June 16.  How to celebrate?  I will feed him bodily with a massage and gastronomically with a special dinner, and a candle will top his apple pie that I saved and froze from Piriopolis.   He is all smiles. Marc’s vision was to sail as far south (Tierra del Fuego) as we did north (Battle Harbor, Labrador) ---mission accomplished.  And now it’s on to warmer weather and swimmable water!

PORTO BELO TO SAO FRANCISCO DO SUL

Porto Bello

 JUNE 4

The last time we were in a place called Portobello was on Panama’s east coast when Virginia flew into Panama for a “spring break” from college and we anchored off this Fort- based island with crumbling walls and gun batteries.  Porto Belo, a peninsula off the mainland, is a fishing village.  It is a weekend get-away for power boaters with 2 floating restaurants and ski-doo rentals. As we pull into “Caixa de Aco”, ski-doos, 7 power boats rafted together, a few sailboats and many fishing boats all share the same anchorage.  It is Friday night and the second day of a 4 day holiday, celebration of St. Christopher, so spirits are high (the liquid kind).  The 7 rafted boats seem to be “party central” and since it gets dark @ 6 pm the party begins early-----think disco on the water---loud music and flashing disco boat lights.  By 10 pm we get a reprieve as the boats slip away 1 by 1 into the “full moon” night.  We pull anchor at 5 a.m. next morning and head to “Sao Francisco do Sul”, recommeneded by everyone we have talked to.

SAO FRANCISCO DO SUL NORTH END

  We need to reach the entrance to Iate Club Capri on a high tide as the entrance is only 2 meters, and as we draw 2.2 it would be tight. We arrive at 3 pm and tie off to a floating dock. The first night is free and thereafter it could break the bank @ $70 a night. So we spend 2 days fueling, doing laundry, walking the beach and meet a wonderful couple, Wander and Estrela who become our hosts for a day. Wander (pronounced Vander) is a private pilot who flies a cattle ranch owner of 8000 hechtres around whenever he needs it, maybe 6 x’s a month and Estela and her brother own a factory, IMAM, on the mainland.  They manufacture and sell internationally , blades specialized to fit into machines that cut soy.  They live on the mainland and have a summer house on the island. Estela’s brother has a sailboat docked next to us and they invite us over.  As Marc does not eat meat (this is hard in this country as all cattle are grassland fed, no hormones here) we decline.  They invite us to take a drive and explore the island and their home, their beaches and towns.  They buy us the local, seasonal fish THAINHA.  Estela’s brother has a mooring off the city center of Sao Francisco and they offer to “power – boat” us over there the next day.  Another sailboat has taken the mooring but we scope out the anchorage and will return in the afternoon.  So Estela and Wander give us a sea tour of the “Ilhas” (islands) and anchor off a local restaurant where they order lunch of Camarones (shrimp)  Jamaican style and Antarctica Beer where it is dinghied out to the boat.  Prior to this excursion their boat had been on the hard and they are ecstatic to be on the water as much as we are.  What a life and what wonderful people.  Exchanges of emails, facebook contacts will hopefully keep us in touch. Everyone we meet we extend invites to visit us in the US and hopefully we can reciprocate all the generosity that they have bestowed on us.

Sao Francisco do Sul 

 

Was founded by the French in 1504 and resettled 1 ½ centuries later by the Portuguese whalers from the Azores  and gave the Portuguese a strategic position in the Baia da Babitonga.  It is now a major shipping port. It is Brazil’s 3^rd oldest city. In March 1851 it was the port of entry for German, Swiss, Italian and Norwegian immigrants onboard the “COLON”. It is a major commercial port and the colonial town center is now classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site-- with cobblestone streets, colorfully painted houses that remind me of San Francisco, Ca. where I lived for 15 years.  We anchor off the “Mercado” (market) building near the customs boat and enjoy a relaxing evening.  Marc has been researching things to do, museums, restaurants, massages, etc.  Since his back has been sore due to all the anchoring we head out to find a masseuse.  While Marc enjoys his massage I sit at a local café with wifii to update blogs, emails and facebook. 
                A short visit back to the boat then we head out on the dinghy to find a “trip advisor” recommended restaurant on a nearby beach- Zuru’s.  We pull the dinghy onto the beach and a dining couple invite us to join them,  Biba and Mielo (means honey). We are enjoying our food and company when someone yells that our dinghy has drifted off the beach due to an incoming tide.  Marc strips to his undies and walks out to chest level water to retrieve it.  Good that this is an informal setting as he rejoins us shirtless to finish dinner.  We head back to the boat and are stopped short.  We have run over a local fishing net, unlit of course.  While Marc is trying to unwind the line off the prop the owners motor out to cut it away.  It is only ¼ mile off the beach.  They ask us if we like fish (but of course) and invite us to follow them to shore and offer us a beer and give us 3 large Tianha’s.  We decline the beer and take the fish. This is Marc's idea of fishing--get it from the locals rather than put a pole in the water.

     

Go figure---we run over their net and they give us a gift.  Marc says it was illegally placed.  I put the fish in a bucket off the stern and head to bed.

                                                      

                                                                                           BIB'a ARTWORK

Next day we both have appointments for massages.  Just to be clear the massages here are $25 per hours so it’s hard not to get one when the opportunity arises.  My left foot (not the movie) has been aching, feeling like fasciitis.  The massage was great and next day the pain is gone.  We plan to leave at 3 pm to catch the SW wind.  Mielo is waving as we head to shore for a final shop and drives us to their house for brunch – and what a wonderful brunch it is.  Biba and Mielo are from the mainland, Joinville, where Germans and Italians are dominant as well as Alpine Architecture.  Mielo is in commercial real estate and Biba is an artist (see photos). We encourage Biba to take up her art again and do miniatures so that tourists like us who live on a boat and don't have a lot of space can enjoy.  The art above wasw one of my favorites. We brunch on grilled Thainha, Pirao (Brazilian dish), fresh vegies, wonderful wine.  They send us off with a bottle of dry Reisling, bar of chocolate, and a fully grilled fish to be consumed later.  A special connection has been made and a soulful and heartfelt goodbye is made as we blast our horn from the anchorage as they watch from their balcony.