We have now had the work done to the stainless steel on Oceana but as always found more work to be done. We need to replace all the standing rigging - the wires that hold the mast up - and the rigger thought we were lucky not to lose the mast on our way down here. So we haven't done the usual tourist things but instead have visited workshops and chandlers haggling in bad Portuguese over the price of teak. We are still skint.
Finally we made it to Rio - yes, that means that we have left Salvador!
It wasn't easy though and here's why:
Our first obstacle was a very unruly weather system that gave us two weeks of gales from the South (where we wanted to head) so instead of making a leisurely cruise down the coast, we were stuck in Itaparica for the duration in wind and rain. For two days we couldn't leave Oceana as getting in the dinghy was too hazardous with 40knots of wind and white horses on the wave tops. Finally by the first of August the wind had abated and we made preparations to move on. We made our first overnight passage for nearly five months on our way to Ilheus where we rested, had a very happy 3rd wedding anniversary and stocked up with provisions for the next leg of our journey. We planned to just keep sailing as far as we could before the next weather pattern stepped in - could we make it to Rio in one hop?
As we sailed away from Ilheus the sun was shining and we saw our first whale cruising along parallel to us about 50yards away checking us out. I spent my birthday at sea (first time) and received the best card I'd ever had, hand made, from Christina. As we were passing the archipelago dos Obrolhos the wind started to pick up and veer once again to the South. Bad news for Rio bound yachts, especially as we now had close to 30knots of wind again. We decided to hide behind the Islands and reefs of Los Obrolhos until it blew through and made a turn down wind to make the channel through the reefs.
Now, this was an interesting piece of navigation.
We have a photocopied chart of the area on which it is sometimes difficult to differentiate the land from the sea in the most extensive reefs off the coast of Brazil with big waves breaking around you with the added excitement of whales breaching and spouting trying to find a set of islands the biggest of which is only 1/2 a mile long and 50metres high. Not a set question in the yachtmasters exam I can tell you. Anyhow we pulled in behind Santa Barberra and rode out the storm with a few fishing boats and more sea birds than you can shake a stick at. The Islands are a nature reserve as it has colonies of sea birds found only here and it is also the area that Baleas Jubarte (a type of whale) choose to give birth in due to the warm water currents.
Next day, the wind died a little and the fishing boats started to move off again. Just as we thought that we would have the place to ourselves a fleet of yachts started to arrive from the 'Cruzeiro Costa Leste 2004' sailing from Rio de Janeiro to Fernando do Noronha. Well we thought that this would ruin our experience here but it actually led to an opportunity that we would only find with this exact set of circumstances. The Islands are usually closed to all visitors due to the research taking place with the rare birds and whales only accessed by some scientists and a couple of guys from the Navy who run the lighthouse and radio station there. As it turned out, because one of the commodores at the Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro is the minister for the Navy he had arranged for all the cruisers to have a guided tour of the reserve and the lighthouse, including a huge slap-up Bar-B-Que on the beach. Well, it would have been rude not to take up on that sort of hospitality so of course we joined in. We even went aboard another multi-million pound motor yacht for evening entertainment (owned by the chap who owns one of the biggest breweries in Brazil even we couldn't clean them out of booze and we are usually very good at that). Two days later and they had all gone, leaving the place to the birds and us once more.
So, once again Rio bound, well by now we had to make for the nearest port as we were running out of food and water, so we headed for Vitoria. We made land again nearly three days later after a horrendous sail into headwinds ranging from 0 - 35knots with squalls and rain. Oceana took a pounding and took on quite a lot of water, we were shattered from the exertion and the motion so making port was quite a relief. It took us another three days to dry out all of our possessions and get things in order for the arrival of Martin carrying a red cross parcel from Christina's mum.
After making final preparations and laying down all the laws of the sea to Martin we started once again for Rio. Our first sail with Martin was a day sail to Guarapari where we anchored in a bay and explored the surrounding headlands. Then we made an overnight passage to Buzios which was made remarkable by the presence of so much wildlife enroute. We saw whales and dolphins galore, with one encounter after another. At one point we thought we might lose Martin over the side as we had a pod of dolphins leaping in our bow wave at the same time as a group of 3 whales swam by only 20 metres away from our stern, we didn't know which way to look!
At this point it was still looking good for our planned arrival in Rio in time for Martin's flight back to the UK.
However............
On the 29th August our anchor dragged in gusty winds and we started to drift. As we hauled the anchor back in to reset it, it hooked the anchor chain of a boat next to us causing Oceana to swing in towards Zagara. Now, Zagara is a 50foot, 30ton steel yacht with a bow sprit which made a bloody good attempt to eat Oceana as they came together. An hour later we managed to untangle the two yachts and look at the damage. Oceana - a mashed rubbing strake, a mangled guard rail, several new scratches to the paint work, a slightly damaged bow roller and two very frayed nerves, not to mention a bemused cabin boy. Zagara - a couple of scuffs to the paintwork. At least we didn't hit the rocks and as they say, 'Worse things happen at sea'.
So Martin left us for Rio by coach after being successful in his bid to catch our supper on the fishing rod and to watch whales, but not unfortunately having sailed into Rio de Janeiro. Two days later, we sailed overnight to Rio in another storm (the wind was with us this time thankfully) to find that all our photo's of the whales and our final grand entrance were ruined as the film broke in the camera.
But, we have made it. We are now anchored off the Pria do Botafogo with the statue of Christ the Redeemer looking down at us from one side and Pao de Açucar (Sugarloaf Mountain) standing on the other side of the bay, absolutely skint but still living our dreams. All we have to do now is find some way of paying for our repairs.
