Cruising in Brasil,Ilha Grande south of Rio de Janerio,the towns of Abraao,Angra Dos Reis and Paraty

The view from the cottage owned by Peter Thuriddl,with Ocean Planet at anchor in his bay.


Checking on Google Earth I am amazed to discover that this bay on Ilha Grande is untoutched and is largely just as it was when I was last there twenty five years ago.The boats are Ocean Planet an Endurance 37 and Elangaini,a 36ft long Lavranos design.

Please note,the writer accepts no blame for mistakes or errors in the following information,it is the clear responsability of the user and or navigator to check his or her own course and position.

I find it amazing that even twenty five years on,so little seems to be writen about cruising Brasil,the notes that follow are mainly from my own chart used when Ilha Grande,which is one of Brasil nature conservation areas,so it will remain untouched.

Roy

Warning,paradise comes with a bite,Borochuda flies,as soon as you arrive buy some Autan liquid,sold in a yellow plastic bottle,its a clear sprit of some sort and it works,the flies are so small you can barely see them but just look like a common house fly,they can and will bite the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet,so miss nothing when you apply the Autan.

These are directions to some of the places I had the pleasure to visit,check them out on Google Earth,you will find a box on the top left hand corner of their opening page,just enter the lat and long I have given,the area will open up and you can explore with the use of pictures posted by viewers.

Entering from the Rio end and between Ilha Da Marambia and Pta de Castelhanos,the most northen end of Ilha Grande,

These bays are open to the North West wind,which I assume is not normal,it was flat calm when we were there,Google Earth shows nothing has changed.

Stop number one as you pass Isla das Palmas,to Port,is what I refer to as Peters Place,it is just before Pta de Aroeira,which places it between pta dos Reciefes,the basic lat long being 23 9 30 s and 44 07 30 w,this bay,or at least its land was owned by an Austrian named Peter Thuriddl ,an amature radio ham,I would love to find out what became of him,he will be a Silent Key now?(dead) probably a rare picture of PY1ZAK is on my blog.There is a good walk across the island to Enseneda de Lope Mendes on the atlantic side,you may do well to ask permission to land and do the walk,there is also a track up the hill to the right,that went to Peters ham shack,Google Earth shows its still there too.

The next bay to the west is very much larger and had a small hotel and at Pta Dos Mangues,with again yet another small bay west of there and Pa Grande De Palmas,all of these bays are in what is named Enseda das Palmas.Just around the corner ,past Pta Grossa,is the best place I have ever anchored (i think) Abraao and at 23 8 30s and 44 10 00w,this is the main port for the island and ferries to the mainland leave from here,up untill 1994 it served the island prison at Dois Rios,on the atlantic side,it overlooks a bay Sacco Dois Rios,which on my BA1683 chart dated June 1979 was marked as 'prohibited',I suspect this has changed and it may be a perfect bay to overnight in now?
around 23 11 13s and 44 11 06w,we saw nothing of this side of the island other than the walk from Peters Place.
Note,Google Earth shows it to be a stunning bay with a white beach we can but dream of.

After Abraao (recomended!) you can continue south west to a bay called Saco do Ceu,its off Enseneda da Estrella but my chart is marked by me FLIES, at around 23 06 26s and 44 12 42w I do not remember this place but is sounds that it was infested when we were there?(april?) I have just looked at the place on Google,give it a bash,it looks good still. Just north of there Peter has marked a church dated 1843,so I assume we anchored in the bay caused by Isla Macaos its on lat 23 05 18s and 44 13 58w,again google shows the place,the church is worth a look and its got a huge Imperial Palm in front of it! all of these places were an easy entry with no off lying dangers I can see or remember?

The rest of my notes are to the mainland,we found many marinas,paid nothing at any of them and also found decent places to anchor,it will have changed now?

On the mainland and north east (just) of this bay with the church,its named Fregeusia de Santana,which may be the area and not the churchs name,we went to a bay named Enseada De Itapinhoachanga, (these names!) at 23 02 30s and 44 12 00w,the place we went to is marked as Pa de Itapinhoachanga, I have marked this as a marina,hotel,fuel and a single seat per person travel lift,which I have a picture of my then crew,Alan Butler riding on in front of me,so thats a treat worth trying,it goes high up a gorge? the place is named Portogalo on google,its a river cut entry? there is an Oil Terminal just west of here,we seem not to have tried any place east of this bay,the options seem endless which ever way we went.

Heading south we found a yacht club which in effect is directly opposite Angra Dos Reis town proper,its named Reis Marina Clube,more a power boat club and from what I see on Google Earth,open to a ground swell when anchored too far out.I have nothing marke for the town itself but just south is another yacht clube at Pa Grande and 23 01 27s and 44 20 22w,a picture on google earth shows this bay with its white sand beach to be just stunning,you may never leave,it looks so calm and clean.

Moving further west and to a place named Engeno de Bracuiy,the marina side is named Porto Marina,it was new and quite empty when were there but again looking at Google Earth its full now,this would be a good place to park a yacht to fly back home? it is at 22 57 16s and 44 23 48w we bought fuel here.

The last place we found before returning to Peters Place and a return to Rio De Janerio was also in this large bay named Enseada de Bracuiy and at a place called Frade,its a canal development with appartments with their own docks further inland ,the bay
is at 22 58 21 s and 44 26 02w its very close to highway 101,the main road betwen Rio and Santos further south.

This is about my lot for now,its an amazing destination, I was very fortunate to do it all,here is some stuff from the OCC that you may find of interest on Paraty further south,we never ventured that far but its all in the same huge bay behind llha Grande!


Town jetty only suitable for dinghy landing. The whole bay is very shallow. Better anchorage on the other side of the bay at Boa Vista and bus into town..

Yachts can anchor off Hotel ‘Refugio das Caravelos’ or pick up one of the hotel’s buoys. Marinheiro (Oswaldo) will keep an eye on boat if requested but we never found this necessary. Can anchor or pick up buoy of Yacht club but hotel more convenient. A lovely anchorage can be found close in to the middle of Ilha da Cotio (N. side) in the Ensenada de Parati 23°13.75’S 44°38.50’ W.

Parati or Paraty, Brazil. 23°13’ S 44°41’ W,

The only town I have visited with tidal street cleaning,

Book out ot Customs at Rio and  leave within 48 hours and book in at Angra Dos Reis within 48 hours of arrival. Clear with Federal Police, Port Officer and  Customs. On departure book out with all the above and book back into Rio. In reality you spend some time in this area and book in & out at the same time.

Parati or Bracui for haul out. At the marina, good mechanic, Antoninho. Good electrician, according to Senhor Aldo, owner of ‘Refugio das Caravelos’.

A full set is needed. Brazilian 1.633, 1.631, 1.639 & 1.621. Senhor Aldo very helpful & knowledgeable. Call on Ch 8 ‘Audimar’.

Parati Yacht club, not visited, appears to be a long walk to main road. Very small.

Friendly, if caller conventionally dressed. Some Captainia will not permit open sandals or shorts, shirts obligatory. Very little English spoken.

3 months with renewal for 3 months. It is possible to bus to Paraguay and so gain 3 + 3 months further but this not always straightforward. Smaller Captania are more reasonable.

Parati or Paraty, Brazil. 23°13’ S 44°41’ W



Roy here,this info on Paraty is dated 1994 I would seriously like you to update this for the OCC and the next publication of their year book.

Happy Cruising.

this is the address to Peters Place on my blog,pictures of him and the bay,see if you can find an internet cafe?

http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2008/12/qsl-card-from-silent-key.html

Regards



Roy

Fluid film in Durban

Left click on any image to read full size.


We posted some to Chris in Durban,this was his response when he tried it out:

not sure if i used it for the correct application but it worked! a switch on one of my boat's lights developed a fault. however the nut securing the switch to the lights body was frozen. i hit it with a squirt of ff and left it for 5 mins. thereafter i undid the nut without using any tools......amazing stuff.

HD 55 catamaran as a kit set

The very spacious and popular HD55 may soon be available as a smaller version,around 47ft,larger sizes have been discussed also.

The DH550 cruising catamaran started life as a design commission received by Dudley Dix from catamaran builder Philip Harvey.

Phil was cruising with his family and wanted to move up to a larger boat. Dudley had too much work in progress to be able to take on the new design so the two agreed a cooperative basis to do the design between them. Dudley brings 30 years of design and boatbuilding experience into the project and Phil brings 15 years of professional boatbuilding and catamaran experience. Between them they have produced a cruising catamaran with striking good looks and high-performance potential.

Construction is a further development of the radius chine plywood concepts that Dudley has drawn since the early 1990’s. These concepts started with the monohull Didi 38 “Black Cat”, which he built to test the construction method then sailed across the South Atlantic three times. Since then he has developed other performance oriented monohull designs of similar concept, from 21 to 42ft LOA. As of October 2006, nearly 300 boats to this method are in build or sailing worl

Hout Bay cruising visitor arrives

Photo taken and supplied by Chris Sutton of Durban.

Yacht Ariel,a Wylo 2 (32ft) arrived from Durban on tuesday,what a nice looking sailing boat,we will soon have a very similar looking craft designed by Dudley Dix,it will be about 34ft long,ready for easy home or proffesional building in our CNC cut ply/epoxy kits.

Argie 10 is just the right size as a yachts tender

This is the very same dinghy,a client bought it and had the 130mm diameter float tubes made,he fitted them himself,this acts as a floatation,also as a fender and of course it keeps you drier,the boats more like a life boat now.

The Argie 10,its lighter than either a GRP dinghy or a rubber duck.



With the swing towards rubber ducks over the past decade or so,many folk have forgot what fun it is to row and sail,neither of which is any fun in a rubber duck,no out board,forget it!Rubber Duck plus Outboard equals a high cost,so why not save your cash and build one of our Argie 10 kits,its only going to cost you R6300,thats about U$635 ex our works.At 10 ft long (3.1 mtrs its a decent size to take four persons,it could have the bow cut off and make 9ft,thats only 2.75 mtrs long then,its light enough to carry on a small car with roof racks too.

The Ocean Cruising Club .......OCC

The OCC magazine.

Left click on any picture to view full size and read the print.

The OCC web site is at www.oceancruisingclub.org




It has been my pleasure to be a local Port Officer for the OCC since 2002 when Ken Pollard on Fast Forward, gave up the post when he went cruising.The club is a world wide one,based in the UK,it has members all over the globe,joining is easy,the basic rule is as a sailor, you must have logged an uninterupted voyage of 1000 nautical miles,so many readers may have already done the joining requirement.Once a member you will receive regular Flying Fish magazines,also a bound year book and a CD ROM with all the Port Officers information,plus a host of cruising information available only to the OCC members.