2 Jan 2PM

We cleared Rio Bay at 7:30 and motored for a few hours past Copacabana and Ipanema.

Lots of modern high rise buildings with slums festering in the background. 

Ironically they are slums with a view as you will see from the pics. It’s cloudy hot and sticky although as the day wears on the cloud thins. Paolo gives us a running commentary as we slip down the coast.

Actually it turns out his name is Paulo De Tarso Oliveira Pires which apparently translates as “Paul from Tarsus Olive Tree Saucer.”  His mother being Olive Tree and his father Saucer. He has brought us several CDs with wonderful Brazilian music with a jazz flavour which of course I’m partial to. He brings us to a wonderful anchorage on Ihla Grande.  It is spoiled only by the presence of Roman Abramowitz’s Grande Bleu which seems to be following us around the world.  We first encounted this monster in St Barts and again in Rio.  The 60 odd foot sailboat which is normally carried on deck is in the water.  Roman did not come to hob nob with the 2,000,000 New Year’s Eve revellers at Copacabana and Ipanema, rather this is a charter.  Gods knows what the weekly rate is, when fully geared up for charter the crew is 52. Rumour has it they are going to Antarctica.

Ihla Grande is one of 365 islands in this area (yes one for every day of the year) and this region is considered to be the most beautiful sailing area in Brazil.  Even though today is heavily overcast and the clouds obscure the mainland, it is indeed  very beautiful, and it must be extraordinary in the sunlight.

The water is 30 degrees C.   The fresh water stream nearby doesn’t seem to make any difference.  The visibility in the water is almost nil as its is full of algae suspension and therefore pretty green. All four of us spend a couple of hours cleaning the water line and part of the hull.  To our horror there are millions of baby barnacles growing all over the hull.  Thanks a lot Rio. Steve will try again tomorrow with a bottle.

3/1/08 10:30AM

We had a very nice sea food dinner ashore last night at a rustic candle lit local restaurant. Perfect for four guys. They wanted us to see their disco next door which was empty except for 4 young Brazilian girls.  Nik had his picture taken with them and they had theirs taken with him even though they spoke no English and he spoke no Portuguese.

This morning we were treated to blue sky and the full lushness of the islands became evident.  There is something about this place which reminds us of the Marquaises although the hills are not so high and there aren’t swarms of noseeums.  This morning we moved to another beautiful anchorage between groups of small islands, called the blue lagoon.  It could be maybe the green blue lagoon.

Steve is in the water with  SCUBA gear doing battle with the baby barnacles.  We will leave later today for Pananaqua 270 miles South where we will check out of Brazil.