Camamu

ratCATcher
Andre and Alison Stroebel
Wed 1 Jun 2011 11:16

13:54.979S 038:59.404W

1st June 2011

Camamu

The joy of having no fixed plans is being able to change your mind as the situation requires. As you can see the Caravelas stop didn’t happen.

Leaving Guarapari we passed the Port of Vitoria, our heading took us through the ships waiting to enter the harbour, at one stage we counted 42 ships around us. Most on anchor with some leaving or entering the port!

The other hazard, especially at night is the fishing boats; they are poorly lit and often trailing nets and lines. As we passed Carbo de Santo Tomé we ran the gauntlet between 14 of them.

At one point Andre thought he heard someone calling in Portuguese and English on the radio. When he saw a tug-like boat racing towards us he realised they were trying to call us and responded. They asked him to go to another channel for important information that would affect the security and safety of our vessel. On channel 69 he was told to change course to 330deg urgently as they were busy with a seismic survey and were trailing a cable of 9000 meters. They asked that we pass them at a distance of 4 miles on either side or 6 miles behind them.

The reason we were thinking of stopping in Caravelas is that the Abrolhos Archipelago is only a short boat ride away. The “Arquipélago dos Abrolhos” derives its name from old charts that bore the warning “abra los oyos” near the reefs, it means “open your eyes”. The anchorages on the nearby mainland are not much better and all approaches are “mine fields” of reefs. We had decided if the weather was right and the sea’s relatively calm and if we arrived in daylight we would stop. As it happened those were not the conditions so we decided to push on.

The next option was Santo André, which has nothing special other J than its name and also is very tricky to approach but the conditions were right to keep going so we by-passed it too.

Yacht Iza decided they were going to stop at Ilhéus as they needed to refuel. We were not keen on another huge city and decided to head for Baia de Camamu, which is where we are now. The bay is calm and completely protected with a number of anchorages to choose from. Tourism hasn’t really reached Camamu yet and the people are known to be among the most welcoming of the Bahia region. The bay flows into the river and it is possible to take the yacht right up the river.

We dropped anchor off of Ilha do Campinho. We were both exhausted after 3 full days and nights of 3hours on watch and 3 hours off so our first priority was sleep. On waking at about 3pm we cleaned the boat, showered and headed for the nearby village. There we met Bruno, the owner of the little beer bar and had a sun downer or two. Being out of season all he sells is beer but we were not complaining. We sat at a beautiful setting on the beach and watched the sun go down.

Brazilian yachtsmen, Breno and Lao live on Ilha do Campinho, they built their home opposite their moored boat next to which we are anchored.

Today we are going looking for Aurora and Onilia, two sisters who were born here 75 years ago and have NEVER left the island. Apparently Onilia knew the famous French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the creator of “The Little Prince” who stayed near her house, we believe she talks of him and those times very emotionally wiping away tears as she relates her memories to anyone interested.

We plan to spend the week exploring up the river and the nearby islands. Camamu’s main event is the Saturday morning market where the entire population of all the villages in the area bring their wares to sell or barter.  We will stay for that and move on the Salvador after Saturday.

More news as we discover Camamu.

Ships at Vitoria

Our chart plotter showing all the ships on AIS! The grey triangles are ships the black one with red and green lines is our boat the lives show our direction.

 

 

 

 

 

More ships.

Dinner compliments of the Captain!

Ilha do Campinho

 

Bruno’s Bar

Sunrise this morning.