22:56.8 S, 043:09.9 W

 

We are in Rio de Janeiro, and see to have landed on our feet. We went to the anchorage area off the yacht clubs, as was the custom 5 or so years ago when the pilot book was written but there is really no room at all to anchor now, and we were warned off with 'all the moorings are private'. However a man working on one of the yachts told us to go and ask for Giovani off the beach at Urca, and Giovani was duly there  and allocated us a mooring which is ideal. He runs a small business renting out moorings, looking after people's boats and running a water taxi. The Sugar Loaf mountain is just behind us, about 1/2  mile away, and the Urca district a leafy and peaceful neighbourhood. There are also a group of live-aboard yachtsmen here: last night we were invited to a drink aboard one of them where there were people from Madeira, Canada, Switzerland, Spain, Brazil, Columbia and Britain. But none had ensigns or courtesy flags, and neither do we now. We were warned that one is much less likely to be hassled or robbed if, at least to the uneducated eye, the boat doesn't appear foreign. This is perhaps one reason why we seem to have seen so few foreign yachts so far.

 

We went off to see the Capitania do Porto in the centre of town, which is a branch of the Navy, with whom one has to check in and out when arriving or leaving each state, but it was, as it's all been so far for us, very straightforward and quick. Only issue was that we chose the day of taxi strikes and road blockades, which coupled with Rio being rebuilt quite a bit - trams being put in - for the Olympics - meant we walked a good deal.

 

On the subject of checking in and out of places we still don't exactly know what we are supposed to do! There is no official guidance, no leaflet in any language, and the staff in marinas have no idea at all. The pilot book says go and see the Policia Federal (imigration), then customs, then port health authority, and finally the port captain on arrival and on leaving each state (except health which is only needed on first arrival in Brazil). But we have found that it seems to vary and no official knows what one's supposed to do. The customs said that one definately does not need to see them between ports or states, only on exit or entry to Barzil. We spoke to the Policia Pederal in Espirito Santo and they said not to bother with them since we'd entered in Bahia, and so did the Policia Federal here in Rio. So the rules seem much less onerous than hitherto, at least in the more southern (read civilised) states, and much more what one would expect.

 

We set off for Rio in the late afternoon as it's about 90 miles so one night is certain and so we timed it to arrive at dawn if the wind held, and anyway in daylight if it didn't. It didn't and by dawn we'd slowed to less than 3 knots and had to motor thee rest of the way, arriving in poor visibility unfortunately.

The calm was presaged by this weird and rather threatening phenomenon of the sea steaming where it meets the land.

 

Land-ho from about 2 miles.

 

And the view from our mooring.

 

We had quite a nice if uneventful time in Buzios I's restaurants, bars and bikini shops and not a lot else, but we had a convivial evening with some other yachts from the Netherlands and from Sweden, who are also bound for Ushuaia.

 

View of the famous ‘Orla Bardot’ along which everyone parades, and a view out to the anchorage. Despite our comments about cruise ships, there are so many bars and restaurants that actually the town absorbs the passengers entirely.

 

The town has bronze statues all over: we liked this one better than the famous Brigitte Bardot one.

 

A reminder that we are quite abroad: instead of seagulls, the beach scavengers are vultures!