Date: 29 March
2010
The Bahia da Ilha Grande is an
enormous, partially enclosed bay in between Rio De
Janeiro and Sao
Paulo, about 45 miles across and 20 miles deep.
Surrounded by steeply forested hills the bay consists of numerous islands –
there are said to be one island for every day of the year – and literally
hundreds of anchorages. The water is clear and warm and the rocky islands are
perfect for diving or snorkelling. It is without doubt the best cruising ground
in the whole of the east coast of South America and you
could spend six months here and still leave with plenty of anchorages
undiscovered. The only downside from a sailor’s point of view is that there is
rarely any wind. Well, not the only
downside – there are the biting insects as well. Not dengue fever carrying
mosquitoes, thank goodness (the DS is always on the lookout for them), but
midge-like creatures that you neither see nor hear but they bite drawing blood.
The itch is five times worse than a mosquito bite and they last five times as
long. And they appear to be unaffected by Deet, spirals or the DS’s
disapproval.
Friday morning and we motored the
short 12 miles to the town of Angra Dos
Reis and anchored outside of the marina. The bureaucracy
in Brazil
regarding foreign cruising boats is something of a nightmare. It involves
several different agencies (police, immigration, customs, port captains to name
a few, each of which are usually situated at diametrically opposite ends of
town). Their job is to ensure absolute compliance with complex but loosely
defined regulations, so every officer in every department in every port has a
slightly different interpretation of the rules.
We are to leave Mina2 in
Brazil for six
months. The marina fees are extortionate here so we had made arrangements to
leave the boat on a secure pontoon up a river in a well-protected condominium
property owned by a friend of a friend. All looked good. We mentioned this in
passing to another French/German boat we met in
Vitoria. BE CAREFUL they said.
Another foreign boat had done this and found that this practice was not
authorised and they were not allowed to take the boat out of the country until a
very large fine had been paid. You had to leave the boat in an authorised
marina. That was the first we had heard of this sting in the bureaucratic
tail.
So off we went to the relevant
customs office in Angra to check this out in plenty of time. Our cruising
friends appeared to be right. We contacted the condominium pontoon owner who
said he had never heard of this regulation but he was sure that a solution could
be found. We agreed that we would take Mina2 to the condominium pontoon to check
it out, and the following morning we would go together with the owner into town
to solve the problem with the various departments. The latter part of the
exercise turned out to be unnecessary. We had been assured that there was plenty
of depth on the pontoon but, in the event, discovered that the river had silted
up and at low springs we would be nearly a metre aground. So we had to abandon
the whole of the condominium plan. With less than week to go we are now back to
square one, researching alternative marinas.
Having escaped from the river
before we got silted in forever, we anchored off and went ashore by dinghy to
have a look at the rest of the condominium. It is a highly exclusive area about
the size of
Kent, enclosed
with razor wire and electric fences with security guards outnumbering the
residents. It includes a marina (not suitable for over-wintering) with enormous
motor yachts, a country club, bars and restaurants, golf course and shops
stuffed with designer gear. All surrounded by stunning vast houses in large
immaculately maintained gardens all with swimming pools. It is really
impressive. The only thing that is missing are the people. Apparently the
immensely wealthy owners of these magnificent properties all arrive on 20
December and leave, en bloc, on 10 January. The rest of the year the properties
are empty apart from the army of workers who keep the lawns manicured, the
hedges trimmed and the pools cleaned in preparation for the next 20th
of December. These privileged few can’t be bothered with traffic jams; part of
the condominium is a heliport with room for lots and lots of helicopters.
So with only a week before we
decommission the boat and the DS heads back to
Argentina and I
return to London, rather than
exploring this paradise we will be trying to find a safe and bureaucratically
compliant haven for Mina2 for the southern winter.