A coastline longer than 4000 nautical miles

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Sailing out of Guinea-Bissau with direction Brasil was quit emotional. On one hand it meant to say goodbye not only to Guinea-Bissau but to all Westafrica and on the other hand we could start to dream about Brasil. We had two weeks time to dream! Days were without much stimulation, small things like catching a fish or talking to an other sailboat on VHF gave us material to talk about for at least two days. Weather, wind and waves were with us, the only difficulty was the crossing of the equator, after two days with a few of thunderstorms we had again best conditions. As closer as we came to Fernando de Noronha, the more dolphins there were, showing us the right way.

31 december 2019, once more a tiki26 proved itself as an seaworthy vessel, suitable to do ocean crossings. While the boat made the journey easy, the Crew did not. After immigration we went straight to the hospital, with symptoms of Malaria and and infected foot. The Malaria luckily was not a Malaria and the infected foot cured thanks to a serious dose of antibiothics. After all a nice place to rest and collect energy for the 700 following miles to Salvador.

Salvador da Bahia, again we had really good sailing conditions, but again the Crew had more problem to adapt to the new environment than the boat. After spending three weeks on the sea and dreaming about a lively place like Salvador we could not handle all the impressions and stimulations we got in such a short time, after only three days we sailed again to find nature. We found it in the Bahia de todos Santos.

From Dakar to Salvador, from first time on a sailing boat to crossing an ocean, its time to say goodbye and thank you to Noah. 

My sister Lea and cousin Luisella, they did not let me be lonely for a long time and showed me that there is also something apart from the ocean and the coast. The following pictures are from Chapata Diamantina, eight bus hours from Salvador. Lets change the flip-flops with real shoes.

One month passes fast, thank you Lea and Luisella. With findacrew® a found my new Crewmate, Daniel from Chile on his way to Europe, as I he does not have any pressure with time. His first sailing was a regatta against the french Boat Venus, Its easy to tell who was leading since we see the bow of Jules boat.

Perfect harmonie in times of a global crisis. The sunlight meets rain in the beautiful Bahia de Camamu, only a day sailing south of Salvador. As the Corona Virus found its way to Brasil, traveling becomes hard and irresponsible, we put our plan to sail to Rio de Janeiro away for the moment and be thankful we found such a Paradis to wait for times when travelling again is possible.

Social distancing is hard when your used to meet new people every day, the more we appreciate the nature, such as here at the Cachoeira Tremembé.

After spending more than two months in the Bahia de Camamu we decided to leave the safe port and head towards the south. Happy to sail again we still had our doubts wether we will be welcome in our next port, the Coronavirus still was omnipresent.

The picture shows the sundown over Abrolhos, an island group about halfway towards Vitoria, a city which should become the first stop after Camamu. „Abri vossos olhos – open your eyes“ is most likely the reason for the name of the islands and the surrounding reefs which brought many ships to the ground. With modern navigation aids the area has become less dangerous, but it is still worth opening your eyes since the Abrolhos are famous for the abundance of whales. 

After nearly a week of sailing our anchor dropped next to several sailing boats in front of a beach in the middle of the city Vitoria. We planned to stay not more than a few days until the wind would be coming from north again. We ended up staying nearly three weeks. The sailing community was welcoming and it was easy to blend in the city, not like in the countryside where we always would feel like the strangers bringing in the Coronavirus.

Vitoria is populated by around 300’000 people, if you count the surrounding its about one million. 

View on the industry in front of Porto Tubara, the biggest port in Brazil for iron ore export.

Three days of sailing and we arrived in Cabo Frio. After a long time our anchor dropped in crystal clear water. We are not the only ones to enjoy the clear waters, there must be a lot of fish since in Cabo Frio there are more fishing boats then anywhere in Brasil.

In Arraial do Cabo, a place next by, we spent only one night since not only the city but also all beaches and hiking trails were closed. 

After the sun completely went down, the full moon toke over and guided us in to Rio de Janeiro, a real magical moment think about entering a city that seemed a far of dream to me since the Corona Virus stared to spread. 

Even tough we were really welcomed by the local sailors we decided to continue our sailing south after only two days and visit Rio again when returning north. In the hope that there would be more things open again.