Baia de Todos os Santos

For the last few days we have been exploring the anchorages in the Bay around Salvador. We left the Marina on Monday morning with our sailing companion Zoe and headed to Aratu Bay initially. Here we found a very pleasant and friendly Iate Club (Yacht Club) where they provided free mooring for a couple of nights. It is a very friendly club and the boat boys were happy to take us back and forth from the boats to the club on the shore any time we asked in their wooden tender. There was no charge for the service either! Needless to say we did tip them anyway. The club had a lovely swimming pool which we made full use of just by the bar and restaurant. The WiFi was good at the Club and with our booster we were able to access the internet on the boat. The restaurant was good but as it closed at 6pm we had an early dinner on our last night there. The restaurant did not serve wine but they allowed us to bring our own wheich was good! Wednesday we headed up the river leaving at 9am to catch the tide to take us up the Rio Paraguacu to a place called Maragogipe. We had to anchor as there were no mooring buoys provided. Another Rally boat Working on a Dream were already anchored so we dropped anchor alongside them. Zoe had a problem with their anchor windlass so they rafted up to Working on a Dream whilst the crew investigated the problem. There was no power getting to the windlass so Peter suggested a loose connection was to blame and this was traced and fixed so now their anchor windlass is good. Zoe stayed rafted up overnight and we all had drinks on board Working on a Dream before heading ashore in our dinghies to find a restaurant serving dinner. After walking what seemed like miles we did come across Restaurante Juliana and had a lovely Bahian dinner comprising small dishes of beef and chicken and fish served with bowls of rice and salad. There was only beer available to drink no wine unfortunately. The following day Peter went ashore with the crew from Zoe before we left the anchorage to make for the island of Itaparica. Thursday afternoon we anchored behind the Mooring Buoys off Itaparica Marina and had champagne and blinis on Trompeta as it was Valentines Day. Zoe gave me a cute pair of denim shorts they had bought at Maragogipe which fitted perfectly! Later we all went ashore to the Marina restaurant for dinner and had some very good Brazillian sparkling wine to go with our meal. Ed and Zoe wanted an early start today so Peter took us ashore at 7am to go and find somewhere open for Breakfast. We did find a local bakery that was serving savoury pastels and juice and coffee. Peter also had a Banana pastry (Pastel). The plan is to stay for another night here before heading back in to the Marina ready to check out on Monday.