Grenada

We arrived here in Port Louis Marina Grenada on Sunday afternopon and it is lovely! Our sail from Brazil was very fast as we had current with us most of the way so we had some good boat speeds and completed the passage in a record 9 days!! The seas were calm and the sailing was good using white sails all the way. No need to fly the Parasailor as no real downwind conditions. In fact arriving in Grenada once we rounded Point Saline we were beating to windward and took ages to get into the harbour but at least we did not resort to turning the engine on. Yesterday was spent getting stuff organised and repairs done (minor stitching in sails etc). I think it will be possible to get new cockpit cushion covers done here to match our existing ones and replace the one that blew overboard in Forteleza.So already achieved quite a lot here. The Marina is only 2 years old and everything is very smart and the bathrooms are so posh with individual en suite facilities and loads of room plus even a hairdryer! The Marina restaurant is very good so the last two nights we have not even gone into town prefering just to eat here as it is nearby and so convenient. We did manage a trip to the Chandlery yesterday which is a very short dinghy ride away and Peter bought lots of things for the boat plus lots of cleaning and polishing materials. We have asked a local guy called Ashley to polish our boat and he is also going to clean the waterline as well for a very reasonable US$130. It will probably take him around 6 hours to complete the job. He should be able to get rid of a scuff mark we have where the St Helena water taxi managed to scrape our side. At least we have no major jobs to do or big sail repairs unlike some of the other boats. We have booked in here until Monday 25 March as the Rally prizegiving is on Friday and the tour of the island on Saturday. Rally office closes on 24 March. Our plan is to go around the South side of Grenada to St Davids where Grenada Marine is based and where we intend to haul out and store Trompeta in a cradle for the hurricane season. There are some other good anchorages and Bays on this coast line so it is worth spending a few days here. Once we leave Grenada we will cruise up to St Lucia where we meet up in Marigot Bay with the other Rally boats on 10 April. We pass through the Grenadines so will stop in Tobago Cays which is where we spent Christmas before starting the Rally and it is very pretty and a Marine Park so a protected area. Today we are tidying and cleaning the boat and off loading surplus torn sails and other rubbish!!

Farewell Brazil

Tomorrow we leave Forteleza for our sail to Grenada which should be a fast passage as we have good winds forecast and a good positive current to help us along. Peter is predicting a 12 day passage but I think we may do it in 10 days. Just watch the fleet viewer to see who is right!! Start time is 12 noon local time which is 3 hours behind UTC. In the meantime we have fuelled up and topped up water and got provisions on board so we are ready to go. This is our last official leg with World ARC as when we arrive in Grenada our next trip is to free cruise up to St Lucia through the Grenadines. The Marina in Grenada is new so should have good facilities including a chandlery where Peter can stock up on boat parts.

Brazil cruising

We have arrived in Forteleza where the Rally rendezvous takes place after a very quick passage up from Recife. Only just got good reliable internet access here in Forteleza. Whilst in Recife we were at anchor with no convenient WiFi. So we left Salvador and had a slow trip up to Recife as the wind and current were against us so it took slightly longer than expected. Arrived at Pernambuco Yacht Club a week last Saturday afternoon and were met by a very friendly manager Eduardo who was happy to row us ashore in his little wooden boat whenever we needed a ride. The mooring was reasonably cheap at R$30 a night (about £10 a night). We stayed in Recife for 5 nights before leaving to sail up the coast to Forteleza. This sail was great as we had a good positive current of 2 to 3 knots with us so the ironic thing was we were actually trying to slow down so as not to arrive at night when it is more difficult to see the small fishing boats in the dark and these work close to the shore. Hence we tried to stay offshore a good distance so as to avoid the fishing boats which work on just off the continental shelf. Now we are here after a tricky berthing which involved dropping the anchor then reversing onto the floating pontoon which moves around alarmingly! There is a bit of a surge in the Marina so Peter has rigged up two old car tyres with ropes to act as spring lines to stop the snatching. It seems to be working! Yesterday I managed to find a really good hairdreser in a lovely air conditioned shopping centre so treated myself to a good hair do. The best one since Galapagos! Today we have been doing jobs on the boat. Peter repaired some carrs on the mainsail as we had ordered some new parts which came via another crew from Germany. Tomorrow we will refuel and go provisioning. Hopefully the supermarket will deliver to the Marina! Here in the Marina we can use the Hotel swimming pool which is delightful and there is a small bar which serves drinks and snacks so perfect for relaxing at the end of a busy day. Departure day is Friday when we will have our last long passage to Grenada which is around 1700 miles so will probably take us about 12 days or less if we have lots of positive current. In preparation we have customs clearances on Thursday morning and a skippers briefing later that afternoon.

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.

Salvador Carnival

Last night we went to take part in the famous Salvador Carnival. Caroline (Peat Smoke) had organised tickets for a Balcony in a prime position to see all the floats as they went past in the parade. A minibus picked up 12 of us from the Marina including Phil & Andrea with Daniel(Anastasia) Janet & Mark (At Last) with 2 friends plus Caroline & David with Hilary (Peat Smoke) plus Trompeta crew. We arrived a little early to get in so we had to queue for maybe 20 minutes before we were allowed into the Balcony area. Everyone had an identical T shirt as part of their package so the staff knew you had paid plus a pass ticket. It was not cheap at around £660 equivalent for the two of us. Men pay more than women as it is all inclusive food and drink they assume men will consume more. The drinks were mainly vodka or whisky or beer plus soft drinks. There were plenty of waiters bringing drinks around constantly. The food chice was amazing as there was a buffet meal plus burgers or pizza or sushi plus cold buffet and fruit with a chocolate fondue for dessert - delicious! The Carnival itself is huge with large trucks carrying a band and singer and sometimes dancers with many many people walking the streets in front and behind of each float. The music was so loud!!! Your whole body seemed to vibrate. There were a lot of 20 somethings in the Balcony which was surprising given the price of the tickets as it is not cheap. There were cheaper options but we decided to go the whole hog and go for the most expensive and best option available. The Balcony had a disco performing constantly apart from when a float actually went by and it was all being televised. The Balcony had a room where you could go and get a massage plus your hair braided. There was even a beach with lounger chairs on the ground floor. The Balcony accomodated 1500 people so it was very busy all the time. As a group we decided by 1am we would have had enough so arranged with our driver to pick us up at this time. The drivers buddy actually met us outside the Balcony and escorted us across the crowded streets back to the bus as the Carnival was still going on so we formed a human chain all holding hands so no one got left behind! So we were back at the Marina just after 2AM which meant we could have a good sleep in this morning. Today we are getting the boat ready to go exploring in the bay tomorrow whilst Carnival continues unitil 13 February. We then come back to Terminal Nautico Marina to clear out and cruise up the coast. We do not have to be in Forteleza until 6 March so have plenty of time to make the 900 odd mile trip. Yesterday we went to the supermarket to provision so the boat is stocked up ready to go! Think we will be in convoy with a few boats joining us.

Prizes!!

We have just had the World ARC prize giving event and much to our surprise Trompeta was awarded 1st prize in the class B cruising division for the last leg from Cape Town South Africa to Salvador Brazil. We were not the fastest boat but because we did not motor very much were not penalised so scored better than some boats which arrived before us. Anyway It was a lovely surprise to win a rather good trophy which is quite large so we will need to find a space to show it off! This morning Marie (Dreamcatcher) and I went shopping in the old town and managed to find some pretty shorts and tops to wear. We also bought other souvenir items. Tomorrow is likely to be very busy as Carnival starts then. I need to make sure we both get sleep during the day as we will be up until the early hours in the Balcony. Peter is planning to set sail either Sunday or Monday to explore the local area and then come back into the Marina to clear out in preparation for our sail up the coast to Forteleza. We will be sailing in company with a few other World ARC boats as it is safer to do this.

Salvador Brazil

We arrived here in Salvador Brazil early on 5 February and have spent the last two days getting used to the heat here - it was 36 degrees C yesterday when we went on an organised tour of the city. The tour took us into the historic part of the town which is reached from the Marina by means of a huge public elevator and you pay 15c per trip (around 5p). We were split into two groups and each group had a guide and there was a big air conditioned bus to take us around to the old city. There is a strong African influence here in Salvador because of the slave trade. The city is very old and many of the 18th and 19th century buildings are decaying and it is obvious no money has been spent on the renovation or restoration. There are many churches which seem to be mostly Roman Catholic. We saw a very rich church St Francis of Assisi church which had ornate gold decorations and was very elaborate. There was a Jesuit church and one of the 3rd Order. The streets of the city are fairly narrow and all cobbled or paved with small tiles. After the city tour we had dinner at a local restaurant with crews from Dreamcatcher, Zoe and Ruby so 8 of us in total. The food was excellant and vey reasonable at approx 50 pounds each for dinner including cocktails and wine. The World ARC office will close up today as it is the start of Carnival which runs from 8th to 13th February. The streets are all decorated with banners and bunting. The shops and houses on the sides of the streets have boarded up their fences/gates to protect them from any potential damage!! The programme today includes the welcome and prizegiving event which starts at 13.30 hours and goes on for a couple of hours with food and drink included. This has been changed to free up this evening for those that wish to watch the opening Carnival events. Tomorrow Friday 8 February we are part of a group of World ARC crews who have booked places on a Balcony to view the Carnival. It is expensive at around 700 pounds for the two of us but at least it does inclde all food and drink. The Balcony opens at 6pm and the party goes on until 5am! Not sure if we will be able to stay awake for that long but maybe a siesta tomorrow might help!! This morning I am shopping with the girls and hoping to find some good Brazillian bargains! We expect to stay around Salvador until after Carnival ends and then cruise up the coast to Forteleza for the rendezvous on 6 March before the next leg to Grenada. Have planned to sail in company with Zoe again as it worked well for the South African cruising.