After our loud and tiring welcome (see end of last Jackie blog entry) into Marina da Gloria, one of the yacht clubs of Rio city, we spent 3 days clearing customs, immigration, health department and the Port Authority. There were several hairy hours for us as JC’s visa for Brazil had expired by 10 days (Americans need a visa), but the official was incredibly helpful and willing to help us so after a few tense hours a solution was found and he was not deported to a neighbouring country to apply for a new entry visa (we have subsequently heard several stories about people who were made do this, so were very lucky). We both agreed that Saoirse was probably the only reason the official was so lenient with us. I found all of the officials we dealt with very nice, friendly and efficient, with the one exception of the Port Authority who are all naval. They kicked JC out of the building and made him wait outside because he was wearing shorts and told me (not asked nicely) not to sit and play with Saoirse on their step. Not sure if it is that I am Irish or just being me, but I don’t deal well with uniforms ordering me about (nearly got deported in the US 2 years ago)! At the Port Authority we met a lovely Czech couple who invited us to join them up the Sugar Loaf which has cable cars to the top of its steep peak. The views of the city of Rio were stunning - it was night time and the city was all lit up. Rio is built on a huge inlet/bay, but it is so deep that the founding Portuguese thought it was a river, hence the Rio bit. The western side is all Rio and across the bay is the city of Niteroi where we stayed for a further week. A few things struck me about Rio de Janeiro. For a city this large, there are huge amounts of green areas, big steep green hills pushing up from the ground, creating excellent viewing points, like the Sugar Loaf, or the hill where the famous massive figure of Jesus Christ looks out and protects all of Rio - this really is an awesome landmark, and even for those “non believers”, it is a truly inspiring sight. We found it a safe city to walk around in during the day anyway, and I reckon there are more people begging on the streets of Dublin than there are in Rio. One thing definitely that surprised and delighted us was the food. Many restaurants are called “self service”. It is essentially a buffet idea where your food is weighed at the end and you pay per kilo, but nothing like the boring, stale food found in Ireland or the US. The trays are constantly being changed for fresh and new exciting dishes and the selection is astounding. The meat in Brazil is good, the fish around the coast excellent but the nicest surprise was the salads - a vegetarians delight! So many to choose from. All that weight we both lost has been piled back on, but it was worth every mouthful! The biggest culinary disappointment, for JC especially, was the lack of good wine. I don’t care too much anymore as I am drinking less and less alcohol, but luckily for JC we brought a bunch of excellent South African wine with us. Luckily also for JC is that he has discovered Caiporinha, the drink Brazil is famous for - JC swears it is a margarita so feels very at home! After we finished our paperwork in Rio city, we sailed over to the other side of the bay to Niteroi to a yacht club called Clube Naval de Charitas, originally a naval club but open to all now. Whereas in Rio we were paying Reales 168 (55 Euro) per day, in this new club we paid only Reales 10 (3 Euro). The club was lovely with a massive swimming pool and huge playgrounds as well as other sports/ entertainment facilities and restaurants, bar etc. Saoirse loved it, especially being so close to other children again. Suzie, one of the live-onboards at the club spoke perfect English and brought us up the local hill to savour the sights over the bay towards Rio. Again, breathtaking vistas - I can see why the Portuguese were happy to stay here so long. The yacht club was in the process of hosting an International “Optimist” competition for young people (age 8 - 15) from 42 countries around the world. The organisation was really outstanding with all the boats brand new and big containers transformed into accommodation available for the many visiting families. Having done some minor repairs to the boat, we waited for the right weather window and left to go about 60 miles west to a group of islands (365 to be precise). We left Niteroi at 4.30 in the morning and after a rough ride where both Saoirse and I were sick, we made it into Ilha Grande (the biggest of the islands) around 2pm that same day. Despite the drizzle and mist that accompanied us all the way there, the island was stunningly beautiful. Gentle hills filled with green trees and palms. Golden sandy beaches, breathtaking purple rock hills and gloriously clear water. We stayed only one night at the first anchorage and then motored to the main village of Abraao where we were delighted to find our friends from Hout Bay Rod and Mary on their boat Sheer Tenacity and Jeremy and Yvonne on Jervon. After we had shouted our hellos, JC looked for a safe anchorage near the other boats. Suddenly I heard lots of cursing and an annoyed JC announced that a link in the anchor chain had just broken off as he was lowering the anchor and it had all dropped in the sea. Rod having seen what had happened kindly rowed out to the spot where he thought the anchor had gone down and marked it into his GPS so we could try and locate it later with the help of some divers. JC was very dismayed that he had lost the anchor, but grateful that it had not snapped while we were asleep or even worse, in St Helena where the anchorage was so rough we would have been halfway across the Atlantic without realising it! In fairness, the anchor chain was probably the original and thus well over 30 years old, so probably needed replacing anyway. Eventually we got safely anchored with our spare anchor and rowed over to Sheer Tenacity for coffee and juice. After an hour or so of exchanging news we noticed that Jeremy, who had spent the entire time in his rowing boat trawling back and forth trying to feel for our lost anchor, looked like he had caught something. His little boat was nearly tipped over so hard was he pulling at something. When we all rowed out to him he had indeed caught the chain of our anchor but was unable to singlehandedly pull the heavy chain and anchor up. There were now 4 dinghies (Jeremy’s, Rod’s, ours and Francisco’s (a friend of theirs) all trying to pull this massive anchor up while the little boats precariously bobbed up and down and all I could think of is that saying “too many cooks…” It was agreed that the anchor was too heavy to pull up by hand, so Rod tied his dinghy to the back of Taniwha and towed her over to the others. JC let out some rope from the spare anchor to let Taniwha move toward the lost anchor and Jeremy attached a rope from the bow to the lost/found anchor chain. They then pulled the chains over the front of the boat onto the windlass which allowed them to slowly pull/winch up the anchor - a slow and tedious process. After much planning and thinking, pulling, tugging and coaxing, the anchor eventually got brought back onto the deck. Anchor, chain, feet, hands and bodies were caked in mud but the anchor was saved. 100% to Jeremy for not giving up. JC ended up cooking a thank you dinner for all concerned - the food was yummy. A delicious beef curry cooked to perfection in our much loved and used pressure cooker but the highlight for the others must have been the 4 bottles of South African wine we had - it had been a long time since they had tasted decent wine! Rod has been invaluable to us with all the information he has shared - where to sail to, anchor, eat and get repairs done. My parents are over on 13th August and thanks to him we have a great itinerary set out for them. This is more or less the same itinerary we will propose for any other family/friends that decide to come and visit. My parents will fly into Rio and take a bus to Angra Dos Reis, which is the biggest town on the mainland and gateway to the 365 islands. I have found accommodation beside the marina and we will spend a night or two here, weather dependent till we set sail to one of the hundreds of islands, stay in a calm anchorage, cook, watch a film and sleep on the boat. This will give my folks a feeling for what life is like on board for us. We will then head on to the town of Paraty, a proposed world heritage site. It is a lovely quaint colonial town, a little touristy, but beautiful enough to warrant the visit. We will stay a few days there, we at a marina and my parents at a pousada (kind of like a guesthouse). From there we will head back to Ilha Grande and see if any of our friends are still there - I think Francisco the Italian/Spaniard will be. He stayed on boat with us the first night we arrived in Angra Dos Reis as he had paperwork to be sorted on the mainland and he ended up cooking the most amazing Italian improvised meal - a Pasta Putanesca of the yummiest order, followed by caramalised pineapples with ice cream. From Ilha Grande we will head back to Angra Dos Reis, maybe via an island, tie up to a restaurants on one of the many islands for a traditional meal. In Angra we have found a secure place to leave the boat for the 4 months or so we will be in Europe/States and a lovely Argentinian couple to look after the boat, air it, run the engine etc. while we are away. We will all take the bus back to Rio and stay a day or so to show my parents the sights before our flights back to London and on to Dublin. Our plan then is to stay in Dublin (I will be in Spain to work every now and then) till mid December when we will hopefully fly to Louisiana to celebrate Christmas with JC’s father’s family and then on to San Diego where both JC’s mother and father are celebrating their 70th birthdays, making this a truly Festive Period for us. We will return to Brazil early January and stay for 6 months or so. Now you have an idea of our timetable and we hope to see you at some stage over the coming months. All visitors are welcome to this paradise, just bear in mind that our boat is set up for us as a family, not for extra crew, so although a couple of nights are possible on board, you would have to get your own accommodation, which we would be able to help you get sorted. Having said that, we would love to see as many people as possible!