Robbed in Rio de Janeiro!

Yeah well. Not maybe as harsh as it might sound... but still... Will get back to this later on though...

So we were at Cabo Buzio. A nice little place. Even though way too touristy for our taste. We got some great help refueling the boat so we could motor ourselves to Rio de Janerio. No refueling station but we got in contact with a drug smuggler. Sounds crazy I know. And way worse than it was. He was simply moving a boat from Brazil. Got caught in Capo Verde with 1 tonnes of cocaine inside the hull of the boat. He didn't know. He got ten years in prison. At some point he got a new court date and got reduced to one year. As he seem he did not actually did it. He was a sweet guy. Really tried helping us in any way he could. He got us a driver to drive with extra containers to fill our boat. According to him, his story will soon be launched on Netflix. We'll see about that. Long story short. We got diesel on the boat!

Landfall Rio De Janeiro - What a wonderful sight it was!

The amazing landfall of Rio De Janeiro seen from further away!

It is very common to haul on the VHF before you enter a marina or to check if possible to even stay at the marina. The only problem is very few people in Brazil speak English. My Portuguese is not that good. However, increasing my vocabulary by each day. I get by. With charades and a smile. On the radio this doesn't really get me that far. I know. Insane to think about it. A smile over radio doesn't help. Neither the charades. Weird. Any ways... We were in Rio de Janeiro and we got help from some random sailor on the VHF channels, that took over and helped us out! Seem there is always someone to assist and help!

Sightseeing while in Rio seem to be popular?

The view can sometimes explain why!

This is just a picture of a picture...

But we got to see this guy for real, real close up as well. Together with the 3023450 other tourist. If you look really carefully you can see the fundament is with concrete from Sweden! True story...

Rio de Janerio was a good stay. Mostly as we got company by Martin once again! Remember me writing about him when we crossed the kiel canal? No? Weird. I wrote so good about him. Anyways. He joined and we got some real decent work on the boat done. Which is pretty much just changing the front toilet (head as it is called on a boat. Don't as me why. Just learned it myself a couple of years back. Boatpeople....) so we can again poop without having to scare half the ocean. Okay. We have the aft one as well. And we did take some time to move around a lot of stuff to use it. Now we have one each. We call it "full broadside" when both are used at the same time. But enough about that.

It's even nice leaving Rio de Janeiro!

Rio de janero, Niteroi on the other side of the bay and some small anchorages was visited before we finally sat off for an adventure (as any Hobbit would have called it!). We were going to Isla Grande. An amazing spot, as we've been told, lots of beaches and amazing forrest and just all you can ask for. Crystal clear waters etc. etc. It was time for a holiday. A real one. Just to relax, no boat work, just relaxing in the extreme sun, the beaches and exploring the best drinks on the island.

Drone picture of the second beach we encountered. Colon is well seen on anchor!

And what a treat it was. An amazing place. First day we got lost in the woods. Amazing. Next day we had a little to much to drink for lunch, stayed to long and made too many friends before we finally went back to the boat. In the way I lost my wallet, credit cards and drivers license. Fear not Mom and dad! I've been prepared for this since last trip as I've been through this before. All backed upped in the boat. But still. Just annoying. So once all credit cards and other important cards been blocked, Martin of course found one of the cards in his pants. Obviously we "missed" (can we plaese call it that?) the part of him trying to buy more rounds with my card. I unblocked the card and all was almost back to normal again. Almost. But hey. All well.... And this was not even the part when I got robbed. Or it wasn't really a robbery. It just felt like it. The marina in Rio de Janerio (Yeah, I just jumped back in time to continue the story!) was the most overpriced marina ever visited. Smögen included. Smögen at least have bars around. This didn't. Or it had. But even more overpriced than Smögen. This should be Brazil. Not more expensive than Norway. The Marina stay was well over USD 150,00 a night. This they told me after we've been there a couple of days. The cruising guides for Brazil really need to be updated. Not only were it crazy expensive. It also had absolutely no water to refill the boat. Only water which is not to be consumed. If you not want to spend the next day on the new toilet. Even how much I wanted to start using it. It just felt like pushing it a little to much. Then no diesel or anything else. We were also placed so far out on the pontoons (the marina is HUGE!) that it would take only 15min to walk to the toilets and showers. So we ended up spending the showers with an hose on the pontoon. Way to spend you 150 USD a day, right? To top it off, the entire party cruise fleet were located here. Not only were there party 24/7 (which really isn't a problem per se) but they also released their entire septic tanks, straight into the marina. Which means. lots and lots and lots and lots of smelly shit. All over. All the time. Yeah. I got robbed. Big time.

Last picture taken from that evening.... afternoon... ehm... Day...

Back to Isla grande.

We spent about a week exploring beaches, hiked to waterfalls, had bicycle rides and just enjoying ourselves before we finally (wrong word to use as the island was far from fully explored. But it was just another beach and just another waterfall etc.) got some wind to sail further towards Santa Catarina, and Florianapolis. Two and a half day it took until we finally got ourselves to another marina. Not even priced 1/10th of the price from Rio. Here all facilities needed are within reach, including water on tap. Only thing missing is a good nautical store for some smaller upgrades and fixes. But hey. Maybe next stop? (been saying that since forever... but sooner or later - Catching! Some store owner is going to be a very lucky guy!(girl perhaps?))

Dinghy ride up a small river, shallow and filled with all kinds of fish and scary stuff...

How far is that damn waterfall...?

Well... Soon further down south! Stay tuned!

Over'n'out // Ludvig