A trip to

After an eight and half hour flight from Miami to Sao Paolo, and a four-hour drive through the Atlantic coastal landscape, we finally reached our destination, the colonial city of Paraty, located on the Costa Verde that runs along the coastline of the state of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil.

We came here on an invitation from Wind Charters who were putting a Brazilian-made Delta 41 sailboat at our disposal to discover the area with the idea of promoting this destination with American sailors.

We had invited long-time Med Sailing Adventures flotilla supporters, Kevin and Delana from Oklahoma, to join us on this adventure.

A UNESCO Heritage Site of Humanity, Paraty was founded in 1597 By Portuguese colonizers and is now a popular tourist attraction. Visitors from all over the world come to enjoy the tropical surroundings and the hundreds of neighboring islands with white sandy beaches and warm waters.

Wind Charters has sixteen yachts, mostly Brazilian-made Delta sailboats in the 37’ to 41’ range. They also have a couple of Lagoons and a comfortable Brazilian-made Cat-Flash 41 a sleek-looking catamaran.

The marina is secure, modern and clean and the staff members are efficient and knowledgeable.

As soon as we got back from provisioning (don’t forget the beer!), we dropped the lines and set off for our Brazilian adventure. Our destination for the night was a peaceful anchorage on Ilha da Cotia. Several sailboats and smaller motor yachts had preceded us. It was now getting dark and time for dinner and cocktails.

We cooked a tasty spaghetti dinner and enjoyed a bottle or two of red wine. Life is good. Time to go to bed but a little drama pushed our bedtime a bit back.

We were sitting in the cockpit having a bit of Cachaça (a distilled spirit made from fermented

Fresh oysters

sugarcane juice popular in Brazil) for medicinal and digestive purposes of course, and noticed a boat dragging anchor and heading our way. No crew members to be seen. They were already tucked in for the night. We started yelling and had roving fenders ready. Another hundred yards away from us, crew members on another boat started yelling too. Finally, the crew of the wayward yacht came up from below, but they had no clue what to do.

First, they shouted back at us that we were moving and not them. When they realized what was going on they were in total panic. They had booked a crewed charter and each evening the skipper would secure the yacht for the night and the charter company picked him up. Without the skipper on board and with no sailing experience, they were floating further away towards the rocky shore. They were saved by the crew of the other boat who came to their assistance with their RIB. After they had been safely anchored, the cove turned quiet, and everyone got a well-deserved rest.

Sunday morning, the sky was gray and overcast and while we were enjoying breakfast on our boat, Malicia, a local fisherman paddled by in his dugout canoe and offered to sell us oysters. We ordered two dozen, which he shucked right in his canoe. They were so delicious and the whole thing did not cost us even $10.00.

From Ilha da Cotia, we sailed to the other side of the bay of Ilha Grande to the small island of Cedro for a swim and lunch at the beach restaurant Bar do Coqueiro. We had delicious empanadas and a bowl full of small, fried shrimp, washed down with numerous Cachaças.

The following morning, Kevin and I paddled to the shore in search of additional food. We found wine, pasta, bread and some veggies and a local fish store. The fishmonger cleaned and fileted one red snapper and removed the scales and innards of the second one. The filets ended up as ceviche for lunch and the whole snapper was destined that evening for the grill on our boat. Unlike the Magma grills in the U.S.A., the grill here was not propane-powered but worked on charcoal. So, we had to light charcoal with alcohol and wait for it to heat up sufficiently to start grilling.

Back on the yacht, we pulled the anchor and motor-sailed, sometimes in heavy rain, to the small bay of Piraquara de Dentro. This bay is very well protected from winds but we needed water and opted to go to nearby Porto de Frade, a luxury resort with a well-equipped marina. There was no dock space available, and we got a buoy close to the entrance for the equivalent of US $40.00 and, fortunately, it came with free water taxi service.

The following morning, we went to the dock and filled up our water tanks and motor-sailed to nearby Ilha Cunhambebe Grande, named after an Indian chieftain who revolted against Portuguese invaders.

The island is beautiful with a very nice anchorage, but the rest of the crew was not as enthusiastic as I was and we continued to Ilha de Itanhangá. We dropped the hook under an impressive sheer monolith of a rock. Mila, Kevin and Delana paddled to shore and hiked a trail all the way up to the top of the monolith where they had a spectacular view of the surrounding area.

A nearby beach, called Praia da Piedade has an adorable small white colonial church, right on the edge of the water. Trails led from there to nearby beaches on the island of Ilha Gipóia. Legend has it that the island is haunted by the ghosts of the first adventurers who got marooned there. It is a delightful place, worth visiting. We were anchored off the beach of Praia da Piedade and I decided to stay on the boat while the rest of the crew paddled ashore.

And it is Thursday! Time to sail back to the other side of the Bahia da Ilha Grande, but, before raising the sails, we stopped for snorkeling at the Ilhas da Botina, two small rock formations with palm trees growing on top and surrounded by crystal clear waters. We snorkeled for a good hour until the anchorage started filling up with tour boats carrying day trippers from Angra dos Reis. We swam among triggerfish, zebrafish, and other smaller fish.

When we left the Ilhas Botinas, the wind picked up with peaks of eight knots of speed. It was almost a straight shot on a thirteenmile-long port tack from Ilha Grande to the entrance of the Saco de Mamanguá, a long and narrow fjord-like bay that ends in a culde-sac with depths of about 2 meters. Halfway down the “fjord” we found the village of Praia do Cruzeiro. We anchored for lunch and then continued further inside to Bananal, a stunning anchorage, well protected from all winds and with white sand beaches. We thought it was a perfect place to spend our last night before returning to the base. We had left our hatches open with the mosquito screens in place, but they were no barrier for the pesky No-See-Ums. We got attacked so aggressively that we had to close the hatches and try to kill as many as we could find. At six o’clock, Kevin started the engines and Delana raised the anchor to escape the onslaught of these miserable insects. We motored back to Ilha da Cotia, where we had spent our first night hoping to find the oyster man. No oysters but still plenty of flies inside the boat.

Around noon, we went to nearby Paraty Mirim, a tiny village with a restored colonial church and a beach with some bars. The wind was blowing and Kevin, Mila and I paddled ashore. The wind was blowing straight into the beach and paddling that dinghy back would have been impossible. A local water taxi towed us back to our yacht and we left for our final leg, back to the base, where the dock crew was waiting and helped us dock.

They came on board and fumigated the cabins to kill the last bloodsuckers that were still hiding in nooks and crannies. On shore power, we finally were able to use the air conditioning. Our last dinner in Paraty was at the restaurant at the marina with a delicious meal and excellent service. Soon after we were in the AC-comfort of our cabins for our final night aboard.

Check out was at eight-thirty on Saturday. After breakfast at the marina restaurant we boarded our taxi for the four-hour ride to Rio de Janeiro. Like any other tourists, we had to visit the Sugarloaf Mountain, with the statue of Christ on top of the Corcovado and, of course, the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema.

We loved this trip and are already planning our return visit for May 2024.