Anchored in Saco do Ceu, Ilha Grande

The Schooner Maggie B is underway NE-bound. We are anchored in Saco do Ceu, Ilha Grande, Rio Grande State, Brazil, at 23° 06S, 44° 12W. We have come 1290 NM from Buenos Aires and have 689 NM to Salvador and 2608 to Antigua. (Milages to Salvador and Antigua are as the Frigate Bird flies). We did only about 35 NM today, but we are underway from the lovely town of Paraty, where one could spend a long time.

The crew reconvened in Paraty after trips to Rio and around the Ilha Grande Bay near Paraty. The rendezvous worked out almost faultlessly. A big addition is Genevieve Lizotte, Thomas’s friend who is joining us for the leg to Salvador. She is a set designer in Montreal. Her bio will be up as soon as I can force her to write it.

The trip to Salvador is East about 200 NM to Cabo Frio, then turn left, northbound another 600 NM. Generally we should expect no wind to Cabo Frio, then possibly adverse Northeasterlies most of the way to Salvador. Right now it looks from the GRIB files as it there is a little disturbance tracking north, that might break up the NE’erly. It means motoring, maybe in rain, but that is a lot better than a 25 knot headwind.

We refueled today in Paraty. With some difficulty. We draw two meters and they supposedly had two meters at the dock. Not quite. One has to do a 180 turn, drop anchor and back in to the pier. We got to about 10-15 feet off and touched. I didn’t want to push the rudder back through the muck. The diesel hose fortunately was long enough that we could pass it out via the Reep. We are feeling very well provisioned with 1200 NM of diesel, two-three weeks of provisions, full water and watermaker, and a sound, experienced crew.

We arrived at Saco do Ceu just at full dark. It is a perfect little spot (check it out on Google maps, by clicking on the lat/long on our web site). Saco means sack. Ceu means sky. We call it a piece of heaven. We anchored, perfectly protected, in about 30 feet of water, unfortunately sharing the anchorage with two big powerboats, but then nothing is perfect. Actually, what is perfect is that Hannah led us to take a full dark swim, and she made the stunning discovery that there is tons of phosphorescence. There is no way to describe it, other than imagine the Disney cartoons with Tinkerbell flying scattering gold and silver with every movement. Your arms, legs, every finger, when moved, light up. From the deck someone swimming the breast stroke looks like a butterfly.

One charming aspect of Paraty Old Town is that the street numbers are totally random. Perhaps in order of when the house was built? Or registered? We went to the theater to see a marvelous puppet show and the theater was #248. Next to the theater was a restaurant #45. Across was a cooking school at #322. Who knows? Charming.

On the Maggie B, I have tried to celebrate things that have worked really well, as well as describing the stuff that has broken or failed. I fear that I have spent too much time describing problems. But I want to highlight one big success, which is our hull paint. It is made by an English company called HMG Marine). The US importer is Providence Lacquer. They did a great job for us. Mixed exactly the unusual yellow I wanted. The paint, now after two years and 34,000 NM still gets lots of compliments, even after being strapped in haulouts, banged by fenders and buoys, acid rain, bergy bits, lots of salt, scrapes and bruises. Most think that we have been just repainted. We were even able to do a good job of “field” repainting some serious scratches in Mauritius a year ago, and it is hard to tell what was done and where. It is a fine product.

Tomorrow we are going to swim and snorkel a bit and then put our head down and get going 24/7 towards Salvador. We have maybe a spare day or so, but we have to get going, probably burning diesel most of the way.

All is well.