Watch Oil Platforms on Route!

There is a large area of Oil Platforms to the North of 023 21 58.216 S & 040 36 54.394 W  To avoid these platforms the suggestion is to use this WP for the approaching to the Rio de Janeiro coast, before turning to Ilha Grande landfall WP 023 14 47.837 S & 044 23 45.998 W.

NEW Proposed Landing - Bracuhy, Ilha Grande Bay, Rio de Janeiro

Due the great difficulty on getting the Ilhabela sailing and authority communities involved on the Brally project, and by the joining of the ABVC (Brazilian Association of Cruisers), we will have better land/locals support, facilities and documentation process in Bracuhy (http://www.marinabracuhy.com.br/marin.htm), a Sailors Marina in the Ilha Grande Bay, and close to Angra dos Reis City, in the State of Rio De Janeiro.

We are working on a process whereby the arriving boats will be received by a local Ambassador from ABVC or arranged by the ABVC. We will soon post names, emails and local cell numbers for local Ambassadors.

On the pictures you see the WPs for landing in the Ilha Grande Bay and the proposed route going to Bracuhy. I suggest you install the BSB Charts available from the Brazilian Navy site as posted previously, but you can also check on the charts you use on your boat to confirm the landing and arrival to Bracuhy.

If you have to stop anywhere before the landing proposed, choose always a bay protected from the SW. I will be posting good anchorages for the area on the next posting.

Once in Bracuhy, you can anchor at the bay in front of it and go check the marina or you can enter the marina and negotiate a stay, that will have special deals for the Brally boats. There you will have fuel and water, with grocery store for provisioning a good walking distance away, but more likely, someone from the ABVC will support you on your local needs.

We are providing a Brally t-shirt and hat, which will help the locals on identifying that you belong to the Brally group.

Entry documentation will be done likely on the marina, or with the help from a local Ambassador.

Route CapeTown 2 Sta Helena 2 Trindade 2 Ilhabela

NOTE: The NEW landfall is now proposed for Bracuhy, Ilha Grande Bay, Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro. You can use the same proposed route, but stop at the new landfall WP as proposed on the NEW Landfall posting.

The direct route from Cape Town to Ilhabela is only a couple of days shorter then the one via Sta. Helena, because of the winds and currents, so I used Visual Passage Planner to propose an optimnized route, maximizing wind and minimizing passage time and got the following results.

The first leg, from Cape Town to Sta. Helena has 1657 miles and can be sailed in 10 days, following this route, at average speed of 6.5 knots. We can stay some 5 days in Sta Helena for resting and provisioning, then head to Martim Vaz and Trindade, two Brazilian islands for some rest and maybe some diving and fishing. Not great anchorages, but we are also not expecting any big wind at this time of the year.

You can learn more about the Sta. Helena island on: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena

The leg to Martim Vaz and Trindade has 1.385 miles and can be sailed in 10 days at 6 knots. You can learn more about these islands on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trindade_and_Martim_Vaz

And finally, the last leg to Ilhabela has 911 miles, that sailed at 6.1 knots will put us there in 7 days.

The total crossing will take (10+5+10+2+7=34) 34 days if we stop 5 days in Sta Helena, 1 day in Martim Vaz, and 1 in Trindade, so we need to plan to be leaving Cape Town between the 2nd and 4th of January, to make it on time for first day of Carnaval. 

You can learn about Ilhabela on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilhabela,S%C3%A3o_Paulo

Where and When to go:

The basic guideline for sailing the Brazilian coast is to go South during summer and North during winter, but one can sail practically anywhere at anytime. See posting on Winds and Currents.

Keeping in mind the South in the Summer, and making the best of Brazil during our stay there, BRally is suggesting an early January departure from Cape Town in South Africa, making a brief stopover in Santa Helena to break the crossing, and proceeding to a point still being defined, between Ilhabela in São Paulo and Angra dos Reis in Rio de Janeiro, for our port of entry, where we will try to facilitate the entry procedure for the BRally participants. Our goal is to arrive at our entry port with enough time for us to spend some days of Carnaval on a safe and contained place, yet to be defined.

We will have March, April and May to enjoy the nice anchorages between Ilhabela in São Paulo and Angra dos Reis in Rio de Janeiro, including Ubatuba, Parati and Ilha Grande,  before we start our way up North.

Keeping in mind that we will need to extend our visas after 90 days, and exit/re-entry Brazil before  180 days, a great option would be a visit to Iguaçu Falls for the re-entry procedure.  The idea is to leave the boat  at a good marina closer to airports and bus routes, and go to Iguaçu Falls in Mid June. That will allow for a re-entry and another period of 90+90 which would give us enough time for the trip North.

On the trip North, we suggest stopping over the following cities, where we will try to organize receptions at the local Yacht Clubs: Rio de Janeiro, Buzios, Vitoria, Abrolhos, Ilheus, Camamu, Maceio, Recife, Fernando de Noronha, Natal, Fortaleza.  It is very possible that we will have some Brazilian cruisers joining us on our trip to the North as that is the time the Iate Clube Cabanga in Recife run the famous REFENO regatta between Recife and the island of Fernando de Noronha.

After Fortaleza, we will try to organize a trip through the Amazon river, but that is still a dream that will depend on our time to put that together.

After that, each boat will continue to their own destination.