Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Our anchorage in Urca - view of Sugarloaf

We arrived in Urca, Rio de Janeiro on 13th July 2014 (the last day of FIFA World Cup) from Enseada das Palmas. It took us 20 hours to cover 65 nautical miles as we had to motor all the way against 15 kts of wind.

The anchorage here (S 22.56.698 W43.09.927) has a spectacular view of Sugarloaf mountain, which is a peak at 396 meters (1,299 ft) above the harbor, situated at the mouth of Guanabara Bay on a peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. It has a panoramic view of the city. 

Urca Beach gets busy on weekends - This is the beach where we drag and tie up our dinghy

Urca is about ~15 minutes bus ride away from downtown Rio. 

Sugarloaf mountain named after its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar

Night view of the Bay from Sugar Loaf

View of Sugarloaf from our dinghy on the way to the Rio de Janeiro Yacht Club

We spent a month here exploring the streets of Rio, the beaches, the botanical gardens and even walked up a pacified favela.   

Rio de Janeiro (which means River of January) is the second most populous city in Brazil after São Paulo. It is one of the most visited cities in the Southern Hemisphere and is known for its natural surroundings, carnival, samba, bossa nova, and long stretch of beaches such as Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon. Of course it's also home of famous landmarks Sugarloaf mountain pictured above and the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado mountain.

Partial Map of Rio

One of the many graffiti's on the streets of Rio

FIFA World Cup 2014

On our Walkabout Rio adventure, we stumbled upon "Buddy Bears - The Art of Tolerance" at Leme beach. It's an art exhibit representing many countries recognised by the UN, with the aim of promoting unity amongst different nationalities and cultures. Each bear was created by a local artist expressing their own style.

Buddy Bears

Very colourful Bears

We continued on from Leme to Leblon via Copacabana and Ipanema. Beautiful stretch of beaches.

View of Leme & Copacabana beach

The Copacabana promenade is a pavement landscape in large scale (4 kilometres long). It was rebuilt in 1970 and has used a black and white Portuguese pavement design since its origin in the 1930s: a geometric wave.

Here I had my first and last Caiprinha in Brazil. Caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail which is made with cachaça (sugarcane hard liquor), sugar and lime. I really enjoyed it, however the friendly bar tender was way too generous with the cachaça. I only managed to drink half of it before handing it off to Alex.

My red face - Caipirinha kickin' in (not the reflection from my top)

Ipanema is situated between Copacabana & Leblon and it is one of the most expensive places to live in Rio. The beach became widely known by the song "The Girl from Ipanema".

World Cup visitors camping on the beach

Alex & Adessio at the Carioca Aqueduct located in the Lapa Neighbourhood

Escadaria Selarón, or 'Selaron Steps', is a set of world-famous steps in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I spotted a tile from Malaysia!

Adessio helping us sort out our mobile phone plan before he hops off Raptor

The Hippie Ipanema Market is held every Sunday, from 9am - 5pm, rain or shine at The Praça General Osório. The market takes up an entire city block, bordered by the major streets Rua Visconde de Piraja and Rua Prudente de Morais. It started out as a small affair in the 1960's organised by Hippies to sell their arts and crafts. But today it's a very well organised market.

Love the Paintings

Favela

Ipanema Hippie Market

Arts & Crafts

We also visited the Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro or Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden which is located in the South zone of Rio. The 140-hectare park lies at the foot of the Corcovado Mountain, far below the right arm of the statue of Christ the Redeemer. The entrance fee is just R$6/person (~ $ 2 USD).

Venus Fly Trap at Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro

One of the many orchids in the garden

Of course, last but not least, we had some work done on the boat too! We added some Vesconite in the upper gearbox & replaced a broken engine mount. 

Bill & Fred helping us with the engine

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Angra dos Reis, Brazil

Photo of Bracuhy Marina from our Berth

Back again in Bracuhy Marina, Angra dos Reis on 7th June 2014 after about a month away. All good on Raptor. No major mold growth. 

The town (Centro) is about 26 km away from Bracuhy Marina. A long ride on the the public bus. We had to go into town for provisioning, as well as to clear in and clear out. It costs about $12 BRL return for the two of us.

The one thing I remember clearly about Angra was the public buses. I found it very strange that it had turnstiles in them. You get onboard and after you pay your fare to the driver, you had to go through the turnstiles which was quite narrow and made it very difficult for those who had baggage and or anyone wider than the turnstile which was most people. I sure had a hard time passing through with my backpack on.

Nice part of Centro

Flags for the World Cup

Streets of Centro

You can find most things in Centro. There are butcher shops, mini markets, a supermarket, dive shops, fishing shops, clothes stores, etc. We bought our mobile phone plan from Vivo here as well. It was a bit of a challenge though because most of the sales people do not speak any English. We could only communicate via google translate on the computer. A couple of times we were lucky we had help from other customers who spoke a little bit of English.

I remember this one time I was in the supermarket and couldn't find where the eggs were. So I found a shop assistant and tried to ask her about the eggs but sadly she couldn't understand me. I wish I had a pen and paper at that time, perhaps to draw a chicken and then an egg or something, but instead my creativity came into play and before I could stop myself, I clucked like a chicken and flapped my arms as wings, she smiled in delight and brought me straight to the frozen chicken section. I shook my head in dismay, motioned something else and got my eggs. I'll leave it to your imagination on what I did to get them. Silly times make good memories :)

We also repainted the double cabin. This is the second cabin we've repainted since Port Louis, Mauritius in 2013.

Taking off the old paint

Before

After

We finally departed Bracuhy Marina on 3rd July 2014. 

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Dubai, United Arab Emirates

A short 3 day stopover in Dubai on our flight back to Brazil from Singapore. Thought we'd make the most of it since we had to transit here anyway. 

Dubai is the largest and most populous city in United Arab Emirates. The buildings are very uniformed in colour as you can see in our photos below!

Dubai Marina

Mostly Power Boats

Nice palm trees

Left to Dubai, Right to Abu Dhabi

How long is that limousine?

We bought an all day Metro pass for $16 AED/person, which we used to visit The Gold Souk, located in Deira, near Al Ras metro station.

It's a large set of authentic jewelry, gemstones & precious metals stores. Apparently the government keeps tight control over the quality of all the merchandise, so you can be assured that your purchases will be genuine {so they say}.. Unfortunately, we didn't have the funds to buy any.

We did splurge on Shake Shack burgers at the Dubai Mall though! 😃

Shake Shack at Dubai Mall

They were gooood!

 

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Melbourne, Australia

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We Crossed The Atlantic!

Bracuhy Marina

8 days later from Trinidade Island, we arrived at Bracuhy Marina in Angra Dos Reis (S 22.57.088 W 44.23.707) on the 14th April 2014. It took us 18 days, 2,279 nautical miles from St Helena; 26 days in total if we include the 8 days it took from Nambia to St. Helena.

Unfortunately, the wind was not on our side during this voyage. There was either no wind or wind on the nose! We had to motor over 80 hours just to make it in time for one of our crew to catch his flight home the next day.

I'm very delighted {and kinda proud} to announce that I crossed the Atlantic ocean without taking any anti-seasick pills! :) I now know it takes my body at least 7 days to grow my sea-legs and just two days onshore to lose them. I guess I'm naturally more of a land lubber than a seafarer {but that's not going to stop me, is it?! ;)}.  

We spent the next five days, cleaning and packing up before leaving Raptor at the marina on 19th April.

Angra dos Reis is a Brazilian municipality in southwest Rio de Janeiro state. It’s made up of 365 islands and a small port surrounded by steep, forested coastline. The region is known for its many beaches and biodiverse Ilha Grande, the largest island.

Nice view of the Bracuhy Marina - Misty

At Bracuhy Marina

Melbourne, Australia here we come!

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Trinidade Island, Brazil

Alex checking the straps on the main sail

We stopped at Trinidade Island on 6th April 2014, 1,396 nautical miles en-route from St Helena to Brazil to repair the straps on the main sail and to top up our diesel. 

Ilha da Trindade  is a volcanic island situated 1,170 kilometres east of Vitória, State of Espírito Santo, Southeast Brazil in the Atlantic Ocean.

We picked up a mooring buoy (S 20.30.193 W 29.18.928) but later realised that it was not connected to anything and we drifted about half a nautical mile. No biggie!

Our crew certainly enjoyed the break. A quick swim in the pristine waters was just what they needed to reenergize their spirits. 

 

Crew having a swim

Rocky terrain

Trinidade Island

Another beautiful sunset

Several hours later, we resumed our voyage bound for Bracuhy Marina, Angra Dos Reis.

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