Welcome Aboard! •
Welkom Aan Boord! •
¡Bienvenido Abordo!
The dinghy drawn up on the beach alongside ours is possibly the most decrepit yachting tender that I have ever seen – and I’ve come across quite a few wooden crates and soggy pneumatics in my time. As a rule, Mollymawk‘s vintage Avon is pretty much the tattiest thing in the anchorage, but this lumpen object leaves me awed. It appears to have begun its life as a plywood dory but all trace of wood is now engulfed by a…
The New York Times recently nominated Rio de Janeiro as the best place in the world. The best place for what? Well, apparently they didn’t specify. So far as we yotties are concerned it isn’t the best, by any means – it isn’t even the best place in Brazil – but it does have a certain something special. And, of course, it does have the world’s most famous and extravagant carnival. It so happened that Mollymawk was anchored little more…
It was the last night of Brazil’s four-day Carnival celebration. Indeed, it was the day itself – it was Mardi-Gras, or Shrove Tuesday as we know it in England – and so we planned to go ashore and watch the revellers. According to the official programme the action was supposed to begin at eight, but we know the score well enough by now to understand that this was just someone’s fantasy; just a statement of what-ought-to-be rather than of genuine…
The tide is low. The sun having scarcely hauled itself up over the rim of the world, the sand is still damp; damp, and noisy, too. Perhaps the continual high-pitched popping is the sound of the water ebbing amongst the individual grains which make up the beach. Perhaps… but I like to think that it is made by some of the millions of tiny creatures for whom this shoal is the known world. Down there, under my feet, is another…
Having spent quite bit of time in Spain, amongst people who live to party and who love noise, colour, and razamatazz, we’ve seen plenty of firework displays. Indeed, we used to say that we’d seen enough pyrotechnic extravaganzas to last a lifetime. One of the country’s most spectacular demonstrations is the week-long Fiesta de San Juan, celebrated annually in Alicante. Essentially, it consists of around 80 huge bonfires, built in the streets, plus a week-long competition between the nation’s fireworks…
Amigos, Gringos, e Muito Mais! Besides providing a snug, safe anchorage and access to a great sailing playground, Itaparica also boasts various other facilities of relevance to the visiting yachtsmen, and not the least of these is the bar which, effectively, functions as an international yacht club. Amigos BBQ was founded some three or four years ago by Willem and Robyn der Merwe, a South African couple who arrived here in their yacht and liked the place too much to want…
With a coastline 5,000 miles long reaching from the equator right down to the Tropic of Capricorn and beyond, Brazil ought to offer almost unrivalled opportunities for yotties – and so it does. Here, in this one country, we can sail past palm fringed beaches one month and pine covered mountains the next. We can swelter in temperatures of over 100°F (38°C) while friends, cruising further to the south, shiver on a frosty morning and wish they had fitted the…
Old-fashioned halogen, incandescent, and fluorescent lights aboard a cruising yacht often form a major part of her power usage, and making the change to LED lights – both for interior lighting and for navigation lights – has the potential to make an enormous difference to the cruiser’s lifestyle. Whilst many people have already made the change, there are still plenty of yachts with inefficient and power-hungry lights. We have met several cruisers who sit in dimly-lit cabins or even use…
Roughly circular in shape, the island of Boa Vista lies about 20 miles south of Sal. On a clear day one can look across from Santa Maria and see the barren hills of Boa Vista’s north coast; but clear days are few and far between in the Cape Verdes. Paradise Island The first time we visited Boa Vista we fell in love with the place. We spent a month anchored in the big bay which eats into the island’s west…
The Rio Paraíba, already a popular point of entry for visitors to Brazil, now boasts a new mooring facility intended expressly for low-budget yotties. Situated five miles from the river’s entrance and the port of Cabedelo, the Ribeira Adventure Club lies opposite the well-known cruising venue of Jacaré. Although the channel leading up to this mini-marina is not sufficiently deep to admit the average deep draught cruising yacht, centreboarders, catamarans, and smaller yachts can get through. Once a quiet fishing…