Next Stop Ilha Grande, Brazil

Left Vitoria Monday morning in a strong NNE wind, averaging 7+ k the first 12 hours! Then the wind abated and about midnight did a 180 and became SSW, gradually increasing, right on our bow. We decided to head for Buzio, just north of Rio and wait for the wind to either change direction or come down. We bashed for almost 24 hours, arriving in Buzio at 11pm last night. We're now rested and will leave after we receive a current weather forecast and I send this email. Should be in Ilha Grande in less than 48 hours.

Vitoria, Brazil

Vitoria’s city center is up a river and the main shipping docks are right downtown. Actually, the whole area of Vitoria is an island with the Atlantic on one side and a river surrounding it from south to north. The city is very clean and very safe. We went into the city center the other day to visit some of the historic sites and ended up in a park where there was a Samba festival. One of the groups that performed was a Congo group that included women (all elderly) who held banners and twirled around with lots of energy.

Every Saturday and Sunday evening booths of items and food are set up in the park just outside the yacht club. We’ve been able to eat the last couple of nights for $5 each. Last night we had yakisoba and when I said thank you in Japanese they were very surprised.

We’ve enjoyed our stay here at the yacht and have met many very nice people. We plan on leaving Vitoria for Angra do Reis, south of Rio, tomorrow morning, a three day trip. We hope to spend about a week in the Bahia dos Ilha Grande, which everyone says is the nicest place for cruiser’s in Brazil. Unfortunately we have to keep moving if we want to be in Argentina by January.