Recife — S/V Oroboro

Recife, November 2019

Mario arrived in Salvador as soon as he graduated High School. Well, he went to Greece first with his schoolmates to celebrate the end of high school, then rested a couple of days in Florence and finally flew to Salvador.

We took him around in Salvador, showing him this beautiful town. We were lucky, because in Pelourinho there was a literature festival with lots of concert and events going on.

Then we sailed to Morro de Sao Paulo, rented some quads to have some good time.

Then we decided to set sails for the final and more challenging leg of our trip: Recife. So we took down the flag of Bahia State and we raised the flag of Brazil again...

Sailing to the north eastern point of the continent is not easy. You have big seas and wind almost on the nose. Mario was the right crew for the job. He had sailed with us back in the Mediterranean in very challenging conditions to the Aeolian islands. We knew he was up to the task. And for him, this was a really good experience.

Big seas, lot of wind, lot of squalls. We felt a little sorry for him to experience sailing for his first time on Oroboro in one of the most difficult passages we've ever done since we left Cape Town. He didn't seem to care, anyways...

Mario has a bright future as a skipper in front of him. Never scared, always calm, punctual for his night watch, very diligent in keeping the log book updated.

We arrived in Recife and anchored in the river in front of the old town. We were the only sailboat.

The historical downtown of Recife is very small and can be visited in an afternoon.

We visited the Embaixada dos Bonecos Gigantes, where we saw some of the giant puppets used during the carnival. There is an interesting Synagogue (the oldest in America) and the museum Paço do Frevo, the quintessential dance of the Recife Carnival. Recife is also famous for the typical northern eastern music called Forrò.

S/V Oroboro GPS sailing track — Northeast Coast, October–November 2019 — S/V Oroboro GPS track — Northeast Coast — October–November 2019 • GPS data from Raymarine chartplotter • Map © OpenStreetMap contributors

Every anchorage — Brazil — Northeast Coast, Oct–Nov 2019

Six stops on the final leg of our Brazil voyage, rounding the northeast corner of South America en route to the Caribbean.

Stop	Date	Notes
Recife	Oct 2019	River · old town · only sailboat
Olinda	Oct 2019	Day trip · colonial village
Jacaré	Nov 2019	Last leg with Mario · marina
João Pessoa	Nov 2019	Departed midnight · meteor sighting
Natal	Nov 2019	After João Pessoa leg
Fortaleza	Nov 2019	Marina Park · last Brazil stop

Anchorage maps

Zoomed-in charts of each stop along the Northeast Coast, with GPS track overlay.