Caprice will be moving again!

The Sugarloaf approching Rio De Janeiro

Caprice and I have had a couple of adventurous and wonderful weeks with my parents in Rio. I had my first experience of special treatment as I got invited to stay for free in a very fancy sailing club in Urca. The members Monika, Julius and Matt invited me simply as I think they were impressed with my journey.

This was wonderful as in the club we had access to toilet and showers and each time we wanted to go to land from our buoy (which overlook the sugarloaf) we just called Cocoroca on our vhf and a taxi boat arrived to pick us up for free.

This yatch club Iate Clubo Rio De Janerio also had wifi, free coffe and wonderful areas to chill out away from the heat in the boat. And even a pool. It truly felt luxorious! A big thankyou to Monika, Julius and Matt for making our stay so wonderful.

Dad turned 70 on the 13 of January, the day after I arrived in Rio, and we celebrated with a wonderful dinner in the cockpit of Caprice. Luckily I had made a table for the cockpit during my trip from Salvador. Janne, an old friend of my parents whom I spent some time with in Salvador joined us for the dinner.

Mum and Dad brought in their luggage from Sweden a Lewmar Profish 1000 anchor winch and a 9 meter chain. Luckily they didn’t need much more stuff with them as this took up all their luggage weight! Boat stuff in Brazil is very expensive so it made sense to bring it from Sweden instead.

In the club we got introduced to Reinaldo whom run a small chandlery and he was able to help us getting all the rest of the stuff we needed for the installation. We had a anchor roll specially made and got a 15 kg Bruce Anchor. Dad made all the wiring and Reinaldo helped with the rest of the installation so by the end of the week Caprice was ready to go with her new anchor equipment.

We waved goodbye to Janne and the club in Rio and set off towards Ihla Grande to do explore the many bays and enjoy anchoring in nature for the last couple days before Mum and Dad went home. I really wanted them to get some good sailing but unfortunately the wind wasn’t blowing very much – which is often the case here. We did some slow sailing during the night and then spent a day motoring in the heat to get to the island.

It is a beautiful island and we spent a couple of lovely days although the heat was getting to us a bit and we all kept dreaming of the winter in Sweden. I was truly jealous when they left on the 25th.

It very lovely that they came and shared my little world onboard Caprice for two weeks. They did very well to cope in the heat and in the small space in Caprice with all my guitars 🙂

I have then been here in Ihla Grande a few more days doing planning, research, thinking and preparing for my onward journey. The problem with an ‘open journey’ is that decision making can get tricky. I wont get into all the details about my dilemma but all I am going to say for now is that I am heading south possibly towards the Falkland Islands. First stop is Montevideo and then we will take it form there!

I am very happy that I have had the chance to get to know Brazil. It is really a special place and so much to experience. It seems people here are very good at living in the moment and they are so warm and welcoming.

Building a table on route in preparation for Dad’s birthdayPassing time on my way to Rio by climbing the mastIhlaIhla Grande – looks almost like home Mum and Dad feeling hot but happyThe new anchor equipment – No more sore back for me 🙂