Today has been a special day . We woke up this morning and decided it was time to restock the boat with all the good things in life . We set sail for the mainland to the city of Angra dos Reis which is the main centre in Baia da Ilha Grande .
We arrived at Marina Pirata's Mall , Urs's favourite spot which is a shopping mall/marina combined and is very handy for yachties . They have an exclusive dock for visiting boats right alongside the mall which means you literally tie up and stroll straight into the shopping complex . The food court has free wi fi and once you have shopped till you drop, you push your trolleys to the boat and load. They even come and fetch their trolleys once you have offloaded .
For those of you that were not aware of the big event on today , it was the Opening Ceremony of the Soccer World Cup and the opening game between Brazil and Croatia and the mall was buzzing with soccer fever . The Brazilians are soccer crazy and because they have been so good to us , we are rooting for Brazil all the way .
Our Brazilian yachtie friends Pig and Patricia took us to lunch and by the time we had finished it was late afternoon , so we decided to anchor for the night in Angra off a local yacht club . The city surrounds the bay so it is like being in a fish bowl.
We had watched parts of the Opening Ceremony while having lunch and when we motored out of the marina is was close to kick off with big crowds settling into the pubs and restaurants in the mall.
As soon as we had anchored the TV was on and we watched a great game of soccer. When Marcelo nudged the ball into his own goal there was an audible groan across the city . When Neymar scored his first goal the city exploded with fireworks and shouting from all corners of the bay . When the game ended 3-1 to the Brazilians the parties started with major celebrations going on ashore.
We sat out in the cockpit under a full moon enjoying a great bottle of Chilean wine and watched the goings on taking place around us .
It is now after midnight and the music is still pumping and the parties are going strong .
Me thinks that with all the sore heads tomorrow the Brazilian economy is going to take a dive ( excuse the pun ), but tonight they are celebrating their win .
Good for them but now l am going to try and get some sleep .
Allan & Ursula Ward: Port Owen, Cape West Coast, South Africa.
Shearwater 39:
- L.O.A. 43ft (13.22m)
- L.O.D. 39ft (12m)
- L.W.L. 34ft (10.3m)
- BEAM 13ft(3.9m)
- DRAFT 6ft(1.8m)
HOW IT ALL BEGAN .
I placed my order on Nebe Boats on the 19/10/1992 for what was initially planned to be a complete factory built yacht that l would sail home to Durban from Capetown once she was completed. Unfortunately due to the demise of Nebe Boats in the early days of her construction it did not turn out that way, so l decided to truck her home to Ramsgate on the KZN South Coast to finish building her in our garden at home.
For many years we could proudly boast that we had the most expensive piece of garden furniture in town, but at the time l had no idea of how massive this project would turn out to be. As anyone who has built a blue water cruiser will tell you, particularly if she is kitted out with all the systems and the equipment that a modern cruiser has onboard these days, it is a daunting task . Looking at the positive aspects of this project, l know the boat intimately in that l designed and installed the systems, so from a repair and maintenance perspective l have no issues carrying out the work that is necessary from time to time.
The big day arrived on the 29/8/2008 when we craned her out of the garden onto a rig to truck her through to Durban for launching . What followed was three months of preparations to ready her for the maiden voyage to our home port in Port Owen on the Cape West Coast.
We had a fast passage down the South African East Coast including a storm off the notorious Wild Coast and arrived in Port Owen in dense fog. Windward had passed her first test with flying colours and since then we have enjoyed some great sailing on the West Coast.
We had a fast passage down the South African East Coast including a storm off the notorious Wild Coast and arrived in Port Owen in dense fog. Windward had passed her first test with flying colours and since then we have enjoyed some great sailing on the West Coast.
The master plan has always been to go cruising, so our plans are to leave for Brazil via Luderitz and St Helena Island at the end of February 2014. So far everything is on track although the “To Do“ list still grows each day.
The purpose of this blog is to record our adventure for ourselves, family and friends. Although it will probably end up being a brief summary of events while we are cruising, we hope you will enjoy and share some of our experiences with us.
LIVING THE DREAM .
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Remember the small cars with big speakers pumping the nights away...that is Brazil. I can just imagine the increase with the Soccer...Enjoy !!!
ReplyDeleteHi guys , we saw plenty of those speakers on wheels in Cabo Frio and Rio .
DeleteThe next morning after the Brazil / Croatia game you could hear a pin drop in Angra , it was dead . Keep well .
Many thanks Frederick for the info . This has become a very interesting World Cup .
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