June 22, 2012-Colorful Sao Luis
April 23, 2012-Marina at Sao Luis
wingssail images-fredrick roswold
 Marina Aven at Sao Luis, Brazil
If it wasn’t for the bare-chested brown skinned man on the back of the beached catamaran emphatically waving us on with grand sweeps of the arm we wouldn’t have come here; we would have turned back like we did the night before when the water depth reached nine feet. That was low tide. This morning, at high tide, with 15 feet more water, we got half a mile further, and now it was less than nine feet again.
And why we let him persuade us I’m not sure; we were about to run aground, it was close to the absolute top of the highest tide for two weeks, and we had no idea where the channel was. A hard grounding would have been a disaster, but he persuaded us and we didn’t even know him. Some kind of Lorelie I guess.
Are we fools?
Maybe, but it had become an act of faith. Two other people, knowledgeable people, said we could go into the marina at Sao Luis. They said we would be in the mud and have to dig our way in with the keel, but we could do it. They said that at low tide we would be sitting in mud up to our keel. And they said it would be nice. I wouldn’t be kidding if I said we were totally skeptical. But we could see the marina just ahead. It it didn’t look like much, but Sao Luis was supposed to be a nice town and the alternative, to leave Sao Luis and head north wasn’t at all attractive either.
Then this guy urged us on. He really urged us on.
Yeah, we must be fools.
We went. We literally ploughed ahead.
And thirty minutes later we were tied along side another deep keel cruising yacht at what must be the funkiest little marina in the world: Marina Aven, Sao Luis, Brazil
And to top it off, for six hours out of every twelve, we are totally beached. This marina is subject to 15 foot tides and the water is only eight feet at high tide. So at low tide we are seven feet higher than sea level. And, because of these tides, we can only leave at 9:00 tomorrow, plus or minus one hour, or we stay here for two weeks.
wingssail images-fredrick roswold
 Oops!
Unbelievable!
However, the town is nice, the people here are really friendly, we already got water, food, fixed the mainsail, equalized our batteries (again), had dinner out, and today we’ll get diesel and do a tour of the town, maybe have a long lunch in the historic central district. It will be a quick visit, due, again, to those tides, but worth it we think. We wouldn’t have missed this for anything.
And tomorrow we’ll be ready to head north; at 09:00, plus or minus about an hour.
And, here, other than getting these astonishing photos, is the best part: We have a tip about another interesting place that nobody goes, and which requires another act of faith, but will be really worth it.
Tomorrow we head to Dos Lincois.
Click here for more Marina Aven photos.
Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Sao Luis, Brazil
Labels: Brazil, Marina, Marina Aven, Sao Luis, Wings
April 21, 2012-Sailing to Sao Luis-Updated
wingssail images-fredrick roswold
 Sailing to Luis Corriea
We left Fortaleza.
You always knew we would.
We’re not ready to stop.
And anyhow, even if we were, Fortaleza is not the place, the marina is poor.
So we headed up the coast.
First stop, Luis Correia.
We arrived after dark, no fault of our own. We tried to make it by sunset, but the winds let us down.
Then we made a discovery: the charts for Luis Correia lack detail and what there is…is wrong. So we went in after dark with bad charts. Never mind, we did it on visual, and some fishing boats left their lights on so we could find our way. Thanks Guys.
Luis Correia was nice. There is a breakwater and up the river, a town. We never made it to town, the breakwater was just fine: Calm, protected, and quiet. All we saw of the fishing boats were their cabin lights except for the one closest to where we anchored where, under the glare of his foredeck light, I saw one of the crew pouring buckets of water over his head. He looked lean and muscular and clean as the saltwater poured over his body. All the fishing boats were gone in the morning.
We stayed three nights.
Then we sailed to Sao Luis.
You know, Sao Luis is supposed to be a wonderful city. From what we could see, it looks like it. But there is no marina or harbor for sailboats and we couldn’t get into the channel where the yacht club is due to low tide; no water. Instead we anchored behind a nearby Island.
We’ll try again tomorrow.
San Luis is, however, a major port for Brazil and in the anchorage there are about 30 ore carriers waiting to export Brazil’s commodities; waiting for a load.
Probably a load for China.
Not right now. There is a lesson in the world economy for you: when China stops buying, the world waits.
But that all misses the point of the sailing: it was good, then bad, then good.
That’s what the doldrums brings, light variable winds, brief periods of nice breeze, and sudden storms. Not bad storms mind you, but enough to reduce sail and go slow while you get drenched.
Yeah, we were in the doldrums. Finally I decided to keep the sails up and steer through it and in that way the sudden storms gave us sudden bursts of speed. Wet but fast.
wingssail images-fredrick roswold
 Waiting to Load
wingssail images-fredrick roswold
 Sao Luis
We arrived in Sao Luis speeding in through one of those blinding rainstorms with the automatic transponders of 30 empty ore carriers shouting at us. I turned off the AIS.
Now, we don’t know if we’ll get into the yacht club basin tomorrow or be back here behind this island. Either way, we’ll be getting ready for the next leg, further up the coast, and surely onward to some other new adventures.
We’ll let you know.
Update: Wait until you get the next post, you won't believe it!
Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Sao Luis, Brazil. Labels: Brazil, Luis Correia, sailing, Sao Luis
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