Our weather window had worked perfectly. The wind was still blowing from the north as we approached Zimbros and made our way to the sheltered anchorage on Monday evening. The sea went flat as we tucked ourselves around the headland. We didn’t go as close to the shore as originally planned because the radar was showing a lot of clutter that we could not identify and we wanted to steer clear. We put the anchor down on the 5m contour and settled in for the night.
2 nights at sea is almost the worst possible length of passage. Just not quite long enough to get into a proper sleep pattern so we were both quite tired, but at least we had arrived at a sensible time in the evening to eat dinner, have a glass of wine and go to bed.
Tuesday afternoon we were feeling refreshed and ready to move to a more sheltered anchorage across the bay in Ganchos, it was due to blow from the south again by Tuesday night.
We are in a new state, Santa Catarina, and as it turns out Santa Catarina state is home to Brazil’s oyster and mussel production. The scatter on our radar was caused by Oyster farms, known as aquaculture or mariculture and although they are clearly in abundance here, they are not well marked on the charts.
Now we know what to look for we can spot them on google earth and the no foreignland satellite map but you have to be at the right zoom and wait for the picture to focus. I have added some warning icons to the no foreignland map and navionics but as I assume the farms will move sometimes it is definitely prudent to approach these bays in daylight.
With arriving in daylight in mind we set off across the bay to Ganchos mid afternoon and easily found a good spot to anchor between the aquaculture and the fishing boat moorings. If you look closely at my hand drawn white circles above you can make out the farms, just!
We landed the dinghy on a scrap of sand and went for a look around.
We loved it from the second we stepped ashore. A proper working fishing port. How different it is here to anywhere we have been so far. The town was bustling with working people moving about with purpose. The main industry here is wholesale fish and seafood not tourism.
What a shame it is so overcast in the photos.
We really needed to stretch our legs so wandered up the hill and around the headland to the next bay, Calheiros, before returning and having a proper look at Ganchos harbour.
There were a few boats just coming in to land their catch and loads of birds circling overhead looking for scraps and stealing them from each other. Very entertaining.
The weather is changing, the temperature has dropped and northerly winds with rain are back. We have moved back to anchor in Zimbros. All the hatches are closed so we are really pleased to have our cockpit tent which allows us to leave the companionway open and get some air down below.
Looking at the forecast we might be doing the anchorage shuffle a few more times this week!
Lin and Richard sailing Velvet Lady 