Sailing license, Turistas

On Tuesday we moved to the dock at Clube Naval Charitas. It is a large facility with a haul out area, covered storage for small sailboats, small chandlery, restaurant, bar and most important, a large swimming pool!

A short walk from the club is a catamaran to downtown Rio. As Rich is over 60, he rides for free! The ride is about 20 minutes and from the dock we either caught a taxi around town.

On our first ride we walked over to the Capitan dos Portos to check in. Up until this day it has been a low key event. Unfortunately, someone in the office was upset about something and we were berated for not having a sailing license. No where in any of the cruising guides or online websites such as Noonsite or SSCA is there a mention of needing a sailing license in Brazil if you are a foreign cruiser. We tried very patiently to explain that we did not have one but that we have records showing that we have over 25,000 blue water miles of experience, including Cabo de Hornas. Eventually they asked for our phone number and said they would come to the boat. For an inspection? Or ? We explained that we had plans to do some sightseeing and may not be at the boat. No problem, they would call first. Well, so far, no calls.

As you can see from the photos in our last post we having been doing some sightseeing. We took the gondola up to Pao do Acucar aka Sugarloaf Mountain. The views were great and we dodged the people with selfie sticks. Another day we went to Ipanema. There we found a Starbucks so we could add a Brazil cup to our collection and have a frappacino at the same time. We walked along the beach and saw a bazillion people. We also made a stop at the H Stern museum, a famous worldwide jeweler that started here in Brazil.

At Clube Naval Charitas we met Susy. She was born in England but has spent most of her life in Brazil. She and her husband did a circumnavigation in the late 1970s and she is a godsend to foreign cruisers as she is fluent in English, French and Portuguese. One of the photos in the previous post is of Rich and Susy on one of the hilltops overlooking Niterio and Rio. She gave us the Cook's tour and took us to a great supermercado for provisioning. Thank you Susy.

Now it is Saturday and plenty hot. It is 93 but according to the Weather Channel it feels like 112. Time to go to the pool.

We hope to leave tomorrow for Buzios. It will be an overnight passage around Cabo Frio. I wonder why it has that name?

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