Picture this. You are sailing in the Solent on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in August. There is hardly a cloud in the sky and swelteringly hot ashore, but aboard it is comfortable in the steady force 4 south-easterly breeze. The afternoon ebb is kicking up a typical Solent chop, but your yacht slices through easily enough. There are just three other yachts in sight. No hurry, because the marina you plan to visit tonight will have plenty of space, and even if you haven’t called in advance there will be a couple of staff waiting to show you to your berth and sort your ropes as soon as you arrive. At £5 for the night it will hardly break the bank, so perhaps you’ll treat the two of you to a meal in the marina restaurant. It is up-market, so it might cost £25 including the wine, but what the hell, you only live once. Alternatively you could put into Newtown Creek for a peaceful anchorage on your own, and wash away the day’s heat with a dip in the clear, warm sea.

The Reality

Fanciful? The “Baíe de Todos os Santos” offers all of this. It is an extraordinary, underused, cruising paradise. An exception in the generally straight coastline of Brazil, the bay is about 20 miles wide by 20 long with a comparatively narrow entrance, sheltered from the sea swell outside. It is dominated by the city of Salvador (pop 2½m) along its eastern side. The island of Itaparica which faces Salvador has many beaches and holiday resort villages. There is a large oil refinery on the northern side of the bay. Otherwise it is mostly rural: known as the Recôncavo this is one of the richest agricultural regions of Brazil. In places it verges into forest, almost jungle, with mangrove swamps at the water’s edge.

The down sides are few. Perhaps worst is the heat. In February the sun is directly overhead at mid-day and the temperature hits 37ºC. The only respite is in the cooling breezes of the south-east trade-winds, which set in without fail by lunch time each day. However the four marinas are of necessity in sheltered leeward spots, and we swelter. In the anchorages at least one can just jump into the sea to cool off. Care must be taken to avoid sunburn and heat exhaustion. We drink up to 3 litres of water and soft drinks daily, and sweat, sweat, sweat. Thank goodness for the on-board shower.

Sentinel in Baíe de Todos os Santos.

One other downside is the infuriating bureaucracy. In Brazil this means a visit to each of the immigration police, customs, port health and the port authorities: not just on first arrival, but in every port twice over, both when one enters and leaves. Their offices will be miles apart, and it can take days. Mostly the staff are courteous and helpful, but in Salvador the immigration guy has a bad reputation. It takes us four days just to make an appointment to see him, during which time we are supposed to remain on board. It turns out we are missing a vital form (out of seventeen pages of forms) from our previous port. “You must go back to Recife”, he orders. It is a seven day passage against the wind, and we are greatly annoyed. However the marina assistant, who was interpreting, tells us that he did not actually say immediately, so he suggests we stay, albeit illegally – “just don’t get into trouble with the police”. So we do.

The bay is unusually tidal, with up to 3 meters in some places. This means attention must be paid to currents, reversing anchorages etc. Not a down side to anyone from England, but some coming here have little experience of large tides.

We have been asked about malaria, but it is not a problem in most of the coastal area of Brazil (except in the north) and precautions are unnecessary. Indeed, there seem to be remarkably few flying insects. We are little bothered by flies or mosquitoes – and talking of pests there are no gulls either so no blobs of poo on the deck, nor are there any “boat-boys”.

The Cruising Grounds

The bay itself can be divided into five distinct cruising areas, as follows:

Salvador

Salvador is immediately inside the bay. A separate page is devoted to the city and its Carnaval. There are two smallish marinas: the one where visitors go is close to the historic centre, but in a particularly rough area. The marina itself is secure enough, with an armed guard on the gate at night.

The bay in front of Salvador is deep, easy sailing with beautiful views of the city and the distant islands. It is perfect for yacht racing. When a regatta was held, crowds of cheering supporters went out to São Marcello fort at the entrance to the harbour for a grandstand view.

Salvador waterfront.

The marina at Itaparica.

Ilha de Itaparica

The marina at the northern end of the island is a gem. Behind it flows a mineral spring from which one can fill up the yacht with drinking water. Very useful since tap water in Brazil is generally not considered fit for drinking. The island is famed for its mangoes and the trees grow everywhere – there are so many they don’t bother to sell them locally.

At weekends thousands of people come out the islands from Salvador in fleets of ‘gullet’ boats to the 28km of sandy beaches on the windward side, but for cruisers the main interest is the channel on the western side of the island. It is rather shallow with drying sandbanks to trap those unfamiliar with tidal sailing, though pleasant countryside dotted with little villages and picturesque beaches with palm trees (unfortunately mostly private). At one point there is a waterfall. It is almost – but not quite, except for the shallowest craft – possible to go out at the southern end back into the sea.

Rio Paraguaçu

Do you remember how in Coppola’s classic film “Apocalypse Now” the gunboat travels further and further up the Mekong river into the depths of the jungle, until it reaches an eerie ruined waterside temple? Sailing up the Rio Paraguaçu is a lot like this, though in place of the temple there is the imposing 17th century waterside convent of San Francisco, now mostly derelict and overgrown with palms and tropical plants, but still clinging to its past magnificence. No sign of a shadowy Marlon Brando whispering “The horror! …”, though.

San Francisco do Paraguaçu.

Although it looks hilly and covered in jungle, in fact there is much agriculture along the river and sailing workboats, like Thames barges, ply between here and Salvador carrying fruit and wood. We were fascinated by these boats and have a separate page about them.

Frade and the Islands

There are more than 50 islands in the Bay as a whole. Ilha de Frade, and the little group of islands just to its north, make a fascinating cruising ground where it is possible to wind in and out of the channels around the islands, with pretty villages, beaches, and plenty of deserted anchorages. The catch is that one of the islands is a massive oil terminal, with a refinery behind. The fumes do at least blow away inland. This area would certainly appeal to anyone from the Solent nostalgic for Fawley Power Station.

Aratu Bay.

The entrance is very hard to spot in the north-east corner of the Baíe de Todos os Santos. Then it is along a narrow river, heavily industrialised with a sugar refinery, gas tanks, naval yard etc until abruptly that is all left behind and one is in a large rural bay just to the north of Salvador. On the south side of the bay is Aratu Yacht Club with the largest marina in the area, where most local yachts are kept. There is a boatyard and moorings on the western shore. But sailing is not such a popular sport in Brazil, and we doubt whether there are more than 400 sailing yachts in the whole of the bay. This marina does not appear to be geared to visitors, and we did not stop.

Pilot Guides

The RCC Pilotage Foundation Havens and Anchorages: A Companion to the South Atlantic Circuit for the South American Coast (Tom Morgan, 2002) devotes several pages to this area. Better still is the Guias Nautica Baíe de Todos os Santos (Hélio Magalhães, 2004) which much local information as well as detailed pilotage instructions, but unfortunately only available in Portuguese.