Just over 20 years after first visiting Brazil by sea, Katja and Fabio returned to continue their exploration of this expansive coastline.

Brazil is vast: just slightly smaller than the United States with a coastline similar in size to the Caribbean or Mediterranean Sea. Yet, it is rarely considered as a potential cruising destination.

We first cruised Brazil for 6 months in 2003, traveling as a family with our kids by our sides. It was a natural stop on our two years sabbatical as Fabio’s mother was Brazilian. At that time we ‘only’ saw the States of Bahia until Rio de Janeiro plus Fernando do Noronha.

Now, twenty years later, we decided to do the whole coastline. We arrived in Salvador (da Bahia) in January 2024 and sailed all the way south to Rio Grande. There we entered the Lagoa dos Patos and left the boat at Club dos Jangadeiros in Porto Alegre while returning home for five month. Now we are sailing north again and will exit Brazil in the utmost north-west corner at Belem.

Sailing to Brazil

Many cruisers rounding the capes of South America or South Africa merely use it for transit, and those crossing the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary or Cape Verde Islands usually leave it to port. Yet it is the shortest possible crossing (1200 NM from Cape Verde to Fernando de Noronha) and can be done any time of the year; all you need to plan for is a few days of motoring through the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ICTZ) if arriving from the North Atlantic.

Brazilian sailing routes

Brazil’s coastline can be divided into 3 parts: the North, Center and South. Across the three the natural environment ranges from the tropical rain forests of the northwest to the pampas in the south. And while they all speak Portuguese, the people, their culture, music and food differ. As any Brazilian will tell you, ‘the Brazilian’ doesn’t exist but is instead a mix of the European immigrants populating the south, the African slaves the center and the indigenous the north.

Northern area

Brazil’s coast can be sailed any time of year but some routes are easier in certain seasons or should only be sailed in one direction. The latter is the case for the north coast, from around Belem to Natal. This 1000NM stretch should be traversed East to West due to the easterly wind and the westerly setting current.

Center region

The central part, stretching from Natal down to the Sao Paolo area, has a prevailing northeasterly and a southerly setting current, but it’s much less extreme than the north coast. The climate is sub-tropical and you can cruise up and down any time of the year although you might not always have the right wind or any wind at all. It actually reminds us of the Med, given the times that we end up motoring. The best time of year to head north is in winter because come summer the north-easterlies grow stronger.

Southern coastline

The southern part of Brazil from Sao Paolo to around Rio Grande has a tempered climate and is influenced by the deep south. Being down there in winter and spring is probably not how you imagine sailing in Brazil to be. Here the wind is predominantly north-easterly but occasionally a so-called frente fria (cold front) createsstrong southerlies. Except for the very South between Rio Grande and Florianopolis, you will always have a place to stop along the coast when the wind blows from the wrong direction. In winter the cold fronts are more common, stronger and reach further north, almost to Salvador.

Finding cruising information for Brazil

There are some Brazilian cruising guides but we have found that Pete Hill’s three online publications together with NFL and Navionics is plenty. If you want to cruise the north, the Recife local Hans Hutzler wrote some helpful cruising notes (in Portuguese). We found the Brazilians generally use Navionics and add virtual buoys where needed. There is also a site that organises rallies with a Whatsapp group dedicated to foreign cruisers.

Several NFL cruisers have also written excellent blogs about their experiences such as Velvet Lady and The Dream, and we have posted some vlogs on YouTube about sailing in Brazil. It’s impossible to say what shouldn’t be missed (although arriving in Rio de Janeiro is pretty magical).

Red tape to consider

The good news is foreign flagged boats can stay in Brazil for up to two years, so that’s plenty time to explore. The downside is that unless you apply for a visa beforehand, your time as a tourist is limited. Depending on the nationality of the crew it’s either 90 or 180 days on/off and that influences your cruising plans.

Cruisers generally arrive in the central part and then either go north to the Caribbean or south to Cape Horn. If you want to do the whole coastline, and the country certainly merits it, 90 days isn’t enough so you will have to exit the country while leaving the boat behind.

The first clearing in can be quite time consuming and is finalized with a document called TECAT. Twenty years ago it took us 3 days in Rio de Janeiro to visit the different authorities but Salvador has created an office to assist you, making whole procedure a matter of hours. There is no inspection of the boat needed.

How to act after the initial check-in seems to depend on where you are. Brazil is a federation of States and within a State there are many capitania dos portos (port authorities). Some States want you to check in and out of the State, and even inform the local capitania when leaving their area. If you exit the country but leave your boat behind you will get a new TECAT.

Brazil’s sailing community

Football is the national sport of Brazil, not sailing, and that’s pretty clear as you move around since there are hardly any marinas. In true Brazilian style though, the small sailing community is extremely welcoming. Fishermen will also often go out of their way to assist you, for example showing you how to pass a bar.

Most locals leave their boats at clubs, which include a private harbor or a field of buoys. Brazil is a nationalistic classicist society, so your boat is cared for by a marineiro, the club employs a ton of employees and the minimum salary is very low but you always treat your fellow Brazilian respectfully. These clubs usually offer a few days free of charge for foreign flagged boats, but unless you leave your boat or need diesel, you are more likely to live at anchor. In many bays you will find anchor buoys put out by private individuals; when they are not occupied by the owner you are free to pick them up.

Sailors generally speak some English but the people in shops or fishermen do not understand English, so you will need to pick up some Portuguese. If you need something special from an official, it might be a good idea to bring a fellow sailor as an interpreter.

All Brazilians, irrespective of their social standing, are critical about the crime in their country. Indeed the stats are pretty scaring. In Salvador we met French cruisers who were assaulted a few years back and while they didn’t go back to that particular anchorage they keep cruising here six months a year. As a young female solo sailor told us the other day, crime isn’t a reason not to cruise here. But there are certain social rules to get used to such as going out for lunch not dinner, not stopping at a red light after nightfall and avoid carrying jewellery (that last rules isn’t a problem for most cruisers). Brazilians are extremely proud of their country and even more of their State, and are almost embarrassed if you are subject to crime. So they will tell you where not to play tourist on land, where not to go with the boat at all (Fortaleza!) or when to put your dinghy on deck for the night (rarely!). We have never felt unsafe on board and in many areas it seems that crime has been abolished, in particular in the case of Ilha Grande and Ilhabela, although I am afraid to ask how.

The practicalities of cruising in Brazil

From our experience, here’s some practical tips and insights for sailing the Brazilian coast:

• Brazil’s beaches are world famous and the locals just love them. On the weekend they fill up with families, barbecues and loud music.

• There are very, very few places where you are prohibited from anchoring or landing the dinghy.

• Generally the prices are low, but things that aren’t produced locally are subject to hefty import taxes. Unfortunately this applies to most boating stuff so Velvet Lady found it cheaper to fly home to the UK and purchase a suitcase full of spares. If you are Italian, make sure to bring as much olive oil as you can carry, if you are Spanish the same applies to cured ham, and if you are French you will definitely not like their very restricted choice of cheese. Fruit and meat can be found in abundance everywhere but supermarkets of a decent size aren’t close to the sea. Luckily Uber works perfectly although you might need a Brazilian sim card. Since many things require a Brazilian fiscal number (CPF) you might go though the procedure of requesting one.

• Starlink works and if you find a local address and credit card you can benefit from the Brazilian prices.

• Transport inland is either by coach or plane; personally we don’t dare drive and trains are non-existent.

• Topless is off limits but you can enter a restaurant in bikini and flip flops.

• There are three kinds of diesel but our Nanni inboards have no problem with a mixture, although we do add a biocide. Outboards encounter problems with the high level of ethanol in the fuel, in fact the national produced Yamaha and Mercury claim to be specially made for Brazilian petrol.

• Boats do not have (third party) insurance so it’s best to make sure you aren’t damaged.

• The local Amazon is Mercado Libre with many pick up points facilitating online purchases.

• In most marinas you will have both 110 and 220V but (most of) Brazil works on 60Hz. We stupidly enough did not check whether our European 220V washing machine cared about the extra 10Hz… it broke.

• Credit cards works everywhere, even in beach bars.

• There are several kind of mosquitoes but you can easily buy the best repellent for the local ones.

• Used toilet paper goes in the bin, not in the toilet bowl and rice and beans better become your favourite dish!

Go on and cruise Brazil!

There is every reason to cruise Brazil! It shortens the crossing, it’s generally cheap and the anchorages with their endless beaches can be cruised all year around.

It is an overwhelming destination in every sense of the word. You will be swept away by the nature, the people, their food, culture and music. In fact, I think there are only two drawbacks: there is too much nature for translucent water and there are too few cruisers to socialize! But maybe in time, that will change!

Have you sailed in Brazil? Share the highlights of your trip or some tips to be aware of with the cruising community down in comments.