Cabedelo - General Info
Description:
Cabedelo is situated on the extreme eastern point of South America, approximately 100MN south of Natal where the Rio Paraiba enters the sea. Its location makes it a useful arrival/departure point for Brazil and many cruisers stopover here after crossing from St Helena, before proceeding north to the Caribbean. Marina Jacaré Village is located up-river.
The World ARC Cruising Rally has Marina Jacaré Village as one of their stopovers.
Cruiser Highlights:
Friendly, helpful marina; English spoken; friendly locals; excellent marina facilities; easy clearance procedures; good place to leave the boat to explore inland.
Entrance Notes and Cautions:
- This coast is fringed by reefs, so it is important to make for the outer buoy of the approach channel.
- The entrance and channel up to Cabedelo are well marked but not all beacons are lit. The river is also quite wide with several shallow areas, so unless you know the place well it is advisable to do a daytime entry or exit. Marina Jacaré Village has a list of waypoints on their website which are excellent for guidance all the way to the marina.
- The tidal currents get very strong in the river (depending on the phase of the moon), up to 5 knots on the outgoing tide during springs.
- It is advisable not to use a “Danforth” type anchor as it can more easily be tripped when the tide turns.
- Beware of the unlit fishing nets strung across the river.
- It’s likely Cabedelo Port Control won’t answer the VHF. This is normal and yachts are permitted to proceed straight to Marina Jacaré Village.
- See SV Seefalke’s useful approach video from April 2019.
Position:
6°57.44’S, 34°50.5’W
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Related to following destinations: Brazil, Cabedelo, Eastern coast (north of Rio de Janeiro)
Port Navigation
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Policia Federal now have an immigration office in the port near to customs. Still need to go downtown for the Port Captain tho.
We are in the Marina Jacaré Village right now. This place is a perfect sheltered anchorage and a very sympatic marina. Very helpful in all means. Safe, all close, Marina staff very kind, good cooking ;)! Feel comfortable here and will leave our boat here for the next months!
We stayed in Jacare Marina from Feb 19 to Mar 1, 2018. Wonderful friendly marina. We toured around visiting other towns leaving our boat for a few nights. Loved the marina, very friendly. Francis and his staff looked after us. Food with Nicolas in the comfortable restaurant was super! We felt very safe here. Extremely enjoyable stay.
Hello! My name is Rodrigo. My wife and I stayed this whole year in the Cabedelo area, Jacare and Ribeira with our sailing boat. We stayed almost half of this period at Ribeira, on the other side of Stuart Island, at the Ribeira Adventure Club and Marina, organized by Lucianio Zinn. The area is beautiful, Jacare some 25 years ago. If you are looking for a calm spot, nature, and good company, I really recommend it.
Also, a very good spot for trails and a good start to check the river islands out. Our boat ‘draft is 1,95, and we had no problem at all. To cross from Jacare to Ribeira, Luciano is available to help and guide throught the way. The facilities are simple, but the place is very cozy and with an excellent atmosphere. They are very helpful if you need anything related to your boat, or to the bureaucracies you might have to do. Really gonna miss this stop, Luciano, Cazumi, the gentle people of Ribeira, big hug from us! For me the best stop of the area!
Posting on SY Revelations Blog (who spent 5 months in Brazil) – (http://www.svrevelations.com/)
Since 1995, a local musician has been going out on a riverboat every single day, playing the beautiful “Bolero” song on his saxophone here in Cabedelo, Brazil. The entire local tourist industry has developed as a result of him going out playing the same soundtrack every day for the past twenty years.
About 40 minutes before sunset, a number of boats carrying tourists would congregate in front of the riverside restaurants. This is the situation every single day with a couple of thousands of tourists gathering at these restaurants and riverside to listen, photograph and video record the daily ritual. Besides the local restaurants, there are many kiosks and shops open for the tourist congregating for the event. These shops are highly dependent on the tourists the musician attracts and only trade from about 16h00 to around 20H00 each day.
Shortly before sunset, all the blaring music will quiet down and the place will become silent. The musician then starts playing his saxophone through a joint sound system shared by all the restaurants. He would slowly make his way through the restaurant to a mooring and then climb inside the riverboat to be paddled around the waiting boats full of tourists.
The boatman skilfully paddles the boat in the fast flowing river visiting each tourist boat circling as he makes his way. After visiting each boat, the man then paddles back to the adjoining restaurant from where he started and the song ends as the last light of the sun disappears behind the distant horizon.