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The Explorer Guy Goes to Lat. 1° North, Long. 29.4° West, Peter and Paul Rocks, Brazil
The main reason to visit these rocks sticking up in the Atlantic about 500nm East of Fortaleza Brazil is the fishing. They are owned by Brazil and are a marine sanctuary. You must get permission to stop there from the Brazilian Navy. One of the Inace Yachts 95’ Explorer “Veronika” I built with a client of mine stopped on the way back from Europe to Inace Yachts Shipyard in Fortaleza to do their haul and yearly upkeep. This allowed them to leave the med early as you go below the hurricane belt, costs are much less then Europe and the US and you can be stationed in the Caribbean refitted, rested, fueled (cheap fuel in Trinidad) and ready to go before most of the other boats leave the Canary Islands. The big bonus is to stop and fish this place. Alternitively you can run from the cost of Brazil out, but it is dead into everything. You could stop at Fernando de Noronha 630 km to the Southwest which is also a marine sanctuary but a much larger island with great diving, surfing and some fishing and then run out to the rocks to fish for a few days. There are daily flights and small cruise ships that visit Fernando. There are a number of hotels and Posadas on the island. The anchorage is not great but passable. Attached below is a write up from the Captain of the Inace Yachts explorer yacht Veronika and some photos of the visit. The write up will be featured in “Destination Fish” Magazine August.
From Capt. Darren Nightingale, Inace Yachts Veronika Being the Captain of an explorer motor yacht with trans oceanic capabilities, and an avid fisherman, I get to fish some extremely remote places. When ever we need to cross an ocean to meet the guests at some exotic destination, for some reason our route always seems to take us over sea mounts and far flung reefs which are rarely fished. And so it was the case when we had to take the vessel to Brazil, from Europe in September 2007. En-route was a small rocky outcrop called the St Pedro and St Paulo Rocks, situated about midway between the West coast of Africa and the East coast of South America. I had wanted to get to these rocks for years, but never had a reasonable excuse to expend the fuel required to get there. As soon as the trip to Brazil was confirmed, opportunity wasn't just knocking, it was breaking down the door.
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After a fantastic lunch, and being well rested, we got back into the tender and decided to try another part of the area. It was the same situation, you could catch fish as long as you had a line in the water. Jimmy hooked up on something big, which sounded at first, then turned for Africa and wouldn't stop. We tried to chase it down but it was just too big for the gear, we could not stop the line paying out. Deciding to cut our losses we cut it off, thinking it was probably a huge Tuna. After another couple of hours, and another boatload of fish we were done. We washed and lifted the tender, and discussed the days antics on the aft deck as the sun settled on the horizon. When we were sitting on the aft deck that evening having our Wahoo dinner we started hearing something thumping on the transom. We went down and there was a school of the biggest flying fish I had ever seen. Measuring some 18 inches in length with bodies about 2 inches in diameter they were soaring into the transom due to our underwater lights. We thought about live baiting one off a rod, but we were too beat to worry about that. We finished out dinner and turned in for the night. The next morning we awoke to a great breakfast on the aft deck, with our backs and arms feeling the effects of yesterday. As we finished we sat at the table, grinning at each other, wondering if yesterday was a fluke. The sun was bright, so make hay while the sun shines. We dropped the tender into the water and loaded the gear in again. Setting off we decided to try another area yet again, and just as before it yielded similar results. For as long as we fished we hooked up constantly, mainly Wahoo. Can you get bored with catching Wahoo? After another few hours and cramping arms we decided we were beaten. It was time to head back to the vessel and get ready to depart. We washed and loaded the tender on board, washed all of the gear off and let it dry whilst we had lunch. After lunch we readied the vessel for sea again, making sure everything was battened down in case we got some nasty weather on the final 700 miles to the coast of Brazil. We lifted the anchor and slowly passed by the scientific station, waving to the young scientists as we passed. I noticed they were waving back, frantically in fact. Something must be up I thought. I walked to the side of the vessel and looked over the edge from the fly bridge. Jimmy had managed to sneak one last lure over on our departure and was solidly hooked up again. I bought the vessel to a stop and watched for the next half an hour whilst he battled the final Wahoo to the vessel's side. We released that last one, packed the last rod away, and we were on our way. We were given an escort by a large pod of dolphins on our way off the shelf for 5 miles or so. As they played on the bow wave and the crew took photos, I sat on the bridge reminiscing over the last 2 days. I felt extremely privileged and lucky to have finally made it to this distant group of rocks, some of the most isolated in the world. To fish some of these isolated areas is truly an amazing experience, and one not to be taken lightly. You need a solid, self sufficient vessel purpose built for these kinds of expeditions, a lot can happen when you're hundreds of miles from anywhere. Luckily we have exactly that, and as I sit here writing this short narrative, I think back to those days and smile. You had to be there. |
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