Whilst walking down the waterfront promenade we noticed a fairly sizeable catamaran anchored off one of the beaches. When we got closer, we saw it was HQ2, and our friend, Ian, was all alone on there. Jason and I motored Ciao Bella around to say hi, and invited him round to moor off YCI with us. We had dinner and drinks on what we came to name the "Hotel Quebec" for a few nights in a row. I tell you, it makes the world of difference in this heat waking up on a boat with A/C. Ian was super hospitable and we all had a good time.
Raf and Traveena have hopped off Ciao Bella for a while. They are going to hit Florianopolis for Carnival and meet up with us when we arrive there. I'm chilled with that. It'll be good to spend a bit of time off the boat. Ric might go spend a week or two with his cousin in Brasilia. Im happy to stay on the boat for the duration.

In Ilhabela we bought a chokka lure to catch some squid. Can you imagine fresh calamari for dinner? During one of the nights, two squid (lulas in Portuguese) jumped ONTO HQ2. With the freeboard on that boat, they must have cleared at least 1.8m to get on board. So we decided to give it a try. Raf caught the first lula, and that was all we got that night. The next day we left YCI after fixing a seized winch, and went around the other side of the island in tandem with HQ2 to find some more lulas! We found a bay with a lot of fishing boats who had their bright chokka lights out, so we anchored nearby, and turned the underwater lights on HQ on (boet!). It was a lula fest! Dave pulled out 5 and I got 2. So we fried up the fresh calamari in garlic, lime, pepper and a LOT of butter for starters. Ric prepared us a roast beer-chicken with roast veg, and Jason had bought a cake for pudding. Lo and behold - our first three course meal in ages! And probably our last, so we appreciated.

One word of warning from our trusty cruising book which we didn't heed was of the little insects native to the island called barrachudas (or something like that). These things are like mozzies, but make you bleed more, and the itching lasts for days. We thought that we'd be safe on the boat, but those lottle buggers zappednthe hell out of us. Everyone on the boat has big red sores on their feet and ankles and can't stop scratching. Brings a new meaning to itchy feet.
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