From São Pedro it was a choppy ride to Santa Luzia. Exodus had to motor sail, as she headed straight into the wind most of the ride, and had strong currents against her. Upon arrival we realized we had found a piece of paradise.
Santa Luzia is uninhabited and therefore unspoiled. The white sand covers a kilometers long beach, with pretty mountains as a back drop, and the contours of the surrounding islands on the horizon. There are little rock pools where small fish and blennies are washed in. Birds are hopping around fishing for sand worms. The water is turquoise blue.
In the entire wide bay we spotted one other yacht. It looked like the owners had locked up and gone for a hike. At some stage we saw a goat herder pass carrying his dinner of mollusks in an oil can on his head. Apart from that we had the place to ourselves.
We embarked on a long walk, which felt a bit like walking in a postcard or a too-good-to-be-true advert for some tropical island.
After the long walk, we went swimming and snorkeling off the beach, around the stony outcrops and rocks abundant with fish life. There were small colorful fish, fish with rainbow colors, wrasses, breams, coral groupers, black ones with yellow eye, sand color with white dot, … all to be seen in no more than 5m depths. We thoroughly enjoyed the lovely feeling of water gliding over our skin, just warm enough not to make it cringe or give goose bumps. As there was so much to see under water from pretty close up, Gitane also reached a mile stone. She got determined to keep on her dive mask, take a deep breath, and holding her head under water to look at the fish whilst holding her breath!
The wind was howling over the mountains, together with the blasting sun guaranteeing excess power. The wind power regulator even got too hot to touch from braking. Just like São Pedro’s Bay the wind was blowing the sea flat, making it comfortable for us, and only stressful for our anchor rope.
We spent two full days enjoying this natural splendor and beautiful setting, and then hopped on to São Nicolao and Maio.