Noronha - the Galapagos of Brazil

If you ask a Brazilian sailor about their favourite cruising destinations, the chances are Fernando de Noronha will be at the top of their list.  This archipelago is situated 350 miles off the north east coast of Brazil and hosts a pristine ecosystem of diverse marine and bird life, unique geological structures and wildly beautiful beaches. The islands were discovered in the early 1500s by Fernao de Loronha and have since been under Dutch, English and French rule before being reconquered by Brazil in 1736. The whole place is stunning and a perfect spot to recharge after our eventful Atlantic crossing.

Sunset on arrival

Fernando de Noronha is made up of 26 km² of volcanic islands, islets and rocks — of which 17 km² is the main island. Most of the area has been declared a national park and hosts an excellent infrastructure of park stations fully equipped with solar panels, compost toilets and water bottle refilling stations. Access to the protected areas is meticulously controlled with a daily limit on visitors, including a manned 30 metre steep foot ladder down to one of the beaches to carefully manage the number of humans allowed on this beautiful stretch of wilderness. 

Praia de Sanchos

The biodiversity on the island is extraordinary, blue skies filled with white tailed tropic birds with their elegant wispy tails, black dragon-like magnificent frigate birds who we were told still have webbed wings, dating back to their prehistoric aquatic times although curiously can no longer swim so steal other birds’ prey mid-flight. There are  also three types of boobies resident on the island; masked boobies, the largest of them all seemingly wearing a mask all the time; the yellow beaked brown booby – an excellent fisher-diver and finally the blue-beaked red footed booby, whose only breeding ground in Brazil is Noronha.

Other resident birds are the brown noddy and white tern, huge flocks of both seen happily nesting and singing in the tall dried trees of the national park. We also saw several cattle herons, sleek white bodies with a gingery tuft on top (apparently a sign of breeding) and often seen strolling around the restaurant tables waiting for scraps after lunch.

White tropic birds

The aquatic life on Noronha was also incredible. We had a daily sighting of dozens of spinner dolphins who would leap out of the water, do several 360s before plunging back into the water much to the delight of the tourists on Hawaiian canoes who paddle out to see the spectacle every morning.  We discovered a school of nurse sharks under a fishing boat in the harbour who seemed very unperturbed by the onset of flapping snorkellers in their midst.  Similarly, one of the resident turtles seemed to be quite happy hanging out just in the main traffic lane of small tourist speed boats.

Spinner dolphins in Baia de San Antonio

On the wilder southern side of the island we saw lemon sharks in the shallow waters and also heard stories of tiger sharks, and tiger shark attacks, which meant that swimming was now prohibited in certain parts of the island. The most spectacular marine life however were the fish in the reef off Praia de Sanchos, the exclusive beach reached only by ladder. Here we saw box fish, listened to the corral nibbling of various types of parrot fish, swam through swarms of sardines and a host of other beautiful aquatic creatures. The fauna is so rich here that new species of fish are still being discovered.

Unsurprisingly, with all this natural beauty and wildlife the human residents of Noronha are a very happy bunch. There are just two thousand residents and everyone we met was extremely friendly and helpful, particularly the harbour master who offer us shots of sweet coffee in his air-conditioned office overlooking the harbour, to the pair of local divers who voluntarily dove down to check our anchor on arrival (without engine).

Swimming with nurse sharks

Finally, when the time came to move on we were bid farewell with yet another natural wonder – a huge roar from the cliffs which literally sounded like a lion.  As we slipped our anchor in pitch dark (still without engine) this roaring sound from the land was quite something, caused by wind and the waves crashing into the cliffs. We loved our time on Noronha, and couldn’t agree more with the Brazilian sailors, this is an absolutely magical place.