Most visitors moor at the Marina Park Hotel to the west, as it is the most secure option in this port. The Port Authority may direct you to another anchorage, however, if possible head to the Marina Park for safety reasons.
A night entry should be avoided as many boats string lines right across the marina.
Note there is a wreck off the marina entrance, its submerged stern is located between waypoint EAPP and MPARK 1 as given on the marina website. See related reports from cruisers giving tips on how to best negotiate the entrance to the marina.
Facilities at Marina Park were being refurbished in late 2020 including the pontoons. Mooring can be tricky here due to random lines strung across the marina and piles which can damage the boat when moored stern-to. It helps to have someone ashore to give you a hand with berthing.
Be sure to berth with your boat stern sufficiently far off the dock to avoid damage in a surge. Pontoons are reported to be unstable and dirty. However, the hotel facilities are good here and free to use for marina users.
The yacht club is a "members only" club, but does welcome visitors in their bar/restaurant.
Last updated: August 2020
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Agree with the previous comments. Not worth stopping unless you have to. It is essentially an anchorage that you pay dearly for. You can get water if no one else is using it. Electric is 60hz but the lines if you can get one will be laying in the water. Some front desk staff speak English, the manager, Reginaldo does not. Nowhere in the entire city for most marine parts, (including outboard motors) especially for sail boats. If you have to order parts, takes a minimum of 3 weeks and customs duty is 120 percent of the item and shipping cost.
The only marinara here is George, he only speaks Portuguese. What’s left of the east dinghy dock is rusting away. Dangerous to use.
Area outside of the hotel is supposedly dangerous. Didn’t test the theory.
Uber is cheaper than a cab but a cab will wait for you if you need to go multiple places.
Currency exchange is difficult. ATMs limit withdrawal to $1000 Reale (About 60 USD) if you can find one that is working.
Grocery stores are plentiful but have limited stock.
If you decide to sightsee the South, recommend taking Highway 101. There are speed bumps on the highway about every 30 km and radar more often than that but most of it is divided highway. Highway 116 is mostly single lane and has sections with potholes big enough to swallow a truck.
Expect almost all people to only speak Portuguese.
You can no longer purchase diesel and bring it back to fill your boat at the “marina”. You have to anchor by the INACE shipyard on the other side of the bay and then find a way to get fuel to your boat. (Environmental reasons).
Concrete piers that you medmoor to are covered in sharp mussels, lines easily destroyed as well as dingys from the mussels on the “dingy platform.” Pool is decent and you can get limited food there.
I fully expect this “marina” will fall into further disrepair as no maintenance is done anywhere. (We’ve been here 2 months. None being done. They won’t even cover the holes on the connecting bridge from the dingy platform that has rusted through.)
Unfortunately, it is the only secure place to anchor (can’t really say dock as there are none) and you pay around $1pf for the privilege.
Don’t expect any assistance except possibly George, if he’s here, will tell you where to drop your anchor and tie stern lines to the concrete pillars. (Watched a sailboat go up on the rocks during low tide, since it was a weekend no one would do anything.)
If you need someone to come on your boat for any type of services you have to request permission from the hotel manager, Reginaldo , for them to board or even on access the property near the boats. To give you an idea, there are armed guards posted 24/7 at both entrances that will insist your Uber/cab open the trunk for inspection before allowing them to come down to the boats.
Also, don’t be surprised if you are asked to “pay in advance”. If you leave with time left, no refund.
We were here because we had to make some repairs after our Atlantic crossing.
I sincerely hope no one suffers the same fate.
Fortaleza is not worth stopping, unless you need to. One of my Brazilian friends told me that a boat that anchored in front of Macuripe was robbed twice in the same night.
The only safe place in Fortaleza is the Marina Park Hotel.
What Michel Ballette in his Pilot Book describes as a Luxury Hotel it’s in reality a rundown hotel that maybe was luxurious back in the 60s. Today, is a dodge place where you only see a few customers. I spent there a week and I’m not sure how they stay in business.
The marina does not have pontoons, and to get water or electricity is a real pain. But it’s the only safe place in town and they know it, so they charge premium fees for it.
If you really have to stop somewhere along this stretch of coast, you’d be better off in Jacarè, a few miles south.
Had to spend 10 months here due to vessel undergoing repair. The marina is derelict, has no facilities, the absent marina manager speaks no English and the water and garbage floating within the marina are disgusting.
There are no walk-on slips and you will need to moor med-style to concrete pillars and dingy in. The WiFi does not reach the marina and the surrounding area outside the ageing hotel is not safe. While there is security in front of the hotel, there is no visible security at the marina and people from the favelas outside the hotel often swim within the marina breakwater some 50m from your vessel.
Cruisers would be far better served at Cabadelo.
Agree completely with georgier below.
From 2020 the IATA sailing club will get new and bigger pontoons and security. Good alternative for Marina Park and better service. Only when you anchor your boat now in front of the club, you and your boat get robbed!!
We were at the Marina Park Hotel for 3 days. Their VHF is broken, they don’t answer email and the phone number on Noonsite is incorrect. The number is +55 (85) 4006-9595. Unfortunately, the gentleman who runs the marina does not speak any English, so it is impossible to get information before you get there. Mooring is very difficult as there are lines running all over the marina from boat to boat and the pontoons are in very bad condition.
We arrived on a Sunday and there was no-one to help us until Monday morning. You need the one guy who works at the Marina to run your lines from your boat to others and to the concrete pillars on his dinghy. We ended up anchoring in the middle of the marina!
We were charged US$40 per day. The pricing seems a bit random as a smaller boat was charged US$45 per day. There is no water, electricity or diesel. They do have wifi at the pool. They do have security and we were told numerous times by the hotel staff that Fortaleza is very dangerous.
Marina Park Hotel is the only place to moor in Fortaleza but I would avoid it if at all possible. Clearing in and out was fairly easy. Our taxi driver took us to Immigration office (Police Federal), Customs (Receita Federal) and Port Captain (Capitania dos Portos). There were no costs for clearing in or clearing out. It took us 2 hours for each. Offices are open 24/7.
Posted on behalf of SY Flow
We paid no fees for clearing in and out. Taxi was 110R due to slow officials in Capataineria. This was in the weekend and nobody could speak English there, nor know how to handle the situation, so it took three hours in total. Clearing out was 55R and much quicker. We cleared in on a Saturday. No overtime. I was told every office is open 24/7.
Harbor facilities:
We stayed in Marina Park, and the harbor facilities are poor. It is Med-mooring, and the pontoons are moving a lot in the swell, and there is a lot of rusty metal everywhere, so you need some help with the lines as you need about 2 meters between the boat and the jetty. Most yachts use their own dinghy as a gangway. The rest of the facilities (the hotel facilities) is very good. You have access to the pool, gym with air condition, pool bar, showers, and everything. The fees for a 40-foot boat is about 90R a day, but it is possible to negotiate the price a bit. We paid 500R for 7 days.
Internet:
Very good wifi included in the price at the pool bar.
Posted on Behalf of Miki Barzam of SY Two Oceans.
If you are in the Marina Park Hotel marina in Fortaleza, Brazil and you need laundry service – beware! Armando, the marina manager, sent over a nice guy to collect our stuff. When he came back with our 13 kg load he demanded 240 R$ saying they calculate by the item, not by kg or number of machines.
That’s about 100 US$! After some talking, he reduced it by 10%. The name of that company is Roupa Limpa and the man is Joab Freitas da Cunha. Avoid!