Ponta dos Castelhanos

The name of Ponta dos Castelhanos comes from the Spanish ship Madre de Dios, flagship of captain-major Simón de Alcazaba, which struck the reefs in 1535, probably at the southern tip of Boipeba. About 90 of the 111 people on board died fighting the Tupinambá. Captain Juan de Mori, one of the 17 survivors, returned to the spot with Diogo Álvares Correia, known as Caramuru, and rescued 4 more Spaniards who were hiding from the Indigenous people. No material remains of the ship are known, and it may have sunk anywhere between the 3rd Beach of Morro de São Paulo and Ponta dos Castelhanos.

Built in La Ciotat, France, and launched on 4 October 1860, the French steamer Bearn was 3,036 t, 101.7 m long and 11.3 m in beam. She was ordered by the Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes together with three other steamers, among them the Guienne, her twin sister, and had a single boiler and a pair of side paddle wheels amidships instead of a propeller. Carrying passengers on the Bordeaux – Rio de Janeiro – La Plata line, she ran aground on the reefs of Ponta dos Castelhanos on 27 February 1865, probably due to a navigation error. The wreckage that many attribute to a Spanish ship almost 500 years old belongs to the Bearn, and the side paddle wheels helped identify it. The wreck of the Bearn is recorded 300 m off Praia dos Castelhanos, and an unidentified Spanish sailing ship from 1917 is also recorded at Ponta dos Castelhanos.

The beach is an important sea turtle nesting site on Boipeba. At very low tide, corals and natural pools appear, where you can watch the fish. On Boipeba, the weather is usually sunnier between November and April, with winds that clear the sea.