Lat S 37 47 / long W 057 09

There is a certain feeling you have for the long stages. When you cast off the
moorings and putter away from the piers, you know there will be some time
before you are safely moored in another port.
The feeling is breathtaking, even if today was a perfect day of departure, you know
there will be many incidents, large and small, impossible to know beforehand.
That is what is so amazing with sailing. Join us for
the next stage through the blog, and have a taste of the trip!

Sunday sailing

Repaired and reinforced, the sails are back. Great for the long sail ahead of us. People ask for our choices now and planned ports.
The point is that we are very open to the elements. The wind willing, we sail on, taking opportunities for port stay, Brazil, Fernando de Norhona, .... The ultimate goal is Cadiz. We do begin to long for home.

Entertainment

We have downloaded a lot of programs from Swedish Radio. Among other things, we will have over 200 "summer programs" to plow through. A good complement to book reading.

The answer

Of course, you were right, the ice cream costs 22 Peso and the bottle of Gin 17 pesos.
1 Peso = 2 SEK

When we left home, our luggage was gigantic, yet there were some things that we thought, we can certainly complement them on the way. One thing was paper charts. We have charts in the computers but it's good to have an overview chart of the ocean you are on. To plot the mid-day location and for plotting how high and low pressure centers move. You get a better view, simply. We already tried in Chile and later here in Argentina, but no. Yesterday I met of a Swedish couple in the harbor who had been in Buenos Aires for a few days to buy parts for their engine. I borrowed a chart of the South Atlantic, went to a place that makes copies, and all of a sudden we had a chart. Cheap and almost as good.

Question of the day

Which costs more, a litre of gin or two little pots of Häagen- Dazs ?

Diesel fuel

How simple is not everything in Sweden, going by car you refuel at a gas station, going by sea you refuel at a marine gas station. Already when we were in the U.S., we were warned of the bad diesel quality we would get down there in Mexico (where all thought we were going) so we bought a baja filter (pronounced baha). This filter is on three levels, large particles get stuck, then smaller and finally water. It's good, just takes some time to run through. What we did not then know was that we also needed to obtain a lot of cans for transporting diesel fuel in. In the last months we have refuelled by going with the diesel cans in a taxi or rental car. There are no marine gas stations here. Everybody lugging around their cans. It is not very environmentally friendly since it is impossible to fill without spilling a drop.

Victualling in Mar del Plata

Delicious fruits and nuts, we found at the market, plus great steaks, fine minced meat and chicken. We have begun to stock up for the next leg, filling the freezer and stores again. In Mar del Plata, we can find just about everything, and there's a great atmosphere down here in the port now in regatta week.

Sails

We have an arrangement with the sailmaker who thankfully speaks English, he will review our sails in the days to come. They need strengthening in certain places. After 12,000 NM in six months, the wear is evident. Before embarking on the last stage which is about 6000 NM, they need to be reviewed. Kevlar, which is the golden material in the sail, is sensitive to UV radiation. The sailmaker promised the end of the week and we hope he keeps his promise.
Today we were in a shop to make copies of the key that serves both to open the door and to start the engine. One key accidentally went off with the boys to Sweden, so we needed a new pair. When we were in the shop, we saw that they had kerosene, too, which has been difficult to obtain so we acted and bought five liters, my Spanish did a volt in the head so after a while he happily came back with 15 liters in cans. We said thank you and paid. Five and fifteen, so easy to miss.

Prefectura

We did not think you had to report in person at the Prefectura in every port. We talked with them over the radio when we arrived and thought it was perfect. Today they came and picked us up and we got to ride in the patrol wagon. No sirens on and everyone was very friendly, we did not get further sanctions. The man in the picture who was sent to fetch us, spoke a little English. He explained very educationally it was for our safety they wanted to know all the ports we came to. Bureaucracy is as present here as in Chile.

The crew moves on again

They are leaving again. After a few days in the sun with us they turned back to Buenos Aires, soon to return to the snow in Gothenburg. We are staying for a while, hunting sailmakers for consultation. Not easy during the regatta week, also on a rough Spanish that does not want to get better.

Tall ships

In connection with the regatta week, several large sailing ships gathered in Mar del Plata. Really big and full-rigged ships and brigs. They were from Chile, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. We and thousands of Argentinians strolled along the quays and enjoyed the atmosphere.

Mar del Plata

When we arrived yesterday afternoon we were met by the port captain. He told us there would be a regatta week here in Mar del Plata, so berths were very scarce. We got a place among the motorboats anyway, a bit low on water under the keel, we were drawn by a small boat through the mud to get to the site. Tonight when the tide was out, there was even less water and we got an angle of list of 15 degrees. Today, we have shored her up against the posts and hope that things get better at the next low tide.

Lat S 38 18 / long W 57 38

Visa romanisering

Land in sight.

The first thing that came up when we started to see the coast was a row of skyscrapers.
We have not seen skyscrapers since we left San Francisco 5.5 months ago.
Exciting. We will run parallel to the coast for a couple of hours,
then we arrive in Mar del Plata. We will have a visit this afternoon
from E and S, who have now "done" Buenos Aires + some other places. They plan
to spend the last days of their trip here on the coast.

Lat S 40 48 /long W 59 17

Within 24 hours we have been able to peel off two layers:
long underwear, a thick Taiga jacket + a sweater. What a feeling when
the climate is more and more comfortable by the every. Open
the portholes, bring out pillows and blankets for an airing and best of all: our hands
are ready to fillet a fish.
Get the Cedar plug up + another lure purchased in Bora-Bora.
Dual fishing opportunities, fish-rich waters jaja, they'll bite soon enough.
The birds are närgågna, I just hope one of them does not swallow a lure.
Time passes, interest fades, do you get more fish if you constantly look
at the float? Puzzling: why do we so rarely get fish?
We miss the great fisherman from Polynesia, it was actually he who
took home the biggest catch. But the day is not over yet, we promise an extra
blog post if we catch something.

Lat S 43 18°/ long W 060 51°

Comments
Sometimes we get comments on the blog sent to us. Imagine our
surprise when a former sailor living in Borås argues that dolphins only are
chasing fish around the boat. All sailors know that dolphins are their best
friend, remember the many stories, particularly about white dolphins that have guided
boats and crews to safe harbor when they were in trouble.
Perhaps he does not even believe that the albatross is really the soul of a
drowned sailor who was not buried in consecrated ground.

Lat S 46 13 / long W 62 13

We have said that this year we are like the Silver Tern, moving between locations where
it is always summer. California in August, French Polynesia
September October November. Long sailing to South America, where they have
Summer ....
Yes, as you know we are a bit tired of the cold now. We must be very
grateful that the Gulf Stream keeps Swedish summer at a slightly better
temperature average.
Every day we check the outside thermometer, it is still at +8 and
Maybe sometimes + 10. We are currently having gale winds from the SW so we
make good speed, the sea is unpredictable and will sometimes pile up and
slap the side hard. Then you get wet if you did not have the luck
to be in the off-duty watch.

Lat S 49 19,3 / long W 064 06,9

Dolphin theme

The dolphins are back. Do you remember that on the whole trip Tahiti
-Puerto Montt we only had dolphin visits one day. In Patagonia, they have
usually been swimming in sounds and current edges.
They are back now. This is what I remember it from our previous
Atlantic Sailing in 1983. They will often swim in pairs, snort an alert
just aft of the boat for us to pay attention to them. Then
they'll swim along for hours, from one side to the other.
That is what I call Atlantic dolphins!

Lat S 51 57 / longitude W 065 15

Kelp-Seaweed
We still pass "islands" of drifting kelp, although we are 100 NM
off the coast. The channels we have sailed in, and in all Caletas we have been in
we met with kelp. That is both good and bad. It is tough and hard to get
removed if it's stuck in the propeller, rudder and anchor. But it is also a
guidance on where it is shallow. There was always kelp on the shallow areas
that should be avoided, so it was a useful sign. The kelp that drifts
out here clumps together and can really be like an island. Yesterday we met an
island where ten small white birds sat resting.

Lat S 54 44 / long W 065 00

On our way to Mar del Plata.
It was not but the cove was a bit claustrophobic to lie waiting in.
So this morning when Th said, "Now I am tired of this cold, just want to get
away", I was glad that the weather report was right and we got away with the
tide just before lunch. Now we have 1100 nm ahead of us, and we are
motivated to sail in all weathers. From the armada guy on the radio, we were
charged with a greeting to his friend who has a boat lying where we
are going. Nice to have a greeting to bring along.

Low in Bahia Suceso

The forecast was a bit optimistic.
It has been "blowing hobnails" through the night and it is not much better now. But
the barometer has been rising so this is a sign that the wind will decrease.
Inside on the beach, there is an Argentine Armada Station, they
keeps track of boats passing outside. The workplace is quite
isolated, there is nothing else around it but more forest. We
have talked to them a couple times on the VHF and they provide us with
weather reports. They presumably are stationed here for two months at a time, so if we have to
stay for one more day, we should not complain.

Lat S 54 48°/ long W 065 15°

Bahia Buen Suceso
Whichever map or globe you are looking at, it's easy to accurately identify
where we are. We are anchored in a bay in the absolute southeastern point
of Tierra del Fuego and South America. We have reached the
South Atlantic, and we can see the islands of Isla de los Estados across the strait.
The barometer is in the bottom 969 hPa, as predicted. According to the forecast, it will blow over
tonight, so we can get away tomorrow, Wednesday.

Lat S 55 02,8 / long W 066 41,2

Today a transport, we sail for a fresh westerly and will anchor
in a bay here at Peninsula Miter, as this corner of Tierra del Fuego is called. This
should be a good spot to wait for good weather, it is in the
Pilot book.
The pilot book or Nautical guide as it is known, has been tremendously useful.
It is written by an Italian couple who have sailed in Patagonia for
14 years. They have mapped every little anchorage and passage. When we were in
Puerto Williams, they came in with their boat, we recognized
the name. Talked a bit with them and got a message written into our
book. Great!

Lat S 54 52,3 / long W 067 20,6

Adventure. I have been thinking about what an adventure is. For us, it has been
sailing and getting to where we are now. The Pacific, first. 2800 NM to French
Polynesia then 4000 NM to Chile. The Chilean channels 1300 NM.
In Ushuaia we have met many people who start their adventure there. Ushuaia is
the hub of the charter yachts. In the morning the taxis arrived with
(mostly) men dragging roller bags. Every day some charter boat set off
day, and another came back. They went for off one or two weeks,
the Horn, often Antarctica, and a glacier on the way home.
We have different amounts of time to realize our adventure.
Now, Th and I start out on a new stage. We are sailing north.
We did not come so far today, we must carefully plan for the weather we will meet. We must position ourselves now and wait out a gale which is going to
pull over on Wednesday

The crew moves on

It has been a while since they signed on in Puerto Montt. Six weeks, we have sailed together. We are so happy that they have been here. It has been a wet and cold sailing, but all four have helped with the chores. We have had many laughs over time and how fun would it have been to play blot with two people? Good luck now in Buenos Aires and see you later.

Victualling

Many good pieces of meat, we have in the freezer now. Meat is cheap and good quality. We have also stocked up on vegetables and fruit. Sailing scheduled for Sunday.

Islas Malvinas

All the maps you see here say Islas Malvinas on the islands we call the Falkland Islands. There is like a thorn left about the islands, and you often see texts such as the above.
As for our sailing, we have almost decided to skip the Falkland Islands and sail towards the Mar del Plata, Argentina instead. We need to thaw.

Fuel

Today we filled up with fresh fuel, you have to go with canisters of gas station, so there will be several trips with the rental car, we have also loaded up with gas. Tonight, we booked ourselves on the grill in the club house. We are going to have a real Asado, you should see the sausages and cuts of meat, we have bought.

Even more photos

Erik and Samuel have posted their photos from the cruise. Check them out here:

http://picasaweb.google.se/erik.hedborg/PatagoniaMagellan

And their panoramic compositions here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/erik.hedborg/Panorama

Ushuaia

We like Ushuaia more and more. Nice weather, lots of cruisers, friendly atmosphere.

Shifting the flag

Having had the Chilean flag up in 5 weeks, we changed the flag yesterday in the middle of the Beagle Channel; it is now time for the Argentine visitor flag. Now we are cleared in to Argentina after all the rules of art and form. One wonders why no one has introduced A4 in South America? All papers are a few inches too long for our folder.

New pictures

We are in Ushuaia, I have found Internet access, a bunch of new photos uploaded:

• Patagonia part 1
• Laguna San Rafael
• Puerto Prefundo
• Patagonia part 2
  
• The Beagle channel

Links to photo sets on Flickr.