Lat N 7 59 / W 031 32

Day 16
A few days have passed since we crossed the equator. We are very
pleased with the passage through the notorious doldrums - we did not have to struggle with calm belts and severe thunderstorms.
Now, however, we are into the NE-trade winds. We are sailing as close as
we can, but are pushed westwards each day as you can see on the positions. We
has pused up all our ballast on the starboard side, so comfort is
still high. As a broker said about the ballast: - "It's like having
8 men sitting on the rail." I am pleased that our ballast does not require three
meals a day.

Anna Karin

Lat N 5 30 / W 030 51

Day 15
Today is the full moon, at your home as well as in the North Atlantic with us.
When the sun went down last night the moon turned up in its full
splendor. It is so nice to have light all night. Moonlight gives more
light out at sea than you might think, at home it's usually drowns in all
the lamps from the city. For us it is a welcome light in the otherwise
pitch-black night watch.
The nightwatch can be oh so long if you're tired. If you can cope
you listen to audio books and old radio shows on the iPod. Or if there
is no salt spray, you can sit with the laptop outside and watch
a movie, it's pretty cozy. An old Hitchcock in darkness can
liven up an otherwise uneventful night.

Anna Karin

Lat N 2 40 / W 030 02

Day 14
Hot, hot, hot. We have 32 degrees C during the day and at night the
temperature goes down to 28 degrees. Dress code? You could say that it is
"casual". But today the sun passed the zenith, and tomorrow we may just like
you, look at the sun's south meridian passage. This will not affect the
heat in many more days.
For the rest, we sail north around longitude W 030, sometimes a little more east and
sometimes a bit more west. We would like to get a bit more over to the east,
but the wind is in control. Longitude W 030 degrees. Basta.
The wind does not know that the captains on board do not want someone else deciding
over them.

Anna Karin

Lat S/N 00 00 / W 029 55

Day 13
Celebration today, we are crossing the equator. The vernal equinox having passed, it's good to come from summer in the southern hemisphere to
incipient summer in the northern hemisphere.
It is exactly six months since we crossed the equator from north to south, at
longitude W 136, in an entirely different ocean.
We have during this time logged 13,130 NM.
• 38 days in port
• 76 days cruising in Polynesia and Patagonia
• 67 days offshore sailing

The most westerly point was Bora Bora in Polynesia at 152 W
The most southerly location was the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego at S 55
We started in San Francisco located at approximately N 37
The goal is set at the southern Spain of about N 37

Anna Karin

Lat S 2 18 / W 030 06

Day 12
Today I think of señor Navero who was the Big Fixer in Puerto Eden. In
Puerto Eden, there were no roads only a narrow wooden walkway in front of the
houses around the bay. Since it was almost constantly raining the footbridge
was slippery, except in places where they had attached pieces of tin, perforated
with a star chisel. Despite the village's small size there was a
police office, an armada station, a post office and a school. It was at the school
there was supposed to be internet but that's a different story. Señor Navero,
was an old fox in the dirtiest trousers I have ever seen. Tramping around in
rubber boots, owner of the village's hostel, and also the village's organizer,
he was the owner of the phone. Since we needed gas, we became fast friends with him,
and ended up sitting in his "lobby" where the TV and the stove were always on.
Our first mission was to buy diesel, voy a ver (I shall see) voy a
ver, 200 litros hmm, perhaps on Monday, got a liter price written down on
a small piece of paper. It would also be "microfiltrado" which sounded very
good. For various reasons already on Saturday we got more acute needs for
LPG (one bottle was poorly filled) Up to Navero señor, thought
there was no problem, LPG is used everywhere for everything in Chile.
But ... they all had big bottles and we had a small one, it
there was no one who had a change for filling. The solution to the problem
was to ride the ferry that went on Sunday morning to Puerto Natales,
get a replacement bottle, go back and get to Puerto Eden, Wednesday. Not so
attractive to us, but señor Navero could get someone who did this for
us. It all ended up after a hard evening's negotiations in the lobby,
we would get our old Chilean bottle filled + a new bottle, which we
purchased from an unknown man in the village for a decent price, that would also be filled.
This fits all very well on Wednesday when the diesel will come. Wednesday, would
not diesel come on Monday. No, no, there is no chance. Microfiltrado. We got
tired of Puerto Eden, the days passed slowly and on Wednesday morning, we were
leaving early. We got our gas and diesel, and while the diesel was transported
out in cans with the dinghy I went to the señor to make us debt free.
I thought it sounded a lot, looked at the little piece of paper, but didn't get the
numbers to match up, paid and watched, we were in a hurry to get away
so I thanked him and left. We lifted anchor and then looked
closer on the piece of paper. I can say that he had a premium
the good Navero, 100% on the price for the diesel, okay, he had no guests at the hostel,
and of course needed to raise money to live on. He is
forgiven and it turns into a fun memory of a great businessman.

Lat S 4 13 / W 030 12

Day 11
This morning I had 20 dolphins jumping around the boat. I saw them come in
from a distance, in pairs and sometimes four abreast. When they had arrived at the boat
they swam in a race. Some rolled up a bit as usual to get air,
and some jumped, sometimes there was a bellyflop but usually they made
fancy jumps. I wished I had one of those rings that I could
hold out for them. I think they would have jumped through. It was like a
show and lasted for about half an hour. It feels powerful and fantastic
to be present on such a morning - and the camera did not turn up in
my consciousness until the entire show was over.

Anna Karin

Lat S 6 29 / W 031 13

Day 10
Today we will cross South America's easternmost point, Cabo de Sao Roque.
We are in the middle of a trafic lane, yesterday we saw four cargo ships. Two
container ships, one of them, a large Maersk, we spoke with, and two
bulk craft. It's fun when there's a bit of motion around. We
still make pretty good speed, and navigate our way between the patches of rain and
thunder.
Tonight we had a stowaway. He was asleep in the chapel on the
outboard machine - a large brown bird that did not look like a
seabird, rather some kind of jay. He was sitting, looking lost,
until dawn, when he was gone.

Anna Karin

Lat S 8 38 / long W 032 40

Day 9
Beginning to see the Big Dipper in the starry sky at night, it's a sign
that we will soon be in the northern hemisphere again. 600 NM left. I am
thinking of September 28, when we crossed the equator in the morning,
going south. That was the day after we dropped the inner forestay and we were
working with that. Many latitudes and longitudes have passed since,
and many a nautical mile, we have put behind us.
We also had quite a few comments on our
routing and timing. The first rigger we met in Tahiti - who did
not get the job to replace the stay - was a regular prophet of doom. He
said that with this rig, we would be lucky to get as far as to Chile. We
found another rigger who did what we asked, without discussion,
and as you know, we came to Chile and also around Tierra del Fuego.
In the WiFi room in Ushuaia I met a Dutch lady who was the
captain's wife on a large Dutch steel yacht who went on charter to
Antarctica. When I replied to her question that we would go north to
Europe along the coast of South America she looked at me and said in her
Flemish-English. - "Sailing Against the Wind & the strrrreeeaaamm"?
Now we are soon at the equator.
The moral:
There are many sailors who know best, choose yourself what advice is to be
counted for good.

Anna Karin

Lat S 11 04 / long W 034 12

Day 8
Today I'd like to tell you about Mr. M. of Finnish origin, fluent in English
and Spanish. We met him in Puerto Montt, where he had been
living on a sailboat for 7 years
From the outside the boat looked rusty and worn out, but inside it was
a very nice home, with lots of literature and a small stove for
chilly nights. Before Puerto Montt he had lived for three years in Puerto Williams,
sailed the Chilean channels seven times. A fantastic man who had arranged
his life to suit himself and his environment. He
had a small shack at Marina Oxxean doing odd jobs for sailors.
Knew where to find things you needed to buy in the city.
He was very happy when we shared our homemade mulled wine on Christmas Eve.
Anna Karin

Lat S 13 36 / long W 035 19

Day 7
You cannot trust a goodwind to keep
Rolling home, oh, indeed! You could see the measly day's distance
we did yeasterday. We must be humbly grateful when the wind carries.
In order to dispel thoughts of bad wind and because it was Sunday yesterday,
we had a culinary journey through the day. Breakfast consisted of boiled eggs and a can of
Matjesill - soused herring from IKEA. Last papaya for the afternoon.
With the drink we had salty crackers with guacamole made from the last avocado.
Dinner of rosemary roasted lamb loins with fried potatoes and leek pot,
washed down with a glass of red wine. Finally we were sitting in
the cockpit, staring up at the starry sky munchingone Cadburys
bar of chocolate (150gr).
Then, at long last, we had a steady breeze again.

Anna Karin

Lat S 15 41 / long W 035 02

Day 6
On the way we have met and been in contact with a lot of
different people. Today I think of our friend P. who we met in Puerto
Montt. He was a solo-sailing American, who has lived more time in Mexico than in the
USA. He was very helpful and helped us translate from / to
Spanish in certain situations. He had sailed from Mexico through Panama to
Easter Island. There he remained for three weeks before he headed for
Puerto Montt. He loved to tell the story of when there was
really bad weather over the island and he had to go out to sea for four
days to ride out the storm. We heard the story at least three times and
it was surprisingly similar each time. The last time I could
have filled in the next sentence myself through the whole story.
He was headed south like us, then up to the Caribbean to
visit a sister.
When we asked why he chose the way around South America to visit
his sister in Antigua, he replied:

But you are going the same way, why are you doing it?

Anna Karin

Lat S 17 00 / long W 035 56

Day 5

Our planned route is moving us further away from the Brazilian coast, more
and more. I read the names on the map: Salvador, Recife, Natal. When I
hear the names I think of the endless sandy beaches, where sun umbrellas stand
in row after row. Makes me think of when the children were small and we
travelled to Mexico, Isla Mujeres on vacation, when we approached
Cancun by plane little Y looked out and said - "Mommy look what a
long beach down there ", after she watched a while came
the best comment: - "But it's a very narrow beach, so we have to
sunbathe in single file. "

Anna Karin

Lat S 18 28 / long W 037 01

Day 4
Rolling home, rolling home across the sea. ... Even though we are not on a
full-rigger on the way home, we sing this shanty at the top of our lungs. Nobody
can hear us, anyway, as we are into the steady grip of the southeast trade wind.
We can sing any way we want. We have now set a waypoint at the N 5 / W 25
. This should be a good place to cross the equator and meet the
trade winds of the northern hemisphere.

Anna Karin

Lat S 20 26 / long W 038 46

Day 3
Adventures of the night

An exciting title, don't you think? Rather, the adventure started as early as the
afternoon. Isolated thunderstorms, as they said in the weather report.
It came upon us, it came upon us, the wind speed increased from moderate breeze
into much too much in no time. Sails had to be taken down,
reefs must be taken in sails. While lightning was flashing and thunder rolling and
all the gates of the sky opened. You wanted to just curl up somewhere sheltered, but who
would then manage the sailing? This continued all night.
Rain torture. Wearing for a small crew.

Anna Karin

Lat 21 53 / long W 040 40

Day 2
Now we must make distance every day. We have about 4800 NM to Spain
and in order to reach home before the summer as is said, we must not be on
the lazy side. Therefore, we began yesterday in the slight breeze, by hoisting
our big genoa, code zero, which has been in hibernation since Puerto Montt.
The wind has varied throughout the night and it has been raining, but we are still quite
satisfied with the first day.
We have a high-ranking target, to cover three latitudes per day.

Anna Karin

Lat S 23 01 / long W 042 48

New sailing with new adventures. Half past seven we sailed away from a
still morning sleepy Rio. We have had 6 really hot days, with
temperatures well over 30 °C each day. We have done what we
needed, sails reinforced, new HF antenna since the old one blew apart in
Pacific. Yesterday we even had time to lift the boat and inspect the bottom. It was
surprisingly little overgrown. We have, as you know also a freshly cleanshaven
Captain.
Rio has been a nice city to be in. Of course we have only seen
a fraction of the entire city. But we have been in some very nice neighborhoods
when we made our purchases. It has been slightly more expensive here in comparison with
Chile and Argentina, which were really cheap countries for us to stay in.
A sad thing that we noticed already as we sailed in, was all the garbage in the
water. Several miles out we were met by all manner of junk, it was like everything
from the beaches was just shoveled out with the tide

Anna Karin

Sea lions and fish

Different ports have different attractions. In Mar del Plata, we had sea lions swimming around, and above all, the big fat harbour captain that mostly lay sunbathing on the slip. See old photos. In Rio, there are jumping fish in the marina, they jump high, about 30 cm, and splash in. I do not know why. I have a theory that says the water is dirty and oxygen poor, so they must get up to catch some air. But I guess fish don't do that, they would rather disappear. I tried to catch the middle of the jump, but just got the splash, you must imagine the fish.

Anna Karin

Weekend in Rio

The sails are mended again, on Monday we do a lifting of the boat and flush the bottom and insert new anodes. So we get a weekend here in a stunning Rio. We shall tourist a bit today and maybe take a dip and a samba on the Copacabana.

Anna Karin

Woops!

The result of not knowing the language and falling asleep at the barber's.

Anna Karin

Rio de Janeiro

Yesterday we arrived, a nice marina right next to the airport.
We got a whole list where we would go to clear in. It proved to be time consuming. We took a taxi to the passport police first, that worked well. Then we went by a taxi in town for 1 hour, looking for the Harbor Master office, the taxi driver did not know where it was, we ended up in traffic jams, worst of the rush hour. Patience ran out and we went home. This morning after leaving the sails with a delayed sailmaker's we began again by taxi, this time we would be visiting to customs, it took some time. Then we went with the same taxi to the health authorities of the port, where the taxi driver said, can not wait for you longer. The health authorities were behind the stevedore collection barracks. There were "blixtgubbar" in hammocks, waiting for jobs, but we found the place anyway and got a certificate after answering questions like: How many have died on board and why? did you have contagious diseases on board? Puuhhh. Now there was just the Harbourmaster left, went by another taxi which did not find the way, let go of us early so we had to walk. At last we were at the Harbourmaster's. We got to wait around there for two hours before we had the paper. Worst clearance bureaucracy so far ...
All this in over 30 °C.
The marina is not therefore the Internet, has been updating blogs, and slideshows on the internet cafe.

Anna Karin

Lat 22 59 / longitude W 043 10

Day 11
A month ago we left the anchorage in Bahia Buen Sueco, the
southeastern point of Tierra del Fuego. Now in an hour we are in Rio de Janeiro. Then it was
dark, cold and windy, now it is sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine.
The little Spanish knowledge, I have managed to use in Chile and
Argentina I can put on the shelf now, here is a country that speaks
Portuguese, which we can not. Our hope is that you can get on in English.

Lat S 24 54 / long W 044 0

Day 10
When we were stocking up on vegetables in Mar del Plata, we were in a wonderful
market hall. Everything looked so fresh and good -I bought apples, carrots,
onions large as cabbages and I bought beetroots. Good to have. The
days have passed, I have been looking at the beets, starting to
wither. Must use them, can not just buy and throw away ...
So yesterday was the big soup cooking day. I chopped onions, carrots
and beetrootss, made meat broth and baked bread. All kitchen utensils,
the cooker, and my hands were stained bloody red. If you hadn't known there was
beetroot cooking afoot, you would have thought there had been an accident.
It was a wonderfully good beetroot soup, and we have many future dinners.

Lat S 26 52 / long W 047 13

Day 9
In contrast to the desolate Pacific, where ships did not
existed along the route we sailed, we are here along South America's east coast in the middle of
a traffic thoroughfare. It's fun to see the little boats in the daytime, it reminds us
of "the good old days".
Yesterday we had an incident, could have been worse if we had not observed
the ship's advance. The boat was called "m s Effort One" and was from Panama.
It was his duty to turn, but nothing happened, we called them
on channel 16 but nothing happened. In the end we had to make an
evasive action, he passed near the front of our stem. We were so close that
we could see the whole bridge through our binoculars. Not a soul to be seen. First mate was
perhaps making coffee, looking aft, or he was
sleeping in the pilot seat.
Was it better in the old days?

Lat S 28 53 / long W 048 27

Day 8
After rain comes sunshine. The sail was torn and needed serious repairs, we started
planning for Rio, and then we get a stunning day at sea. It was like changing the set
on a stage, an abrupt switch from the mischievous sea with heavy black clouds to light
skies and a friendly sea. The wind carried and we sailed at high speed throughout the
day. We dried wet gear, aired the cabin, yes all that stuff which is not done during tough
days.
Going to Rio de Janeiro does not feel entirely wrong. As you know, there are
worse places to be heading towards. We have read the Pilot Book and
checked with people with internet access, and it seems that you can find
most things there.

Lat S 31 20 / long W 049 29

Day 7
The last few days we have had bad weather against us. The deck has been
constantly awash, waves jumping and skipping, the wind has howling around our ears.
Not much else to do but sit on guard and
contemplate. Last night we had our first incident when we discovered
that our inner staysail had fared very badly, it had ripped
between the reinforcement at the clew and the sail.
Nothing to do but pack it up.
Now we sail with the stormsail and two reefs in the mainsail, just like when we came to
the Marquesas, the difference is that then the forestay was broken and
now it's the sail.
Because of this we are now on a course towards Rio de Janeiro to get the sail repaired.
Not a bad place to go, but a bit tough on our time schedule.
We have a few days left at sea before we are there.

Lat S 32 46 / long W 049 23,6

Day 6
Today I had another reflection. I am lousy at the pentathlon at
Liseberg, the rings never hit the mark, the balls refuse going into the holes,
the bears standing on their hind legs don't get shot.
Then I sit here on Anastasia with my teacup, huddling in my
favorite spot under the ceiling of the cockpit. Tea bags have done their job and
I chuck them overboard. They usually hit the lifeline and spin
a few laps so they get stuck perfectly!?
I'm aiming for the sea but hit the lifeline, great marksmanship, right?

Lat S 33 49 / long W 052 41

Day 4
If you think we are doing we are doing short day distances, it is true. We cruise along the
coast against a stubborn wind straight in the nose. This makes the distance through the
water about 30% longer. Fun? Nah.
We're spoiled with having the wind at our backs, so we
hope this state will soon be over. Would be enogh for the wind to turn a bit more on ESE and
we would have a nice half wind. Yes please.

Lat S 34 55 / long W 054 09

Day 3
- "Tonight it's najs to be a sailor," a deck-hand once said. The year was
1974, we were sitting on the poop deck of the Swedish Orient Line's m/s Trane Country.
We had no air conditioning on board so the poop was a popular gathering place after dinner.
It was a wonderful evening with the moon lighting up
the sea, we were on our way to Piraeus in Greece. The sea was kindly
and gave us a slight cool breeze.
Last night I thought about that sentence. I rediscovered the feeling
and it was very najs to be a sailor.

Lat S 36 50 / long W 055 06

Day 2

Samborombon, a village without street ... not far from the Rio de la Plata.

We came from the blue Atlantic, met the yellow stream that goes out from the River
Plate. Behind the hull and masts at the river's south shore is the
city of Buenos Aires. ... jetties are constructed with stone from the Swedish Bohuslän coast.

Life is good. We listen to Taube, passing La Plata. The weather is
beautiful, light winds, the sun warming.