Cold air - Strong winds!

... Thats how the Roaring forties welcomed us! But I get ahead of myself... where did we leave off?

Yeah... That's right. In La Paloma in Uruguay. A lot have happened since last time. So here we go!

Colon, and crew, well and sound in La Paloma

While being in Uruguay, I had this split sense of what to do next. Should I continue alone? The last sail was great and I was (I am still!) confident that continuing sailing alone would work just fine. But after the last sail I also got a feeling that it all was too good to just be experienced alone. All of a sudden my phone buzzes and a man from Sweden texted me via an old Facebook ad I've posted. He wanted to join. We talked a bit and in just 2 days he was on the boat settling in.

This in Anton...

So who is this, some would say, crazy person, just joining a boat with just a single other person. Anton is his name. He had been sailing in mexico for a bit and got hooked, and wanted more! Perfect match!

We had an amazing stay in La Paloma. Met some old friends from Rio grande do sul and met some new people as well. We did not however barbecue once. A shame really. But we did have a good day off playing some Kubb against the local potential Brazilian and Argentinian champions. Goes without saying they were crushed, but all were happy about just getting to the beach for some time!

Kubb game number 231...

Another team waiting their turn...

Anton trying to win... did not go so well...

Another team...

Always nice to know that if the Kubb games get out of hand security is just there watching over us, making sure we get in line...

From La Paloma we set sail and were headed for Mar del Plata in Argentina. A mere 3 days sail and we did manage this quite well. We got hit by a 30 knots wind the last day. Of course straight in the face that were really unexpected so made the trip a little more uncomfortable than needed. But Anton were handling the "new" boat very well and I got some, maybe not well earned but, well needed rest half of the time. A happy and smooth sail with other words. No matter the shitty weather thrown at us. Just thinking we had to re-adjust to it anyways as the southern Argentina were coming closer..

Obviously there was some kind of madness going on in Mar del plata when we got there. 700 small sailboats were going in circles.. Seem they did not know where to go...

We also got the visit of these little creatures....

Nice relaxing moments...

In Mar del plata another person joined. Nils from Marzemino (That friendly German I sailed a lot with in Europe! Sure you haven't forgotten about him already!) tipped me off and I had been talking to the person for quite some time and our timing to Mar del plata was perfect. Mike joined after just a couple of days! And all of a sudden we were three people on board. Amazing how quickly things change!

Mike have been sailing from Europe to the Caribbean on multiple boats and were eager to join once he got the information another boat were going south instead of more island jumping in the Caribbean!

Mar del plata is known for a lot of things, most of it, among sailors, are their incredible hard bureaucracy checking into Argentina and when leaving the port. Or at least, that was what I've heard. Normally you need to visit the Prefectura (coast guard more or less), Health administration, Customs and immigration. And of course the Marina. A process that can take up to two days. We got greeted on the docks by the prefectura, health and immigration. Process done in 30min. Nice! I also asked the prefectura to do a safety inspection already on arrival (normally being done before exiting Mar del plata - but then it would be too late to fix anything). I'm not sure if it actually was an inspection or not. But he nodded and looked around. Then we went to customs and all were pretty much done. A mere two hours process. Not a two days process.

Leaving the port for the next location on the other hand got me a little nervous as with another inspection, a real one, would most likely get some stuff to fix. But we had a great window to sail 5 days south. almost 1/3 of the way to Ushuaia. But we got none. None at all. Everyone we speak to about this are very confused about it. It doesn't happen they say. I say it happens for me all the time. All in all, it was one of the smoothest checking in/out I've encountered so far. I really need to stop listening to other people it seem....

The sail were however taking us below the infamous "Roaring forties", below 40 degrees south . I guess the name says it all... We had a beautiful sail. No hard winds and just smooth like baby wipes! A little cold though.

Long time since i wore shorts now... getting worse by the day...

Puerto Madryn we realized quite quickly were not specially well protected. Even though one might think. Check the map if you will. We inflated the dinghy, got the outboard engine attached... and got punched in the face. Motor doesn't start. Seem to be getting worse each time now. I got some tinkering done, wiped some sweat off my forehead after a long time just pulling the starter line before throwing in the towel. it was however quite nice having some seals around the dinghy while trying. Even though they most likely were mocking me.

We came to town by rowing. Or Mike did row us in. Thanks! Then got some nice internet time to sort things out. Another problem that hit us straight away were a 60 knot wind on the upcoming week and absolutely no good option to get to a more sheltered bay. Stressed out I started checking options. None to be found. Then did a small check on google earth and found something I haven't seen before. Camarones. A small town. approx 1500 people living here. And a GREAT HUGE wave breaker. Done deal. We sat sail the same day. really we just spent about 23 hours in Puerto madryn's 60 miles off course location. 6 hours of these were with wine still in the boat. 6 hours sleeping. 1 hour rowing (more or less... Winds were not in our favor coming back to the boat...). Meaning we only got to see the town for about 10 hours. Nice town though...

The sail to Camarones also were a tricky one. I did something I normally wouldn't do. I took a chance. Not a chance like "if we don't make it we are going to die", but rather it would make things interesting and rough. Just about 1,5 days away another hard weather were expected. So we had to sail 170nm in 1,5 days....

But what a start! Coming flying out from Puerto madryn in 9 knots, dropping to 7 knots. then keeping a good 5 knots+ average for the first 24 hours. We were home set...

Or so we thought. Then currents, no winds and just everything else got in our way. Good thing that metal lump of an engine still works like a charm. A LOT of engine hours later, we made anchor with a little less than 1 hour until the wind really picked up! Phew! Great sail though! Even though ending were with more motor than sail. Sails were hoisted none the less....

I would say this is as protected as it gets...

Sweet little spot, right?

This is a penguin, first one we seen so far!

This is Mike!

This is a Horse...

Lets see how long we'll actually stay here. Maybe aim for a full 24 hour stop over this time. But who knows? Actually a quite random place. 6 boats visited this season. Still a very, well protected place. However, the tides of about 5 meters make us have 1 person on board at all times to adjust the lines to the docks. Not an European floating pontoon this, no! However. Still very, very well protected!

Blowing 50 knots of wind as i write this and still barely feel it... ish... at times at least!

// El Capitan!