SAILING PASSAGE FROM RIO GRANDE, BRAZIL TO BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (or not)

130209 Friday
Today we left Rio Grande, 3 weeks after arriving on my birthday. Azul (Oscar and Omar) and Afun Dafu (the Germans) left at the crack of dawn - well 7:30 anyhow. We had a very emotional farewell with everyone at the Museo, and there was not a dry eye between is when we all (and in particular Lucy) said goodbye to Lauro. We finally castoff at 10:30am and made our way up the river, all 30km of it! We had a current running with us so we made good time, and dolphins came to wave us off at the river mouth. Unfortunately the engine decided that it had had enough of life in general and decided at that particular moment to give up the ghost. Hmmmnnn. Andrew tried to restart it, which it did -just, but was sounding decidedly unhealthy. So off we go with an unhappy motor. No problem really if the wind behaves as forecast, but it will be a problem if it completely fails, as getting to Buenos Aires with no motor would be impossible and foolhardy. Going back to Rio Grande is not an option as we would have to tack up the river for 30km in a very narrow channel and also might mean waiting for who knows how long for another weather window, not to mention the fact that we don't know what is wrong with the engine, but it is serious we may not even be able to get it fixed here. So ~ onwards we go...

The wind is what was forecast (you might think that sounds like an odd thing to comment on, but it is often NOT what was forecast), which means great wind, but not such great waves - if you are a sailor on board with a baby that is! Both Mum and I were seasick the first day, Mum just a little and me A LOT.... which was not so cool, to understate the situation somewhat. I felt like a DOG, no offense any pooch blog readers out there. Thank goodness for Mum. She was also feeling sick, but not nearly as bad as me for that first 24 hrs. And the challenge is that little Lucy is still bouncing around like a ball bearing, needing the same amount of attention as usual. It is really amazing, she is just not affected by the movement of the boat at all. Dael and Andrew get a tough time of it, as when I am not feeling so well, it means that the boys get to do more shifts, and as we have no autopilot.

We passed Azul (who left Rio Grande 3 hours earlier than us), at 4:30pm, so we thought we were rather clever. They offered us a tow when we told them about our engine, which we thought was a bit extreme! We declined graciously, and continued on our way. We passed the Germans on Afun Dafu a couple of hours later. They were not looking very happy as they had lost both their autohelm and their hydraulic steering, so they were also not in a good way!

140209 Saturday
The engine has completely died now, it stopped with a resounding THUD. So the skipper has decided, ~ change of plan ~ we will now be heading for the Port of Piriapolis, in Uruguay. The good news about this is that we will be arriving tomorrow and will not have a third night at sea - YIPPEE. And of course - Uruguay sounds very exotic. I am not sure that before this trip I would have been able to point it out on a map with much success. I may have managed the continent, but that is probably about it! The seas around here are filled with ships, so lots of attention is required from tired crew to make sure we keep well clear. We have no autopilot, which means the boat needs helming (or needs to be steered) all the time, which is very tiring - particularly at night when you are low on crew. Things like cooking take on a whole new challenge too, as Mum and I have then to contend with bouncy Lucy, feeling like death from seasickness and trying to get some sustenance into the crew. Fortunately for me I did feel better after a day, but Mum felt sick for the whole trip which was really unpleasant for her.

150209 Sunday
The wind has been building all day, which has meant we have made great time and we should be in Uruguay by 4:30pm or so today. I am so looking forward to my world not rolling again. We have sailed in towards the coast now, and the sea is very shallow here, so the waves are quite big again. We have had really beautiful sailing the last 36 hours, with the wind right behind us, so the boat sitting pretty much flat and flying along at a good 7 knots. It is really quite extraordinary to thing that the boys had an average of 8.5 knots on the ocean crossing.

We sailed past Punta del Este, and we have finally stopped and anchored outside Piriapolis just off the beach. This was quite a challenge in itself with no motor as the harbour is, of course in the lee of the wind!! No sooner has we anchored, as a official arrived from the harbour, a young gentleman by the name of Washington, believe it or not, to tell us that we had anchored to close to the beach. We explained our situation, to which he said he would be out later to assist us to get the boat into the harbour. HHMMNN, he did not arrive later!

160209 Monday
When we were in Rio Grande, we met a great guy by the name of Martin, who was part of Henry's crew. He gave us a contact for a very good friend of his by the name of Alessandro in Piriapolis who he said would be able to assist us. So the next day Andrew took a dinghy into Piriapolis (as there was still no sign of our chap Washington), and found Alessandro (Alex). Wow, what a star, he arrived with his 2 children in his rubber dinghy to assist us with a tow into the harbour. Thank goodness - feet on dry land. Now we can think about getting our engine sorted out. That is going to be a challenge.