Buenos Aires to Plymouth Massachusetts (Part 5)

The Grand Reunion

If you have followed our other posts you know that we rushed up the coast of Brazil and skipped the Caribbean almost completely. We were trying to get Calypso to the BVIs in time for Maite and I to make it to our daughter's graduation in Tuscaloosa at the University of Alabama. We pulled into Road Town, Tortola on  April 22 and settled into Nanny Kay for some warranty work and a general boat cleaning before we flew home on April 28.

The "Scrum" From left Tyler, Nala, Tucker, Lilly (not shown as she is behind Jax), Jax and Meika

Maite headed to UT Knoxville to help pack up Benjamin (our youngest) after his freshman year, while I went west to San Diego to pick up our two retrievers, a black lab named Nala and a Golden named Tyler. After deciding that it would be unfair to subject them to the long trip up from Buenos Aires, it was a real problem to find someone to take care of them. Who better than my own mother, Sue! We had left our SUV in San Diego with her and our four legged family when we left for Buenos Aires for the last time and she had taken great care of them. She had just lost one of her two pups, so having the activity around I think helped everybody. My mom will be 83 in November and I was a bit concerned about my over enthusiastic golden knocking her down. But my brother Murray who lives just a mile away with three dogs of his own, was there to help if there was a problem. What I knew but hadn't put together was that my dogs will do anything for food, so mom had them eating out of her hand (figuratively and literally) in no time. It was tradition for my brother and mom to take the dogs for a morning walk every Saturday and Sunday so when it was time to go walking they now had a "scrum". 

Crater National Monument
(east of Flagstaff, AZ)

Tyler had somehow convinced my mom that he required two meals a day instead of the one we fed him, so he gained about 12 pounds while we were gone. So my return meant diet time for Tyler! I also had some time to spend with my brother, Murray, and his family, Cassie, Clayton and Diane. That time always seems too short. My mom decided that she wanted to drive back to Tuscaloosa with me for Meredith's graduation so we were off within a few days, but I had convinced Murray, Cassie and Clayton to come to the BVIs and spend a week on our boat at the end of the month.

Welcome to a a corner in Winslow, Arizona
but no fine sites to see

The trip back was about 1800 miles, so we had a few stops along the way. I had the opportunity to visit Crater National Monument in Arizona where a massive meteor struck the Earth about 50,000 years ago leaving a half mile wide crater. I also had the experience of really standing on a Corner in Winslow Arizona. It wasn't much to be honest. 

Our oldest Greg seen here while President of KA

The Crew in Tuscaloosa. Ed, Greg, Ben, Meredith, Maite and Sue

We stopped by Memphis to pick up my oldest son Greg at his University of Memphis fraternity house (KA) and within three days we were all back together in Tuscaloosa. Meredith's graduation was like most, somewhat bittersweet. Saying goodbye to friends she had known for four years, and moving on to next steps. 

2014 Graduation Ceremony
Left to Right: Ed, Ben, Sue, Greg, Meredith, Maite

A proud Grandma

It was also time for us to reflect on having a daughter that was a college graduate in Engineering. My mom was always good to provide perspective saying, "you think that's tough try having a son who is retired!" Point taken. After all the ceremonies and farewells we packed up and headed for our condo in Palm Coast Florida to "stage which is to prepare for the next leg of our trip. Greg had to return to Memphis, so we had our two dogs, Meredith's Golden, Tucker, and the four of us to get to the BVIs. 

Ben and Meredith with Nala, Tyler and Tucker

We had great concern in transporting our animals on the airline and decided to drive to Miami where we could get a nonstop flight to St. Thomas. From there we had to struggle getting them imported into the British Virgins. The dogs had to be brought over by ferry in their crates and then examined by a Road Town veterinarian before being released. This proved to be relatively easy once we had sent them all the appropriate papers. The animals had to have full vaccinations, rabies titers, an international ID chip and they must have been examined and cleared by a vet in the U.S. within 30 days of travel. Kind of a hassle, but after all they were family. Lots of moving parts, but things flowed pretty smoothly and we arrived in St. Thomas on May 12. We then caught the ferry over to Nanny Kay in Tortola where the boat had been getting warranty work completed. By the 18th Sue, Murray, Cassie and Clayton joined us. Our crew was complete and the grand reunion aboard Calypso had been accomplished. We had eight people, three dogs and a week to explore the Virgin Islands aboard Calypso. It was a bit tight, but very doable.

Our Family at the Bitter End Yacht Club Virgin Gorda, BVI
from left: Meredith, Cassie, Ed, Sue, Maite, Murray, Clayton and Ben

Buenos Aires to Plymouth Massachusetts (Part 4)

Rio de Janeiro to Road Town Tortola

Martin Tate

Martin, our captain for the next leg, arrived on March 28 and we sailed across to Ihle Grande one final time. Martin put us through our paces sailing over to the island. It was a good chance to stretch Calypso's sailing legs before our trek north.

We then picked up a mooring ball at Enseada do Sitio Forte where fresh spring water spouted from a hose attached to one of the mooring balls. The mooring balls were free. A boat nearby was from Rio and I notice immediately how good their English was. Surprise, the young  woman was a Brazilian who received her masters degree from Stanford. No wonder!

The cruising guide mentioned an open air restaurant called Quiosqo de Lele. It was a very short dinghy ride to the dinghy dock. As we approached it appeared to be someone's home rather than a typical restaurant.  Maite, as our resident Spanish/Portuguese linguist went up and knocked on the back door. Cleusinha came to the door and told Maite yes this was the place. 

Departing the Anga area

Cleusinha and her husband Lele, (the current owners) mobilized and within about an hour served us a tremendous Red Snapper dinner as the sun set overlooking the boats in the mooring field, their dog kicking and digging at our feet while we ate. What a great experience and extremely friendly folks.

The next morning we motored back to Pirates Marina for some last minute shopping for vegetables, milk and a few perishables, then set out to the east, leaving leaving Angra on March 29 about 2 pm. As we left the comfort of the bay east of Angra into the open ocean we hit the chop and as often happened we were really not prepared. Things slid to the floor, water sloshed into the hatches and we all went scurrying to get things battened down. Will we ever learn? A bit of wind left us by nightfall and we were again left motoring east.

Turning the corner at Cabo Frio at the
lighthouse. Up the coast of Brazil

About midnight March 30 we approached Rio. Using AIS and radar we picked our way between all the anchored tankers and islands, matching anchor and deck lights to AIS targets. By 3 am were were through and back to open water. Again Christ the Redeemer was easily seen illuminated by the flood lights. AIS is an awesome tool. All commercial traffic worldwide are forced by law to have AIS on board. Although voluntary for pleasure craft most larger vessels had AIS even in Brail. Only the fishing vessels reliably had no AIS and for those we had to be remain vigilant, particularly at night. Radar was our most useful tool with those, even though their all wood design did not provide a very distinct signal.

By 4pm we had sailed to the eastern edge of the Rio bank and turned the corner at Cabo Frio to head north. Cabo Frio was made famous by Bridget Bardot who maintained a summer home there for many years. 

Entering Vitoria Bay. No wind.

Our passage came at a season where the winds were sporadic and largely from the northeast. Unhappily the Brazilian coast runs from Southwest to Northeast so it is a long slog up wind. To make matters worse the trade currents running from Africa split at the eastern most point of South America, some heading south down the coast of Brazil and some heading northwest toward the Caribbean. So the current was against us as well.  Day after day, slog, slog, slog.

By April 1 we were running low on fuel and had to divert to Vitoria (although we still had over half tanks, running out was not an option). We arrived about 6:30 am and docked, waiting for the marina to open at 7:30 am. We then fueled up, emptied trash and were on our way.  More slog, slog, slog, with our daughter's graduation on May 3 pushing us northward. Without adequate wind to sail, and the currents against us, our options were either to conserve fuel and make little to no progress, or push ahead, making fuel stops as required. We chose the later.

My preconception of the Brazilian coast was that it would be relatively jungle like...a la the Amazon, like the Jungle Cruise at Disneyworld. That could never have been further from the truth. As we moved north, mile after mile of coastline sported large high-rise apartment buildings, like Miami Beach for 400 miles. We took the video below while entering the harbor in Salvador. Incredible no?

We entered the Salvador marina on the morning of April 4th. We had calculated that we could make it to Tortola from Salvador without further refueling so we decided to clear Brazilian customs and immigration here. We believe that was a mistake as the authorities in Salvador had little experience performing this task with recreational boaters. They were well meaning, but a cruising tourist is about as common in Salvador as a penguin in the desert. We spent the better part of a day going between Immigration, Prefectura, Customs and back before finally being approved to leave Brazilian waters. It was unusual to be sent to the proper place the first time. Even our taxi driver shook his head in disbelief! We completed all the papelitos (paperwork) and departed April 5.

As we continued to fight the elements we began to see that we would have very little safety margin getting to the Caribbean if we did not stop for fuel one final time. We debated between Jacare and Natal, choosing Jacare as the approach was a bit safer and it had a reputation of catering to cruisers coming to South America. So up the river past the Cabedello industrial shipyard and toward Jacare we motored on April 8. Jacare is just north of Joao Pessoa the eastern most city in the Americas. 

Unfortunately, there was no fuel in Jacare proper. A fuel barge was due to come at 11am, but sometimes it didn't come.

12 feet south of the equator.
4.7 knots of wind! Ugh.

The other option was walk to the four lane highway to Joao Pessoa and buy diesel at the corner gas station that did apparently cater to cruisers and would deliver the fuel. This appealed to us more so off we went. To our surprise the owner of the Jacare boat yard was a gentleman from the Netherlands named Peter Buldring. He was absolutely awesome,  and gave Martin and me a ride to the gas station and set up the order in Portuguese before returning to his yard. Upon arrive back with the gas he assisted us in transporting it to the boat (100 liter portable tanks are not light) and filling up. If anyone needs emergency services in this part of the world, he is your guy. His boatyard was spotless, and he seemed very well educated. By about 10 AM we had loaded up with diesel and were on our way again.

Right on the button!
Now we are real Shellbacks! 

The next leg was the longest slog of all. We had expected to run into the trades when we turned the corner 70 miles to the north, no such luck. We turned and made a rhumb line toward Tortola, but no wind. We turned north to try and gather the trades but no luck. Two days later we reached the Equator.

For those who are not so nautically inclined, latitude is measured in degrees (60 miles per degree), minutes (one mile per minute) and on the Furuno plotter in thousandths of minutes (6 feet per 1/1000 of a minute) away from the equator. There is north latitude and south latitude. It has been a tradition since the first navies of Britain, Holland, U.S. and others that seamen were indoctrinated the first time they made the crossing. The ceremony consisted of King Neptune's court passing judgement and issuing challenges, allowing for the transformation from Pollywogs (those who had never crossed the equator) to Shellbacks (those who had). So as you can see from the first plotter shot above we missed it by 12 feet. So we jiggled back and forth until we sat right on the equator and as per tradition (as seen in the plotter shot below), verified we were in the northern hemisphere and had truly crossed, then went for a swim to commemorate the occasion. King Neptune was on vacation that day so we got off easy.

Maite and Ed preparing for a dip on the Equator. Pollywogs to Shellbacks!

The Equator, and no wind. Hot, quiet, hazy...did I mention hot?

Equator by moonlight.

The Equator was surreal. The water was still and hot, 94.2 degrees. The air was still and hot and incredibly humid. It was as if all movement on Earth, all molecular motion was suspended in this place. Energy and movement from everything around felt like it was being smothered. It seemed hard to breathe! I could understand how sailors lost their minds and jumped overboard becalmed here. Luckily we had our two diesel engines and full tanks of diesel fuel, so on we went.

We started getting so excited to see wind in our sails
 we had to take pictures of the event!

Mainsail Clew of Calypso
showing damage

Mainsail Clew of Calypso after repair
in Nanny Kay

About 500 miles north of the Amazon Delta we got our first wind. It filled in from behind as was predicted and within half a day we had a steady 15-18 knots that took us the rest of the way. Finally wind. We also caught another Tuna, hurrah!

Then one evening about 9pm bang. Our main sail clue (that's the aft lower corner of the sail) ripped away from the stainless steel ring that held it against the boom and kept the foot of the sail tight through the outhaul. Luckily we had the traditional slab reef main configuration on Calypso, as all we had to do was put in a reef in the main and we were sailing again. We were slower but we were sailing. This clipped about 2 knots off of our sailing speed, but we were still moving much better than under motor.

We were 17 days at sea before reaching Tortola. On the morning we sited our first Caribbean Island Guadaloupe, we got a dolphin escort to welcome us officially into the Caribbean Sea. One of the greatest legacies of such a leg was that everything else from that point forward seemed short and easy, except perhaps the leg to the South Pacific and a transatlantic voyage. They now seem in reach.

Things we found helpful during our 17 days. Maite watched all four seasons of Downton Abbey. Audio books. If one is a but queazy, reading or TV can be out, but audio books were great. Chocolate, lots of chocolate. Water fights. Lots of naps. Turn off the feature that tells you how many more days at sea on your plotter. As this is continually calculated based upon current speed and distance to target, if the wind died down, one would get demoralized, then looking at the time to go could put you in a frank depression. So we turned it off and tried to live in the moment, and that helped. Lastly, lots of music, turned up.

The boys came to escort us in!
Maybe a few girls too, hard for
me to tell the difference.

British Virgin Islands

By April 21 we slipped between Antigua and Montseratt, behind Guadalupe and St Kitts then on to the British Virgins and Road Town arriving about noon on April 23. Tortola custom spoke English! They were nice! The process was very easy! I think we've made it! We spent four busy days working on the boat and setting up warrantee repairs before catching a ferry to St. Thomas and flights to the States on April 28. Thank you Martin!

Buenos Aires to Plymouth Massachusetts Part 3

Angra dos Reis and Rio de Janeiro

Selfie on the Copa Cabana Beach

Memo returned home after getting us tucked in to Pirates Mall, and we had four days to explore before our new captain Dr. Martin Tate arrived from Wilmington, North Carolina. He would most likely be shagrinned to see that I refer to him as Dr. however, both my wife and I are physicians, and he was quick to point out that in England PhD doctors and non surgeon medical doctors are referred to as "Doctor" while surgeons are referred to as "Mister". So I was a "Mister" I am not sure what they call a lady surgeon. Anyway, Martin has a PhD in Civil Engineering and had an extremely interesting career in North Africa before coming to the United States. I was grateful for the advise he gave my daughter completing her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Civil Engineering this summer to "Go back and get your Masters, otherwise they won't give you the time of day, then take a deep breath and get your PhD". She has now enrolled in graduate studies at the University of Alabama and we are all very proud of her!

We decided that four days gave us time for two trips. Of course we had to visit Rio and that was our first stop after cleaning and organizing the boat. We rented a taxi for the day and took the three hour drive to Rio. It was great to have a guide that showed us the sights and was right there to pick us up and whisk us away to the next location. 

Rio de Janeiro Yacht Club with Sugarloaf behind  (taken from Christ the Redeemer)

Ed and Maite selfie from the base of the Redeemer. One can see the islands
off shore that we eventually threaded between on our way through.

Rio is a breath taking city. Built where the coastal mountains come down to the ocean, the city has sprung up in each little valley between the peaks. Our first stops were Copa Cabana Beach and Ipanema Beach. They were relatively quiet. The last time I had visited they were having a nude fashion show in one of the beach front hotels. Sounds like an oxymoron, nude fashion show...just a lot of feathers and head dresses as I remember. We next went up to see the Christ the Redeemer statue.  Our eating was limited to a snack near the redeemer statue, but the view was unbeatable. Then it was on to Sugarloaf. Sugarloaf Mountain is at the eastern end of the city and is accessed via gondola. The first gondola was installed in 1911. One of the original cars was on display, made largely of wood planks. The modern cars increased the number of visitors that could see Sugarloaf by several times. Again the views were stunning. It was a whirlwind tour with our taxi drive guide so we were only able to hit the high points.

Gondola to Sugarloaf. The initial cable was taken by hand up the steep terain

View from Sugarloaf Mt. back toward Rio Yacht Club

  

Calypso anchored north of Praia Lopes Mendes in about 21 feet of water.      

For our second trip we decided to sail over to the most eastward part of the island of Isla Grande called Praia Lopes Mendes. The crusing guide promised a good three mile hike which we really needed and a beautiful unspoiled beach. We also visited the next inlet west Saco de Ceu that was supposed to have several very nice restaurants (but was closed for the season. We spent a few days cleaning, checking oil levels, water levels, filling the fuel tanks and replenishing stores. Then it was time to play.  Here the anchorage on the north side was calm and protected, while after a three mile hike through the jungle one emerged on the open ocean southern side to enjoy the surf and beach. The waves were respectable and the water clear and inviting. We took a walk from where the path came out on the beach to the eastern end of the beach. The waves went from 4 foot and surfable near the rocks where the path came out of the jungle to a mere ripple about half a mile east on the same beach. 

Playa Lopes Mendes

It has been very cool to see Ian and Phillipa Ball on the same beach in their last few posts. We hope they are having as much fun as we did. They have been very wise to linger in the Angra area a month or so to experience all it has to offer. Unfortunately, we were facing a deadline to get to the BVIs in time to fly home for our daughter Meredith's graduation from the University of Alabama School of Engineering.  ROLL TIDE! She is now enrolled in the Engineering Graduate School Program there. YEA!

Maite on Lopes Mendes Beach

Ed walking on Lopes Mendes Beach

 It seems like years ago now in retrospect, how naive, unsure and worried we were about doing something wrong with our new baby (Calypso). I think we were also a bit stressed by being so far from home and having such a long journey ahead of us. We wish now we had taken a chill pill and taken the time to enjoy to a greater extent what was before us! One can always fly home for special events then return. "Plans or deadlines" can become "comfort zones" can become "prisons". And so for a while, for better or for worse, we were driven to get home.

We are a work in progress. Learning to live full time on a boat and full time with one another is an adjustment that takes time. There is so much to know and so much to experience in getting to the point where one is really comfortable. Home is becoming Calypso more all the time. A well used "Martinism"  he used on us all the time was, "There is no dilemma that befalls you on a sailboat so quickly that you can't take the time to stop and have a cup of tea and discuss it before deciding what to do". I can think now of a time or two when it didn't really go down that way now, but the concept of thinking first before acting is a good one. Being flexible to reassess and change plans when it makes sense to do so I think is critical for the cruiser. All in all, despite our inexperience we still managed to have a blast in Angra and Rio.

Buenos Aires to Plymouth Massachusetts, Part 2

Buenos Aires to Angra

Here we go!

 Memo met us at our boat at 5:30am to depart the Argentina Yacht Club. We had undergone a $900 oil change thanks to the Volvo Dealer Buenos Aires in order to maintain our warrantee. One that the owner's manual does not mention. If you have any questions about that one email me for an ear full. Anyway minutes after that oil change that included a generator oil change, the impeller on the gen set ripped up and we had to change that out before leaving the next day. The impeller blades were swallowed by the heat exchanger so we had to take it all apart to retrieve all the blades. Needless to say we were a bit tired, but still very excited to be on our way. We headed for Montevideo, Uruguay where our water maker parts had been shipped by Sea Recovery.

Sunrise leaving Buenos Aires

We were able to sail much of our first day, but the wind died by afternoon so we had to motor. The wind came back at sunset and we sailed the rest of the way with main, screecher and genoa.  Memo made an effort to get our current water maker to work, but it was no use, so into Montevideo we went. We reached Montevideo late in the evening the first night and motored into the marina the next morning. Memo did the surgery and I was the first assist. Within a few hours we had an operational water maker. Maite and I had the opportunity to go ashore and walk around the city and shop. Montevideo is a modern city not too different in many ways to Buenos Aires although much smaller.

Calypso in Punta del Este Marina waiting out the bad weather
and closed harbor.

Our next stop was Punta del Este to wait for a weather wind and pick up a bit of fuel. Memo also had a good friend he wanted to catch up with and so he did the first night in the marina. I awoke about 2am to the two of them sweating our bow line and Memo jumping over and hanging on to our bow sprit. Welcome home!?

We arrived at night and anchored across the bay off an large uninhabited island Isla Gobritti. The town sits in a bay facing south with a breakwater to the east and the island to the south which creates a beautiful picturesque water front. Memo had a good sailing friend (Santiago Martinez) he had known for years that took us for a tour of the town after we had gone to immigration and customs. The marinas were not so beautiful but the outdoor restaurants were very nice. The next morning we cleared out of Uruguayan Customs but the harbor had been closed by the Uruguayan Prefectura due to bad weather and we were unable to leave until nearly midnight. 

We then took up our trip in earnest. Around the corner and north we went. Very little wind so we mostly motored. For the first time we noticed that the freezer was turning on and off and heating up during passage. We had some rainy weather, and we had our first run in with a school of dolphins. All told there were four separate occasions when large schools of dolphin came to play in our wake between Buenos Aires and Tortola. There is no doubt in my mind they could see us looking down at them, as they would feed off the pressure waves created by the hulls, then turn sideways and look up at us. There were usually four or five in front of each hull and they would take turns jumping from hull to hull. Each time the dolphin party would last about 5-7 minutes before they got bored with us and went on their way. 24 hours later we passed from Uruguay into Brazilian waters. 

A Tuna! I am not too comfortable with this yet
but I'm still doing better than the tuna!

I think I've got something!

We caught two medium size tunas which made for fine eating. Luckily, my brother and given me a book that explained everything you needed to know about catching fish while cruising. Unluckily, I had not read the preparation chapter until after we caught the first one. Knowing what to do with your catch is as important as catching it. We watched the video of Neil Sullivan's talk given at the Antares University in Newport News Virginia several times before putting our hooks in the water which was a great help. Rum for the gills, check, headache stick, check. What I didn't know was how to dress the fish. It turned out to be very important to pith the fish and bleed it before its heart stops if at all possible. This required a quick severing of the spinal cord at the base of the head, and several quick cuts of the carotid arteries and arteries behind the gills, then secure a line through the fishes gills through the mouth and throw it back in the water to bleed out. Didn't do this with the first tuna, and it was reddish and fishy tasting. With the second catch we did better and the flavor was awesome. Grilled fillets, fresh with a bit of garlic, lemon and butter. Whoa!

Isla de Campeche

Maite and I taking a dip at Isla de Campeche

We stopped briefly east of Florinopolis behind a small island called Isla de Campeche to allow the wind to shift then on we motored. The beach was apparently a real hang out for Brazilians from Florinopolis. The water was a beautiful deep green and clear compared to the muddy Rio Plata and awesomely warm. This was getting pretty incredible!

The last 18 hours or so we were able to turn east and sail into Angra. Again we reached Angra at night and motored in, anchored north of Angra near a small island, then on to Pirates Mall Marina the next morning. Angra is a beautiful place with scores of places to explore. I would not stay at the Pirates Mall Marina however. The slip fees were higher than even Manhattan and New England, and the water was very polluted and full of trash. Many of the other cruisers had far better experiences. The days we spent exploring and hiking in the area were fantastic and we will share these in the next episode !

Maite and Memo at the Pirates Mall Marina

A final story while clearing customs in Angra. We had read in several of the cruising guides that one must be respectful and wear long pants and a nice shirt when visiting Brazilian Immigration. Memo insisted that was ridiculous and out of date. The office opened at 8am but the immigration officer did not swagger in until 10:30am. I really do not speak Spanish well so I paid a great deal of 

attention to body language while I was in South America. I could tell right away this guy had an attitude. Once he was settled, before anything else, he told Memo to leave the office and stay off premises until he was properly attired. Uttering expletives in Spanish and something about pantalones Memo stalked off. He returned a half hour later sporting a "very niczzz" pair of Brazilian skinny jeans. No photos were allowed. Memo do you still have those jeans? 

Calypso in Angra dos Reis. Smooth and beautiful!

Seriously we need to say a formal thank you to Memo for sailing with us to Angra, for fixing our water maker, for sharing his love of sailing, for dealing with our inexperience, our sea sickness and our endless questions, and mostly for making Maite and me comfortable the first days at sea on our new home. Thanks also to Carolina for letting him go.