Believe it or not it was almost easier to send our updates while at sea than from dry land - it has taken a few days to find our way round town and track down an internet cafe with a computer that has a USB port! We sighted land around midday on Sunday and about that time the wind picked up to almost 30 knots on the nose for the first time in the whole passage. With spray flying we forced our way towards port, with the high rise buildings of a bustling city inching slowly closer. By late afternoon we were tied up on a dock in the Yacht Club Argentina in Mar del Plata after 41 1/2 days at sea and adjusting to terra firma. We did find ourselves stumbling a bit for the first few hours but after a few beers (served in 1L bottles!) we were fine. It has been very strange getting used to the traffic, people and fast pace after so long with only the blue ocean around us and the birds and whales for company. We have raced through our list of "jobs to do" which mainly involved obtaining weather, tide and chart information for the 1200 miles of coast ahead of us and swapping our full size sails for a set of heavy weather sails made with a reef already built in. Filled our water tanks and our propane bottles and stocked up on lovely fresh fruit and veg from the local market and are now ready to sail south, as soon as the weather is favourable.
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Comments [2]
Dec 08, 2006, Position 35 40'S 52 18'W
The past days have been unforgettable and there don't seem to be enough superlatives to describe them. Perfect, settled weather has made for delightful sailing conditions - varying between NW and SE the wind has rarely been over F4. We have had the pole up and down accordingly and enjoyed getting optimum performance from the boat, surging along day and night under cloudless skies. In order to make the most of the favourable Brazil current we have held a course parallel to the edge of the continental shelf, staying in the deeper water between the 1000m and 2000m contours. It appears to be a very produtive area as the wildlife has been incredible. On Tuesday morning we were still surrounded by shearwaters and petrels when we spotted our first albatross, a very exciting moment. We watched in wonder as the great black and white bird, at least twice the size of any of the shearwaters, soared past with easy grace, honouring us with its presence for a few brief moments. It was a Yellow-nosed Albatross, which are considered to be relatively abundant off the Rio de la Plata in Argentina, the area we are now in. The next morning we were having breakfast in the cockpit when we caught a sudden glimpse of what looked like some huge logs floating just off the starboard bow. Realising at once that it was in fact 4 sperm whales, we leapt into action and hove to, slowing the boat down to about 1 knot 150m away from the whales. For the next 2 hours we had the fantastic experience of being able to watch the group socialising and/or resting at the surface. There appeared to be 10 whales in total and they remained fairly close together, blowing often as they engaged in various behaviours that researchers believe indicate a social period eg. spyhopping, when a whale raises its head above the water; sidefluking, where half the flukes are visible and lobtailing, where the tail flukes are raised and splashed down onto the surface. It is likely that we were observing a "family unit". Long-term studies have revealed that "family units", made up of mainly related females and immatures, form the core of sperm whale society. These groups may remain together for many years, or even for entire lifetimes, while males leave their natal unit around 6 years old. It seems probable that one important reason for the close female bonds is the communal care of calves. Sperm whales have a very low reproductive rate so the survival of each calf born is vital. By staggering feeding dives, the unit ensures that a mature whale is always at the surface with a calf and cooperation within the group gives a greater chance of successfully protecting a calf from predators. But perhaps most special of all, this morning at first light came our long anticipated first sighting of a Wandering Albatross, most magnificent of birds. It was visible at a great distance, glinting white in the early sunlight, standing out because of its sheer size. With a wingspan of between 2.5m and 3.5m it is the largest flying bird in the world, and seeing is believing - it made the Yellow-nosed albatross look small! Barely flapping its enormous wings, it swept past in magical splendour, and was gone, leaving a lingering memory of power and beauty - and a hastily snapped photo! With all this action, we almost don't want to reach land, but Mar del Plata is only 300 miles away and if all goes well we should arrive sometime on Sunday....
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Dec 04, 2006, Position 30 24'S 46 27'W
A beautiful, bright, full moon is hanging in a cloudless sky behind us and we are rocking gently along on a calm sea. Conditions have been very varied for the last few days as the strong SE wind backed gradually to the north. Over the weekend we were careering along, surfing at up to 8 knots in the following sea and on the whole we had one or two reefs in the main and a partly furled jib. Things began to ease up early this morning and tonight we are under full sail again. Mar del Plata is just 700 miles away and, much as we love being at sea, after 5 weeks out here we are starting to look forward to making landfall ...... a hot shower....a looooong sleep.....fresh fruit....an ice cold beer! On Saturday night we saw our first exclusively southern bird, a White-chinned Petrel, which is circumpolar in the Southern Ocean and fairly easy to identify thanks to its white chin patch. Since then we have been surrounded by birds. Up to 40 Great Shearwaters and a few Cory's Shearwaters have been swooping and soaring around the boat, feeding on small fish and squid. They are very interesting to watch as they make sudden, ungainly landings when they spot their prey then appear to give chase on the surface by paddling flat out with their feet while keeping their heads below the water, often going around in circles. This attracts more birds which join the fray with much squawking and squabbling. We have seen them chase huge 'flocks' of flying fish as they take to the air, pursued by tuna below and birds above. One of the Cory's Shearwaters had a silver leg band and although it could have been ringed at any one of the numerous breeding colonies in the Mediterranean, Cape Verde, Canaries, Madeira or Azores, it is nice to think that it may have come from the Azores and followed much the same route as we have done!
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