Stocking Up
16 February 2013
Very hot days here in Piriapolis, temps above 30, and I am dripping in sweat at the repeated walk to the supermarket,returning laden with enough food for 60 days. It's 4,600 miles to the Azores which is the only feasible stopping place on the way back. So what do you buy? Obviously lots of tinned stuff, but how long will the fresh last in the tropical heat? I am reckoning on getting stuff like oranges and potatoes to last three weeks and after that it will pasta or rice with a tin of something added. I have also taken on board several curly, hairy and mouldy looking salamis. They look as though they will defy any heat. This could be a very long and slow passage, especially in the early stages. The south Atlantic High gives north easterly winds hereabouts and it is difficult to make progress. The best option seems to head east for several hundred miles We'll see. These things are easy to plan on paper but until you get out there and point your bow you have no real idea what it's like. Once north of Rio, 1,000 miles, the winds become more favourable and it should then be an easier ride to the equator. Hoping to get away in the next couple of days, but getting diesel and gas is proving remarkably complex- like all simple things in south America.