And so another long leg comes to an end at Piriapolis, Uruguay, where Mike and I have been sorting the boat for the last few days. She now stands on the hard and will remain here till September. In fact, getting her hauled out has been the hardest part of the trip so far. South America is smothered in beurocracy and Uruguay is no exception. From application to hauling took four days of paperwork. Some of the locals were aghast- they'd know of people who'd taken four weeks to get a boat out of the water.
We made one stop between Ile Grande and Piriapolis, and that was at Florianopolis to check out of Brazil. Nice place. None of the stress of Rio or Salvador, a bit Mediterranean with a touch of east coast USA. Only problem- there's no water there. Certainly not for our 1.7 metre draft. We motored for two miles with the sounder often showing zero. When we finally got into the marina. (clean, well run, hospitable) we ground to a halt. The guy on the dock told me to drive through the mud, which I did full throttle. Getting out again was not as easy, although we did manage in the end.
Fuel continued to bug us, as it has most of this leg. We are still leaking diesel into the bilge, which is boring, expensive, and smelly.
One other problem - but I'm about to leave wifi land so I'll post again when I get chance.