Rio Grande do Sul, our entry gate in Brazil. We didn’t thought to stop so quickly, but we had forgotten the magic atmosphere of the lagoon, her birds, her lights and fogs. Here, in the “lagoa dos patos”, all is quiet. The barques go and return from the “isla dos marinhieros”, full of boxes fo salads and other vegetables, in way to the comunitary market, a few yards from here. The horse cars still resist to the lorries and cars, the erants dogs sleep in the streets, the nostalgics “gauchos” pass in their black and red lined cloak, leather boots and beret. We met again the singing brasilian portugues, the fruits, the vegetables, the fish market….

It’s good to be back in Brazil !

The time had come to go from Argentina, even if it was difficult to leave our friends from the “Vito Dumas Club” in Quequen, to let behind us the “assados”, the kindless and the good mood of these people, always ready to help you, to talk with you or to share a “Quimes”, the national beer. We go full of memories and we know that we will come back. A last call in Mar del Plata, taking the time to visit the clipper “Libertad”, newly escaped from her lengthy call in Tema, Ghana, victim of vultures fonds, to go to the museum, this time, Vito Dumas, to enjoy the pampa’s skyies.

This time the sea was kind, perhaps too much, and we entered again Uruguay. Here in La Paloma, the sea is so hard that we could think that we are in Britany. Dunes, rocks, pine and eucalyptus woods, birds, the lighthouse, boundless and almost deserted beaches, lagoons, and of course “lobos”, but more reserved.

Brazil is only sixty miles from here, we will wait a little for good winds, and then we will sail to the north, to Panama and the Pacific ocean.We think we have made the good choice, and we can’t regret to have discovered this Argentina where we feel so good.

Hola amigos ! We are in Puerto Quequen (Necochea ), 38°33′,77 S / 58°42′,87 W , were we came back after an attempt to sail to Puerto Madryn. But the winds had decided for us. After 4 days of fight we went back to Quequen, at the very good “Club de yate Vito Dumas”. It seems to us we are already late in the season, we had planed to sail early in November, but a quick stay in the clinic ( for the Captain) put us one month late. The weather is very changing, with a lot of head winds. We had never  been heaving to for such a long time, we never sailed with such reduced sails, and we knew that it will not improve, it wil be worse in South. Then, to spare our boat, who is nearly 100 years old, we have decided to sail to the North, at the begining of May, trough Brazil, Tobago, Panama and Costa Rica at the end of 2013, then  Marquesas, and then depending on our schedule, Chile and the Patagonian canals in 2016, but this time with wind and currents with us, that makes the difference . Our schedule don’t change, just a little in desorder, we don’t give up sailing in this part of the world which ocupy our minds since so long.

Skøiern and crew are well.

San Fernando, Tigre, Buenos Aires, all these places are full of birds, of boats, of flowering trees. It’s Argentina as we love it already. Here it’s the old Europe changed by the magic of the continent, the luxuriant nature, the latin temper of the immigrants. We thought we will find coolness, it’s summer which harass us, with 35°, thunderstorms and tropical rain. Our marina is full of nesting birds, of horses who come here grazing peacefully, dogs of all parts accompanying us. Our prolonged stay permit us to thrive of Buenos Aires, the ” Capital federal”, wandering around museums,  bookstores, alleys, all what we make provisions before leaving the civilisation for the great South  : San Telmo and its antiquaries, its Tango bars, the Plaza de Mayo, where marks of pain are still here, “madwomen of May” or abandoned veterans of the Falklands war. Our growing understanding of spanish make us closer, every day more, of these people whose kindness, delicacy, proximity always surprise us. Soon, if the weather in the Rio permit it, we will put the heading on Mar del Plata the “porteños” start to invade, summer is coming ! We stock for six months as we will be short of groceries.