Lindisfarne – Forgus 37 – 7,5t (>9t with equipment)
Sailing from Lagos in Portugal down South America to Ushuaia and starting the crossing of Drake Passage to Antarctica.
2006

Lagos in Portugal to Gran Canary via Madeira
16 April – 6 May 2006

We left Lagos on the 16th of April, after more than 6 month of hibernating in Lagos, heading for Madeira 450 miles to southwest.
We were rather exhausted after some intensive final weeks in Lagos.
There was plenty to be fixed before take of. Our Pilots covering South America told us not to expect much of chandleries and to be prepared to be self-sufficient regarding the boat. This information contributed a lot to the list of “to do” and “to get” before we left Europe.
A high pressure with northerly winds made us leave before the list was finished, but before leaving Las Palmas it must be finished! Summing up our experience from Lagos; a very god place to spend the winter, the climate (short trousers almost the whole winter!), close to the centre of the town, lots of shops and nice old buildings, well protected harbour, both from the weather,  swell from passing fishing boats and from not wanted people.
Finally a nice live aboard life with about 50 habituated boats. We really did get on well and got many new friends. Of course the only other Swedish yacht Ayla with Pia and Tord was the most frequent companion, whom we spent  a journey to London boat show and a sailing trip to Gibraltar in February.
Unfortunately for us, Ayla is now, like most of the yachts in Lagos, heading for the Med. But you never know where we will meet again and there is always e-mail…
We got the wind on the beam, and the force was nicely 15 to 25 knots the whole way to Madeira.
We have newer sailed that fast for such a long time! We reached Porto Santos, 450 miles from Lagos, in three days minus two hour.
At this times of the year we where quite lonely in Porto Santos, so despite our bad sea legs, we continued the 30 miles to Madeira.
We made landfall in the new marina Quinta de Lorde, close to the north-east point of Madeira, moored, cleaned the yacht with a lot of fresh water and then went for a nice walk in the nature park, covering almost the whole cape east of the marina.
In spite that the marina wasn’t ready (showers and toilets where very poor and not the finally ones) they charge 28€ for a 12 m yacht!
We motored to Funchal the next morning, after a night with lots of gusts from the mountains around the marina.
Funchal yacht harbour, always crowded in the autumn, offered us a good berth on the pier outside another yacht, couldn’t be better in tidal water!
The first yacht on the pier has all the troubles with long ropes taking care of high and low water. Funchal was full of flowers.
The yearly flower festival was to be held next week, so we had really picked the right time.
In the marina we found friends from Gothenburg on their way back home. We spend five pleasant days together with them, lots of talking, eating and some playing (two boys, 8 and 10 years have a lot of extra energy!!)
They left for the Azores and we were alone again and headed of for the Canaries the next day after some work on the yacht.
Once again we got a nice wind on the beam, lasting the whole way to Lanzarote and marina Rubicon.
The marina is nice and not to expensive (18 €) but the surroundings… Quite extreme and totally artificial.
The beaches north of the marina in the desert where a very nice walking area.
After three days in marina Rubicon we sailed to Isla Lobos, just over the straight between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura where we anchored for the night.
This was our first night out of a marina for the last 6 months, a nice feeling being alone with no neighbours in fenders distance…
We celebrated our first year aboard since we left Gothenburg. A year full of new impressions and reflections. Have we taken the right decision to leave everything “back home” when we left?  Leaving all our friends! Sometimes you wonder.
But we feel that this life is the right life for us for now!
You have only one life and you can only be at one place at a time!
They say that you seldom regret what you have done, but the things you thought about but didn’t do!
We kept on south along the east coast of Fuerteventura in a slow speed, waiting for the wind shift to north, predicted to come in one or two days. We anchored one night before arriving to the harbour Morro Jable where we spend the last night on Fuerteventura before taking off for Gran Canary and Las Palmas in a good northerly breeze.
In Las Palmas we met s/y Ellinor from Stockholm with Anders and Cathrine whom we met in Cascais Portugal in October last year.
It’s very nice when it’s not only goodbyes!
We spent lots of evenings together and even some days, walking around in the beautiful mountains of Gran Canary with very pictures views with Teide, the snow covered volcano of Tenerife, in the background.
We will stay here until the 23rd of May, to fix everything that we didn’t do in Lagos. This is probably our last port before Cape Verde and we strongly feel that we can’t postpone it any longer.

Gran Canary to Salvador, Brazil via Cape Verde
28 May – 25 June  2006

One should have plans, but also be prepared to be flexible. Our “week” in Las Palmas turned out to be three before we where ready to leave, mainly due to friendly yacht neighbours, nice mountain walks and of course a lot of things to do with Lindisfarne.
We sat sails for Cape Verde on Sunday the 28 of May. Good tailwind, which unfortunately died in the evening when the land effect was gone. We hade to use the engine during the night and the morning. The wind then came back and we had just exactly the northerly tailwind we wanted and it made it possible to pole out the Genoa for the rest of the way to Cap Verde.
Very comfortable sailing thanks to our self/tacking jib which we keep sheeted “behind” the main and that stops the yacht from rolling. Instead she leans some degrees to the lee of the jib.
We made landfall in Mindelo, Sao Vicente in the dark Saturday evening after 800 nm, a trip that didn’t offer us any surprises except for the fishing.
We got a 2kg Dolphin fish the second day, but after that it was quit empty to the last morning before Cap Verde. We got something enormous on the hook. The line went out with a scream, but just before it was gone, the fish, or what it was, turned towards the yacht, jumped several times 50 m beside us. It was a giant Blue Marlin, some 2 meter long. We where actually happy when it succeeded to shake out the hook and disappeared into the deep blue. It was exactly as in a deepwater fishing movie! Half an hour later we had another big one on the hook. But this time it got loose without showing us his size. It is obvious very difficult to get the “cocking size” on the hook.
There is not so much to write about Mindelo. Besides a nice rest in a not moving yacht, there are not many reasons for stopping over here. The shops are few and their stocks are very limited. Almost everything besides fresh fish is more expensive than in Las Palmas.
But it is possible to buy diesel with good quality, sealed quality sample, tax free and somewhat cheaper than in Las Palmas. Do observe that the Pilot advice you to go to the fishing harbour and not to main harbour, but that’s not tax free and you get no quality assurance….
We had some windy days in Mindelo. The harbour is very well protected, but katabatic winds reaches the harbour, and we had gusts up to 40kn several times during the days we spent there. The bottom is sand with good holding, and together with the right anchoring equipments the gusts should not be a problem, although a little uncomfortable.
Unfortunately the wind brought fine sand, impregnating ropes and textiles, and covered everything with a thin layer of dark sand. You couldn’t touch anything without getting dirty.
This harbour was our first “really” contact with a port of entry. Earlier ports had been in EU-countries and formalities are rare/or simple there. Now we got the whole package with emigration, custom and so on… and when leaving – the hole race again. The nice thing was that we got a “clearance” paper, explaining that we have fore filled every law and demand, and that we have a safe ship for the journey to the next port Salvador. The harbourmaster hadn’t seen our yacht when he signed the safe yacht paper…
We left for Salvador at lunch time Friday the 9th together with a strong northerly wind. The wind accelerate more than 100% between the islands and we got almost 40 kn during the first three hours until we got free from land and the wind become its normal 15kn.When we past Fogo and Brava in the early morning we got the same wind effect again for some hours.
We had a weather forecast telling us about northerly 15 – 20kn for the next 5 days and it turned out to be correct.
We saw some ships and talked to a South African sailor during the first three days. After that we didn’t see or hear any ship for six days!
The route from Cape Verde to Salvador is not very easy to plan. Our two pilots suggested different routes, so we had to decide our selves. We had heard about yachts tacking against the current along the Brazilian coast to Salvador and that we did want to avoid! So we decided to go south as far as possible before reaching the southeast trades and the northwest current, trying to reach the Brazilian coast as south as possible without tacking.
Our plan worked out quite well, especially thanks to the current that never changed to west, but kept on in a southerly direction.
Doldrums with squalls and big areas with no wind are many sailors nightmare. We got our first squall, a thunderstorm, and thought this will be a rough trip. But it turned out to be our only real squall on the whole trip. And the doldrums was behind us after less than two days. The heavy rain in “our” squall took away every trace of the fine sand from Cape Verde, so never clean anything before you have to!!! The yacht looked as if it had been hydro jet blasted, absolutely clean. Unfortunately a lot of grease in furler and bearings was also almost cleaned out. So some maintenance will have to be carried out in Salvador.
During our last five days before landfall Salvador the wind increased to 30 kn but still easterly. This made our last days a bit bumpier with high seas, 5/6 m waives, making the trip faster but with more water in the cockpit. After our first night with heavier sea we couldn’t get our engine started without the alarm and all the control lamps engaged. We have to run the engine every third day to produce water and with only 50 l and five days to Salvador the engine was a must. We heaved to in order to calm down ourselves and the movement of the yacht, and then emptied the locker in the cockpit to get access to the backside of the panel to the engine. A small amount of saltwater had been pressed in behind, and after freshwater cleaning and drying, the engine started without alarm and light! Talk about relief. Two hours later our water tank was full and we could continue our silent journey under only sails.
Our fishing continued to consist of to big fishes. But we got a new Dolphin fish, 6 kg. Food for three days.
Our chosen rout turned out to be good all the way and our luck kept on. We reach our waypoint 20 nm southeast of Salvador in the early morning the 25th of June and moored 1300 almost by the hour 16 days from Cap Verde and 1921 nm through water and over ground 2200 nm. We got 300 nm from the south going current!
We thought us to have been a bit slow, but the reaction from sailors on the pontoon was different. The route, very short doldrums and of course the current helped us to do the passage at least two or three days shorter than average as we understood.

When we summarise the passage, it is sometimes a bit boring, especially during nights when you are alone on duty. But with books, recorded books in nighttimes, good food, oven fresh bred, the time flies… On top of that we have time to discuss and plan the next part of our journey without anything hurrying us.
We saw very few birds and only Dolphins at a few times.
The water maker is a blessing. A freshwater shower every evening in the sunset and dry clothes to the night. In the day time you can’t use clothes when your body is poring away.
We got our sea legs back between Gran Canaries and Cape Verde. If not, this had been quite an unpleasant trip.
In Salvador marina Centro Nautico where already about ten not Brazilian yachts, two from Sweden, three from France, one German, one from Swiss, one Irish and one from UK, together with us we where 30% from Sweden!

We have now been almost a week in the marina and the formalities with the authorities are still going on. They have not got a procedure for yachts, so they treat us like a commercial big ship…
The basin of the harbour is very big and swell/surge comes in all the time, making the yachts moving very uncomfortable all the time. So far we have broken one rope!
Salvador is the eastern part of the Bahia de Todos, a great bay with a lot of havens and anchorages, the most famous is the island Itaparica where we later will spend some weeks.
Now we will relax, fill up our storage, look at the town, chat around with our yacht neighbours, and eventually find a trip into the Amazons.
It’s not time to go south before August, remember there is a winter going on in the south!
Here in Salvador the climate is tropical and we have just below 30 degrees with around 28 in the water. Quite good to bee in the middle of the winter!

Salvador and surroundings, and a trip to Manaus in the Amazon river
26 June – 31 July 2006

After a month in Brazil we feel almost at home and of course especially here in the bay of Bahia.
We spent our first week cleaning the boat, the laundry and all the formalities with the immigration, health, custom and harbourmaster.
After this first week we started to investigate the possibilities to go to the Amazon. Flying there turned out to be the only acceptable way, it’s almost 2000 km one way!
So Salvador, Brasilia, Manaus and four days at Ariau Tower jungle lodge with a lot of tours into the jungle was the final decision.
We left the yacht in Aratu Yacht club, very sheltered and secure, and then a taxi to the Airport. One day in Brasilia with its modern architecture and very special planning of the town and its infrastructure. Quite an unusual experience.
The next day we flew to Manaus and from there a river transport on Rio Negro to the jungle lodge. The lodge, actually the hotel consists of a number of hotel towers connected with gangways above the water, hardly possible to describe, you have to see it!
www.ariau.tur.br
We where lucky having water surrounding the hotel, in November the water is 10 to 12 m lower, and the hole establishment is on dry land and not very easy to access. Another advantage with the high water was the surprisingly absence of Mosquitoes. This was caused by the acid water in Rio Negro.
All our tours into the jungle were by canoe.
Big canoes, carrying about 25 people and driven by an Outboard in 15 kn. We where lucky to be in a small group with only 10 very pleasant guests and an English spoken German guide. There where one trip in the morning and one in the afternoon, and sometimes even in the evening, when we where to catch some crocodiles!
We even did some swimming with Pink dolphins, and Annika was actually bitten by a big dolphin when it missed the fish and took here hand instead. Fortunately the dolphin noticed the mistake almost instantly and let go before she was under water and the bite was only marks in the skin. Quite an experience and something to remember from her 50th birthday!
On our excursions we learned a lot, among other how to get drinkable water in the jungle. Cut one meter from a liana and if you do it right, you will get half a litre of good water. But be sure it’s the right liana, a very similar one contains cyanide!!
We had full pension with three very tasty meals and a lot to drink every day so we didn’t have to try the lianas!
The fourth day we spent on our own, the normal program was two days, walking around on the very extensive gangways around the hotel area into the jungle and along Rio Negro. We saw quite a number of different birds, three different species of monkeys, crocodiles, and lot of other animals of which we don’t know their names.
Then back to Manaus where we visit the famous over 100 year’s old opera house. The town is fantastic, especially when you think of its position in the middle of the jungle. The town has been up and down during its history, in late 1800 the rubber tree and the industry around that made a lot of people wealthy, and of course the town prospered because of that. It was with this money the famous opera was built. When the rubber tree seed was smuggled to Malaysia with much higher production, the rubber barons went back to Europe and the town suffered from lack of founding’s. Today the town is back in full action and a busy city with a big harbour for ocean going ships. The old opera is restored to its old heyday and lots of other buildings are also refurbished.
After one night in Manaus we was supposed to fly home to Salvador and our yacht, but our plane was delayed five hours, and without possibility to reach our connection in Brasilia they didn’t allow us to start the journey. Instead we got the same flight next day, god for them, saving taxi and a hotel in Brasilia, but now we had to pay for taxi and hotel in Manaus.
After an extra long journey we arrived in Salvador in the middle of the night, fortunately our taxi driver was at the airport waiting for us and brought us back to the yacht where we relatively exhausted went to bed 2 a clock in the night.
We spent the next day at the buoy and then sailed to Itaparica where we met Pärlan II, with Monica and Janne from Gothenburg and two Norwegian yachts, Embla and Empire. Parlan and Embla had crossed the Atlantic together from Africa and Empire with Heidi and Eivind crossed the Atlantic with the ARC to Caribbean and from there to Salvador. They are like us heading south, so we will probably meat them again several times.
Now we will, nice and quiet, prepare ourselves and the yacht for the continuing trip to the south of South America, starting mid August.

Brazil Itaparica – Vitoria
26 July – 30 August 2006

We managed to leave Itaparica in mid August. The delay was mainly caused by the difficulties to leave new and pleasant friends, and then when we finally decided to leave, the rain started and the wind came from the south!
Most of our time in Itaparica we spent with friends, having a beer or a meal together or just a game of Boul.
We used the springtide to dry out Lindisfarne, to be able to clean the propellers, the bow thruster locked like a white boxing gloves. The antifouling was almost clean, in spit this is its third season.
Our first trip, 70nm, to Morro Sau Paulo, where we spent the night on anchor in the river, was nice and smooth, very convenient after 6 weeks in a not moving home.
Further 40 nm south is the river Maraú, A very nice place, like an archipelago with a lots of islands. Partly it’s very shallow, one have to navigate with great care. But once in there you will be well paid. It’s very scenic and especially in the upper part of the river you will not meet many yachts!
We got a way-point list for the trip from the estuary and 15 nm up to the village Maraú so we sailed and motored all the way to Maraú and its Saturday marked.
We spent one night on anchor in the river off the village. Most of the traffic to the village was on the river, and we where probably the only not Brazilian there.
Not a place many people without a boat or a yacht have seen.
We anchored for some hours on our way back, to make an excursion through the Mangroves and over the peninsula to the beaches and the open sea. On the trip we found a man selling bananas for next to nothing. Now we know why sailors have a hole Banana stock in their cockpit.
We continued after that almost to the end of the river where we anchored behind a beautiful island, waiting for the wind to be favourable for the trip to Abrolhos islands. This was a perfect place to wait, dinghy distance to small restaurants and very nice surroundings for swimming and walking.
When we finally hit the sea again it was pretty rough. Three days of strong winds had made the waves relatively high and together with the outgoing tide very steep. It’s nice to have the GPS telling you that in spite the log show you 1-2 knots, you are actually going five to six knots over ground. So the nightmare in the steep waves you think will go on for ever, will soon be over. In the middle of the night the confused sea disappeared and life was back to normal. You can hardly believe it’s the same ocean!
After two days sailing we arrived to the Abrolhos National Marine Park, expecting to see some Humpback whales. And we did. Already before anchoring, our way to the bay was blocked by two whales, so we had to wait to get access…
The Norwegian yacht Empire (Bavaria 42) had left Itaparica some week before us, and where now at Abrolhos after collecting guest in Vitoria.
Using two anchors we managed to get enough space in the bay for two yachts.
We spent two days watching the whales, the fish, the turtles and all the birds from the anchored yacht!  Completely unbelievable!
The whether report was talking about southerly winds in a day or two, so we decided to leave in the north-easterly strong wind for Vitoria, some 180 nm to the southwest.
We had strong tailwind all the way to Vitoria where we arrived after 26 hours cruising between whales. There where plenty of them Humpbacks (11,5 -15m and 25-30 ton) some of them almost hit the yacht. Because of the tailwind and the way the sail was arranged we could not alter our course to much, so when we spotted a whale close to the yacht on collision course we manage only to get 30m behind her tail.
She was protecting her calf, which luckily was behind her, and demonstrated her irritation by lifting her tail and smashed it into the sea. What a giant splash, luckily for the photographer it was downwind. (In the file “album” you can see the whole show in three photos)
We sailed together with Empire the whole day and there are some photos from Empire with whales and Lindisfarne in the background.
Seeing so many whales in daylight we wondered how many and how close they were during the dark hours. Luckily we didn’t see or feel any “floating ground”.
We were pleased to be able to more at a buoy in Vitoria yacht club after an exiting trip.
We shall now visit immigration to have our visa extended for another three months and wait for the next northerly wind, which will take us to Rio with a stop in Cabo Bòzios on our way southwest.

Vitoria, Brazil – Piriápolis, Uruguay
30 August – 5 October 2006

Our Brazilian adventure has now come to an end after more than three months in this fabulous country. We are now in the marina Piriápolis in Uruguay preparing for the next adventure, Patagonia.

First a small summery of our impressions and experiences in Brazil.
The summery is of course reflecting the time of the year we spend there and the places we visited. Brazil is full of surprises and nice experiences. First we have to report about a perfect sailing area, where it is possible to sail the whole year. No hurricane season, only two rainy months around April. The temperature, both in the air and in the water are ok all the way south to Rio. Further south it’s a little bit chilly in the winter. Some part of the coast and especially the estuary of some of the rivers are quite shallow, which of course limits the accessibility for yachts with great draught.
There are lots of anchorages along the coast and in the rivers. Marinas are few, but the private yacht clubs welcome visitors everywhere, sometimes for free and others with, compared to Europe, very reasonable fees all the way down to Rio, where we suddenly experience prices comparable with the Med. You can cover most of the coast line day-touring, but due to the shortage of daylight, only 12 hours, we often anchored in total darkness. With radar, GPS-plotter there is seldom any difficulties. But you have to have a bottom without a lot of weed to get a good grip. In Brazil we have not found weed in any places, and we have succeed to get a good holding at the first attempt every time with our 23kg Delta anchor.
The people – Nice and helpful. If you are used to the very efficient souvenirs salesmen and restaurant guys in the Med and Caribbean, you be surprised to find that you can walk around without anybody approaching you with more or less aggressive suggestions. You can actually look at a menu, and they are waiting for you to approach.
Private yacht-clubs – Nearly all of them welcome visitors to a very reasonable fee. This means that you can do “marina -jumping” very cheap and don’t have to stay on anchor even with a slim budget. Taking about anchoring, close to the bigger cities we were advised not to solo-anchor in small bays. We followed that advice and visited the well-guarded marinas/yacht-clubs under these circumstances most of the time. We nor saw or heard about any incidence during our time in Brazil, but this is a big country with a lot of poor people. This together with drugs in the big cities makes it foolish to actually provide an opportunity by anchoring an expensive yacht in front of their eyes. The rich people don’t move around without taking precautions. They travel by car, cab or bus between the different reserves. We didn’t bother much about this. We moved around as normal by walking or by bike. We didn’t visit any doubtful bar or walked around in the Favelas after dark, but that’s what we try to avoid even in Europe!
Cheep – We have already talked about the minor harbour-fees. There is no money involved in clearing in- and out of the country. Eating out is very cheep, especially if you use places where the local people eat. Stocking up is cheep as long as it concern things produced in Brazil, imported items comes together with some sort of import fee and are for that reason expensive. Gas is very cheep and diesel comparable with tax-free in Europe. (Watch out for water and dirt that sometimes occurs in diesel, always buy filtered marine diesel)
Water is easy to find and the quality is most of the time excellent. But you have to watch out for the two different hoses in some marinas, one for washing yachts and one for drinking!
Formalities – Much can be sad about this item, one good thing; it is free of charge! That’s the ending of the good things about formalities. Brazil like most South American states has no separate rules for yachts. The rules are very rigid and the local authorities apply them very “local”. This is sometimes confusing and is one of the reason lots of yachts choose to skip the formalities. (The penalty is very cheap, specially compared with all those days we spend trying to get in contact with the different authorities in every harbour.)
Wildlife – varies of course widely from south to north. The seabirds where few around Salvador and down to Abrohlos, where we noticed many new spices. Further south their numbers increased together with the falling temperature of the water.
Dolphins are everywhere, whales concentrated around Abrohlos down to Vitoria.
Penguins and sea lions in the south.
Almost no mosquitoes!

So far the Brazilian Summery, now back to the log and Vitoria, where we ended in the last letter.
We left Vitoria for Búzios, just north of Rio, on September 1. We moored at the yacht-club one and a half day later. The weather was not very good, rain and a lot of wind, so we stayed “indoor” at the buoy. The next morning we took the dinghy ashore and paid a surprisingly expensive harbour fee, three times what we where used to up north. Evidently the nearness to Rio has this bad effect. The village was totally a holiday-resort, very Europeish, not like anything in the north.
We left after a long walk and some shopping.
We just tacked against the wind around the peninsula and found a nice well protected bay on the southeast side, where we stayed four days on anchor waiting for the wind to be favourable for continuing to Rio.
We had one day with rain but the other days we could walk around among the hills and on the beach, admiring the heavy waves from the south.
Everything’s comes to an end, the wind changed and we set of for Rio, trying to get there the next morning. The wind increased and we raced through the night towards Rio, arriving tree o’clock in the morning just as the wind died. Full moon and the background light from the city illuminating the silhouette of the Sugarloaf and the moon lighting up the Corcovado statue, made this approach to one that we will remember for ever!!
We spend two days sightseeing around Rio before sailing over the bight to Niteroi, cheaper, more tranquil and a better photo distance to Rio.
We spend three days at Charitas Yacht club and we paid 20€ in total, compare that with 30€ for one night in Rio during low season!
The northerly wind was here again and we set off for Ilha Grande, the fabulous archipelago 70 nm south of Rio.
Once again we manage to arrive in the dark, this time due to lack of wind. Radar and electronic chart together with GPS and almost no wind makes it almost as safe as in clear daylight. As a routine we always check the accuracy of the chart by using the radar for measurement as soon as we reach a new area, which increase the reliability of the charts.

Enseada do Abráo became our first anchorage, one of many well protected bays we used during our week in this wonderful surrounding. The local people argue that it is possible to anchor a whole year without using the same place two times!
Thanks to the off-season we were almost always alone in the anchorage, except for one night when we had chosen a bay which obviously was popular among the fishermen when the wind was to strong. We anchored alone, but before midnight we had more than 30 fishing boats around us. When we woke up next morning, nearly everyone was gone.
The archipelago is crowded with yachts from Rio and Sao Paulo during January and February and should probably be avoided, if not your goal is to anchor close to a bunch of super motor yachts with their diesel alternator running 24 hours a day. We prefer a secluded bay, where we can enjoy the nature without any disturbances.
We ended the week with two nights, waiting for the northerly, at Ilha da Cotia, north of Parati-Mirim.
18 of September we left Ilha Grande for Santos. We anchored at Ilha Porcos, the former Prison island for one night, and reached Santos two o’clock in the night. The yacht club offered two nights free and then 40€ per night! We did all our laundry and all our formalities checking out from Brazil, our 90 days visa had only two days left. We left Santos after two days (of course) officially bound for Uruguay.
South of Santos we spent four days in Paranagua, once again waiting for the south wind to be northerly. Two of the days we anchored in the river in the centre of the old town, just outside the harbour office.
We where even allowed to moor the dinghy at the pontoon for the harbours working boats, guarded 24/7.
A nice old town, where it had been much easier to check out than it was in the big Santos with giant distance between the different officials. But 90 days are 90 days, not 95 which had been the case if we had waited to Paranagua.
We anchored twice after we left Paranagua, in Porto Belo and just south of Florianopolis, before we left Brazil and sailed 550 nm in four days to Piriapolis, Uruguay. The trip had almost every weather condition, almost no wind to gale force. Arriving Rio de la Plata, the fog was total. The wind died and the visibility was almost nil. In the middle of the third night we heard a remarkable sound. It was full moon and the waves where garnished with phosphorescence. This light together with the magnificent sound, which we later understood was singing whales, is one of many nature experiences which make sailing the right way of living for us.

Of course we then arrived in the middle of the night. The Prefecture (a mix between Coast Guard and harbour Officials) took our lines and our zarpe from Santos and wished us welcome to Uruguay. “Have a good night sleep and the rest of the paperwork tomorrow”. The pilot book was very specific about all the difficulties with formalities in Uruguay. We were very pleased to find out the difference between the pilots warnings and formalities in Brazil!
We bicycled to the airport and the immigration to get our passport stamped, and then the formalities were done. Must tell you that they were quite surprised at the airport when we came from “inside” Uruguay with no stamps in our passports. But no problems.
Here in Piriapolis a lot of sailors and their yachts are waiting for the south, Patagonia or even Antarctica. Piriapolis is the only place in the south with a heavy (70 ton) Travel lift, one reason for many sailors to choose this harbour.
We had almost had no contact with other sailors since three weeks in Rio, so we had a lot to catch up, both social arrangements and technical discussions. Through friends in Sweden we had got a mail contact with an American yacht which already have done Patagonia,  Nine of Cups with Marcie and David and there cat Jelly. After almost a year of email- corresponding we felt that we already knew them.
Here in Piriapolis we finally met them “alive”. We had many things to talk about, not to mention their experiences from the very south. In the harbour were even two yachts from Sweden, felt a little bit odd to use our native language when speaking to another yacht!
The harbour fee in low season is very reasonable, 8€ a day and the Travel lift is less than half European prices. The Village is from the beginning a resort for wealthy Argentines, but over the years it has became a complete village with almost all service you need.
We will now stay here some weeks and prepare our Lindisfarne for the south. One major thing is to change the leaking fresh water pump in the main engine, quite a challenge because of all the different parts including the camshaft belt that we have to dismantle to get to the pump.
We are planning to go to Mar del Plata, Argentina, in the end of October and wait there for the right weather condition for Mar del Plata – Ushuaia.

Piriapolis, Uruguay – Mar del Plata, Argentina
5 October – 25 November 2006

We have now in a new South American country in our bank of experience. Uruguay has really been a positive surprise.
The people, nice and ready to help you with almost every thing, especially if you are able to talk some Spanish.
Price level, most things are cheaper than in Brazil, but eating out appears to be more expensive in Uruguay 7,5€ and in Brazil 5€ for the two of us.
Marinas, cheap during off season, but when Argentines have vacation take care!
Landscape, sandy beaches with pine forest on sand. Inland, big field with a lot of cattle and sheep.
Wildlife, plenty of sea lions and birds. Especially the number of small birds and sea birds has increased compared to Brazil.
Our three weeks in Piriapolis disappeared rapidly. Several items to take care of in Lindisfarne. Manufacturing of a day tank to the furnace has a long time been a useful improvement but not executed, so that was on top of our list before leaving for Patagonia.
The most difficult of the project was the exchange of the engine water pump. There had been a small leakage since we crossed the Atlantic, and that had to come to an end. The work involved dismantling a lot of part of the engine such as crankshaft wheel, camshaft wheel, the wheel for the injection pump and so on.  When half of the dismantling was done we discovered that we could avoid the rest by cutting the aft protection shield for the belt in three, saving us several hours and some of the most difficult parts of the work. When the pump was free it was very clear that the bearing in the pump was leaking. We were lucky to have a spare pump among all our spare parts. The old pump was 2000 hour and we hope that the new one will live longer.
We did a tour to Montevideo. More than one third of the 3,5 mil Uruguayans live in the city.  It’s difficult to get the right impression of such a big city in half a day, but we were lucky to have a guide. Our deliverer of the stainless day tank to the furnace hade his office in the town and he took care of us and showed us around, including a very pleasant lunch in the old market hall, close to the harbour. Talk about friendly people!
The old market hall was today totally refurbished and now used by numerous of barbecue restaurants with magnificent fireplaces sparkling everywhere. It’s quite obvious that meat is King in Uruguay.
The city has many avenues and with trees on both side and around, which give an impression of a green city, in spite that some part are a bit shabby and very greyish.
We had planed to sail south via Buenos Aries, but the extra 220 nm in this shallow estuary didn’t sound very exiting, and on top of that it is much cheaper and comfortable to go to BsAs from Mar del Plata instead of taking the ferry from Uruguay.

So we did our paperwork with the authorities, left Piriapolis and sailed across Rio de la Plata to Mar del Plata where we as usual arrived in the dark four o’clock in the morning the 29 of October.
Argentina, a new country with new formalities. But before that some words about the harbour and the marina. The approach into the main harbour is quite shallow and you have to stay close to the western pier, the eastern have a nasty sandbar where waves break already in 15 kn wind. When you are past the pier it’s quite easy to catch a buoy behind an inner pier, protecting the inlet to the marina. You have to wait at a buoy because the inlet is covered by a swing bridge.
After sleeping some hours, we called the Yacht club Argentina, one of four clubs in the marina!, and the bridge opened. Very slowly we entered the marina. It’s quite small, and the space for making any mistake does not exist. We managed to manoeuvre into a god but shallow berth. We are down in the mud by low tide.
Now it was time for paperwork. The representatives for the Prefecture in the marina told us to immediate go to the office of the Prefecture and Immigration. So we went away, only 10 minutes walk, only to find that they wanted us back next morning because it was Sunday!
Monday morning Immigration and Prefecture was rapidly done, but coming to the customs, they wanted a paper from the Health department, declaring the ship was healthy. So away we went, finding that before they issued such a paper we had to go to a specific Bank and pay 50 pesos. Showing the recite from the Bank we got our paper declaring that the ship was free of rats and so on…  Back to the customs they did a lot of paperwork and then asked us to come back tomorrow and collect our paper.
This paperwork is frustrating. There are rules for big ships which the different departments follow according their mood for the day. Several sailors we meet have different stories to tell about the officials behaviour in the same harbour. Obviously you shall expect the unexpected things to happen every time you are in contact with the Authorities, not to be frustrated and upset, because that makes of course things much worse. Patience and time are probably the answer to solve all this troubles.
Now it was time for our trip to Buenos Aries. The bus across Pampas took 5 hours to almost no costs. Very comfortable busses with 1+2 seats and those are foldable almost to a horizontal position. We saw more cows on this trip than in our entire life! Meat is definitely King even in Argentina.
Now we had to find a hotel which turned out not to be that easy. Buenos Aries is a 13 million city and with a lot of tourist and businessmen free hotel room where rare. The fifth hotel had one, lucky us, and after leaving our luggage we hit the city.
We of course started with the harbour (where else?) and to meet our friends from Norway in Empire. Not only they where in the Puerto Madero marina, even a Swedish yacht Overseas 40 with Lars and Pauli whom we met in Croatia 2003. They were very pleased with having spent the winter here in BsAs. Then we spend the rest of the evening in a local restaurant together with the crew of Empire. The meat was excellent, very big portions and cheap. Cheaper than in Uruguay and with god wine, no need to order anything but the red of the house.
The next morning we booked a night bus to Iguazo, 1500 km to the north in the corner of Paranaguay, Brazil and Argentina to see the famous waterfalls. We spend lunch and a pleasant afternoon on a nice balcony on 9th floor together with Susana. We met her in Vitoria, Brazil, when she was sailing north, and she invited us to here flat in BsAs.  Around five we had to leave to catch the bus for 16 hours ride from Pampas to the jungle. The bus had the same comfortable quality as the bus the day before and the prize 30 € was quite cheap.

In Iguazo we had a transfer to our hotel on the Brazilian side and after a lunch and a stroll in the area we just relaxed the rest of the day. The next morning we where collected at the hotel and transported to the Cataract on the Argentinean side. Walking along gangways over and beside the falls takes a full day in the Argentinean part of the falls and we were lucky with the weather, sun and no rain (except all the water/mist that came from the falls). Coming back to the hotel it didn’t hurt to go into the pool. Here in the jungle the temperature and humidity are quite high and this together with all those stairs on the gangways we needed that pool.
The last day we had thunder and lightning with heavy rain. In spite of that we managed to do the Brazilian side and even got some photos in the greyish light. The Brazilian side is much lesser and is even during normal condition done in 2 – 3 hours. We felt very pleased to have had the sun the day before when we really needed it. Then the night bus back to BsAs.

Susana who worked as a tourist guide in BsAs had a city tour with an English group, and if the bus was in time we were invited to come along. The bus arrived in time and we got a perfect shortcut to the history, known and unknown people and buildings of Buenos Aries and Argentina.
We thought in Funchal, Madeira, in April when its Jacaranda trees were fantastic, but this, our third blossom this year, was even more fantastic. We had lunch together with the group in a nice Italian restaurant in Puerto Madero.
After that we strolled around in the harbour and finally ended up in Susan’s flat. She had lent us the key to the apartment and we spent the afternoon relaxing, having a shower before taking a taxi ten o’clock in the evening to the last part of Susana’s arrangement for this day. Tango show in the Boca area.
It was a very spectacular show around the history of Argentina and the Tango with many very skilled dancers, often with very small dresses. So there were a lot of legs in the air to be seen! One o’clock the show was finished and we thanked Susana for all her efforts and took a taxi to the bus station for another night bus, this time home to Lindisfarne in Mar del Plata. We were surprised to find us sitting in a completely full buss, starting just before two o’clock in the morning, this is definitely not Europe! We arrived to our yacht around 8, quite exhausted. We were pleased that we had experienced so much during this few days, including three hotel nights and three “bus nights”. Without Susana the result of the trip had been very much less.
Back in the yacht we had to restart with all our “musts” before take off south. One of the important things was cleaning the diesel tanks, and of course filling them with clean diesel. We had to walk 500 m with a 30 l jerry can, what an exercise.
Mar del Plata marina is a small crowded marina, so when our Swedish friends with their 62 footer Yaghan came, there had to be some moving around with the “small” yachts to make room. We celebrated this with a dinner together in Lindisfarne compeering our experience of the trip from Sweden.
Wednesday the 15th a new record was at hand, 4 Swedish yachts in the marina of total 13 visitors.  Cabo de Hornos, whom we met in Salvador, and Sawubona who had wintered in Piriapolis. We were, together with a Norwegian yacht, 10 people from Scandinavian at a restaurant that evening,
We do hope that we shall be ready to leave for the south when the next northerly comes, if not we have to wait for the next after that.

Mar del Plata, Argentina – Stanley Harbour, Falkland Islands
25 November – 10 December 2006

Argentina- fresh green grocery, spring blossom, almost everything are cheep to buy, marvellous meat, but terrible bureaucracy and a lot of corruption which probably is the major reason for a lot of problems and the lack of development of the country.
We have now another country in South America behind us. Our nice experiences in Argentina are unfortunately darkened by a stiff legged bureaucracy and a lot of corruption. It seems totally impossible to get things brought in from abroad, in spite they are sent to a ship in transit. Everything seems to end up in  ”the nightmarish customs of Buenos Aries” where it is almost impossible to get it out without paying a lot of extras for who knows what. They seem not to care about international rules and agreements. Although it is a very big country with almost everything within its borders, trade over the borders is necessary for the development of a country.
Another odd example of the authority. When we cleared out from Mar del Plata, Helén on Yaghan had Stanley, Falkland Islands, as next port. We where quite surprised to found out that according to Argentina this were not another country! So they got no stamp out in their passports. We told them a white lie and said that next port will be Puerto Williams. That was of course another matter and we got our stamps. We then noticed when we came to the Falklands that the bay outside Stanley Harbour is called “Port William”, so our white lie was after all not a lie if we should be as formal as they are. Immigration in Stanley couldn’t care less about their behaviour, they treated our two yachts equally. It will be most interesting to see how they will treat us when we are back in Ushuaia. We have been in another country that isn’t another country…
During our entire time in Mar del Plata we have had contact with an Argentinean couple, Clara and Rudolfo. They live in their yacht in the marina, to which they came back 2004 after a 12 years of circum navigation. Clara has a Norwegian mother, now living in Buenos Aries, who was borne in Bergen, where they of course paid a visit during their circum navigation. We got a lot of hints and advice from them about the Chilean coast, several warnings about the dangerous east coast of Argentina, but most of all a lot of help with transportations in their car around in Mar del Plata to various shops. Not to mention all Spanish that was necessary, both making phone calls and explanations in shops. Being sailors they understood all our needs.
When the membrane in our grey water pump broke, Clara found the spare part in Buenos Aries by phone. How to get the items 500 km to Mar del Plata? First to the bank and pay the chandler, then fax a copy of the bank recite to the chandler, after that he started the expedition to get it by express to us. For safety reason we did put Clara as the address for the package. Three days later it turned up at the bus station in the centre of Mar del Plata. Clara immediately went away with her car and delivered the package to us in our yacht! It’s almost difficult to receive so much help and kindness when the only thing we can offer is an eternal friendship.
Clara and Rudolfo, thanks’ for all your efforts to simplify our visit in Mar del Plata.

Our last days in Mar del Plata became quite hectic. We had a lot of things on our list to be done before departure when a perfect weather window for the Falklands was there. We did put in another gear and went for the final with all our projects and on top of that, buying fresh food for the trip. The weather seemed to be god even along the coast, so almost all yachts heading south went away on the 27th.
We left at 9, but Yaghan with a draft of 2,5 had to wait for the tide to get out. The two of us were the only yachts to head for the Falklands, a decision which turned out to be a winner.
The weather was very god the whole way down. The weather along the coast was very much variable, as a result those yachts made slow progress compared to us some 100 nm out in the open sea. Yaghan overhauled us some hours after departure and was one and a half day ahead of us in Stanley, just over four days later.

During this trip we finally got our SSB radio working even to talk to others. We have all the time used the e-mail function with success, but talking, no. A radio amateur, Bob on Falkland Islands, heard us and had some controls he wanted us to execute. The next morning when we called him and our signal and audio was OK. One of our mistakes, we had forgotten to shut of autopilot and the modem for the e-mail, and that disturbed the voice transmitting a lot.
Suddenly we could talk with other stations if the sky isn’t full of disturbance. We talked with the yachts at the coast and most of them complained about the wind and sea conditions.
The wind kept on at a good speed and a favourable direction. Together with a clear sky this made us feel like we were sailing in summer Scandinavia and not in the roaring forties. Thanks to our two times a day updated weather information we weren’t worried about what will come and could fully enjoy the sailing.
We arrived at Stanley Harbour Sunday morning just before eight o’clock. We were quite surprised finding a couple standing on the pontoon waiting for our lines. It was “radio Bob” and his wife Janet. They had seen us passing through the Narrows into Stanley Harbour and went down to the public jetty to catch us at arrival. Talk about hospitality. They invited us to their house for shower and laundry… Overwhelmed we thanked, almost not awake, yes after we have had some hours of sleep.
Later, after a shower and a lot of talks about radio and other visiting yachts over the years, they drove us around, showing the surroundings of Stanley.
Gypsy bay with Magellan penguins and unfortunately lots of mines on the beaches. It’s a reminder from the Falkland war 1982. The Argentinean planted a lot of mines around Stanley, and as the mines are not metallic they are not possible to detect in a safe manner. Most beaches around Stanley will therefore stay mined for a long time.
Back in Lindisfarne, Helén and Arne from Yaghan welcomed us to Falkland with a Sunday dinner. That’s a perfect way to deal with dinner the first day after a six days passage.
The next day we spent together with them on a Jeep tour to the King penguin colony at Volunteer Point.
The weather was for penguins! but we had the place for our self without a lot of other tourists.
This was really an experience; the King Penguins are the penguins you have in your mind thinking of penguins and they are very photogenic.
Yaghan left for Ushuaia early Tuesday morning and we went out on anchor. Two days a week there is a cruising ship in Stanley Harbour and the public jetty becomes restricted area, not allowed for yachts at the same time as the cruising passengers use the pontoon. When the ship is gone, we were allowed to go back ashore and visiting Janet and Bob for a chat and doing our e-mails…  We are having a discussion with the Swedish Polar Institute and our insurance company about permission to visit Antarctica. It turned out in the end of the week that they both say ok!
But first we have to reach Ushuaia. It’s right against the prevailing wind and there are in addition a lot of currents to take care of. Yaghan experienced 4 kn against south of Staten Island for about 200 nm of the 450 nm to Ushuaia. If your doing 9 kn you can live with that, but if you are going 6 kn… We really have to be carefully when we decide route and time for our passage!
We plan to leave Stanley Monday morning and have two anchorages along the south coast, waiting for the wind change on Wednesday. Then take of for north of Staten Island and the La Maire Strait, hopefully we will be in Ushuaia by the end of this week.
Then we have to decide about the Antarctica. Now when we have the formal possibilities, we have to decide whether we have the physical capacity.
First we will celebrate Christmas in Ushuaia together with several yachts we met the last months.

Falkland Islands to Ushuaia, Argentina
11 – 28 December 2006

We returned to South America on the 11 of December, after a fine but partly windy week on Falkland Islands. The destination was Ushuaia far down south in Argentina. We got a relatively decent weather report with not to strong winds, mostly in a favourably direction. We sailed along the southeast coast of the Falklands, so when the wind increased in an unfavourably direction and the sea state became very ruff, we decided to spend the first night anchored. Two hours after that decision we could anchor in a bay full of kelp. We had sort of a pilot describing the bay, telling us to go around some stones and kelp to the bottom of the bay and let the anchor there. Surprisingly it was still correct and we spent a quiet night there, waiting for the wind to change according to the forecast. We started early next morning, not to be late down at Staten Island, but the kelp took some time to get rid of. The day was bright and clear but almost without wind. We motored to about six o’clock in the evening, when the wind came and we got almost two whole days of fine wind down to Strecho La Maire, the sound between Staten Island and Tierra de Fuego. This sound is very nasty in wrong conditions. It’s important to match wind and current directions. They should never be against each other, thus creating races and over falls if the moon is in bad position and the wind is strong. Our plan was to go with the current, which is supposed to flow with 2-8 kn depending on the moon, and have the wind from the northern sector. That plan was very good, but we were there more than six hours before the change to the south current. So much for that plan! Waiting six hours? No way, the wind was relatively weak from the south and the tide was at nip, so we motored the 10nm through the sound. The current against us was never more than two kn. So the famous sound had one of its easy days.
We continued by motor in light westerly wind around Tierra de Fuego and up the Beagle Channel, having Chile to port and Argentina to starboard. We knew that it was not allowed to navigate the Chilean Channels at night, so we where a little concerned whether we were allowed to travel in this borderland at night. There were two Chilean coastguard ships in the dark along the route, but none called us on the VHF, so we concluded that it was allowed to approach port of entry from the open sea at all time. We passed Puerto Williams in the early morning hours, still nobody calling us, and reached Ushuaia around noon, just over three days after we left our anchorage on the Falkland Islands.
During the sailing between Puerto Williams and Ushuaia we heard several of hour previous yachting friends talking on VHF, Yaghan and Cabo de Hornos were already in Ushuaia, Tamara and Six Pack hade anchored for the night in the Beagle and we had passed them during the night. The radio traffic was going on between the authorities (Puerto Williams, Chile and Ushuaia, Argentina) and yacht and between yachts. Tamara told Sadko (a yacht in Ushuaia from Bristol) that Lindisfarne should arrive in Ushuaia by noon according to a e-mail they got from Lindisfarne the other day but they didn’t know where we actually were. We broke in and told Tamara that the sails they could se some miles ahead of them belongs to Lindisfarne, and that we were arriving Ushuaia at noon. This of course made some amusements to everybody listening, especially since we had been so exact with our ETA in our e-mail to Tamara.
Checking in to Argentina was a little troublesome for the authorities. We had checked out from Mar del Plata, but coming from Falklands, which they argue is Argentina (Malvinas) made it a bit difficult. We played innocent and didn’t understand the problem. Finally they stamped the passports without further comments. The good thing with this was that they didn’t want us to go to the customs, probably because that had been the same as they had accepted that we came from abroad!
Here in Ushuaia we had many reunions with friends from earlier harbours. Yaghan and Cabo de Hornos were already here and during the afternoon came Sol from Denmark, Tamara from US, the Aussies in Six Pack and Empire from Norway. Big Scandinavian get together in the cockpit of Empire and after that dinner together in town which didn’t end until the next morning at a bar! At least for some of the participants.
Later came Just do It from Bremen and the Swedish yachts Sawubona and Wild Rose.  We were now four Swedish yachts in Ushuaia and Yaghan  and Northern Light was in Puerto Williams. This must be some sort of a record!
Ushuaia is a very cosy little town where you can by almost everything except for yacht equipments. The surroundings look like something in between Lofoten in Norway, with more snow and an Alp-village!
Ushuaia is more or less a winter sport resort, but hiking, bicycling, tours in the archipelago and around the famous Horn are popular activities in the summer season, so it’s definitely a living community all year round.
Yaghan left for the Antarctic before Christmas, but we weren’t ready stocking up with supplies, gas, diesel and a lot of food, so we decided to spend Christmas together with the Scandinavians in Ushuaia and wait for the next weather window for Drake Passage.
As you now can read, we have finally decided to visit Antarctica together with Lindisfarne.

Our only big problem is the amount of diesel that we think we have to carry. OK we are a sailing yacht, but because we have to do Drake Passage when it is not that windy, we will probably have to little wind part of the way. This means motoring a lot, not to be exposed to the next low-pressure and its strong winds. Added to that, there is a lot of motoring down in Antarctica, not to forget the cold climate, the furnace needs 10 l a day! Our fixed tanks carry 350l and we have jerry cans for 140 added to that.  This can keep up with 10 days in the cold and motoring 700nm. That has to be enough, but there is a great distant to cover, only on way Puerto Williams to Melchior Islands is nearly 600 nm.
We did buy some extra warm clothes, but not many, we are after all from Scandinavia and started this trip by going north of the Polar circle without getting cold!
After Christmas and some more social events together with Kirsten and Kim on s/y Sol, we hurried out for Puerto Williams to check in to Chile and get allowance/zarpe to sail to Antarctica. To shorten the overseas passage you want to be able to stay overnight in the archipelago close to the Horn and the same procedure on the way back, and that’s means that you have to bee checked in to Chile.

28 December Thursday
Today we leave Ushuaia for Puerto Williams, Chile. A short trip, only 25 nm with tailwind and nice sunshine. From PW we will sail down to Cap Horn and anchor, waiting for the right wind for Antarctica. Looks like the 30 of December will be ok.

30 December Saturday 00.30 UTC, pos 25 nm east of Cape Horn

Yes we are out in the “Drake” heading for the Peninsula of Antarctica. We can still see Cap Horn in the sun. We hope to be anchored at Melchior Island on the third of January. Weather forecast is good, maybe a weak low that we hope to avoid by keeping a more westerly course in the start to let the low pass south of us.
The ice situation around the peninsula is moderate. The water temperature down there is just around freezing temperature, so heating is essential, and we hope the water maker can coop with that.

Total for 2006:
6980 nm – 8,5 months
Year 1998-2006 = 31 690  nm

See – Album – some pictures from 2006

Annika & Björn
Lindisfarne
www.sailaround.info