Greyhound: December 2009

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Puerto Deseado

Donderdag 31 december 2009, Puerto Deseado, Argentina.

Positie: 44*30,6 S / 65*21,20 W

Vandaag is het mijn verjaardag, ik ben 65 jaar geworden!

Gefeliciteerd dat je het zover hebt gebracht.

Mijn vader is op zijn 52 ste al naar de andere wereld gegaan.

Dus ik heb steeds het gevoel in overtime te leven.

De omstandigheden hier voor mijn verjaardag zijn wat vreemd.

We liggen aan een boei vlakbij de vissershaven.

Het waait hard en het is koud. Gelukkig schijnt de zon.

Deseado is een plattelands stadje met brede straten en vaal en lelijk.

Hier kijken we uit op roestige olietanks.

Gisteren zijn we aangekomen na een zware tocht. Veel wind, onweer, regen en hagelbuien en hoge golven. Het eerste deel de eerste dag ging prima met de wind in de rug.

In de morgen draaide de wind naar het zuiden en wakkerde snel aan.

Het werd een opboksen tegen de golven. Uiteindelijk moesten wij het opgeven en op de gereefde fok voor de wind en de golven terug vluchten op zoek naar beschutting in de dichstbijzijnde baai.Toen wij daar bijna waren draaide de wind weer en besloot Piet alsnog naar Deseado te zeilen. Onderweg kwam de wind weer op de kop, maar met veel motorgeweld en een tweemaal gereefd grootzeil als steunzeil lukte het de haven te bereiken.

In twee dagen en nachten 260 mijl afgelegd waarbij zeker 100 mijl extra door het heen en weer varen.

Vandaag, het is nu 9.00 uur zijn we een beetje uitgerust.

Ikzelf ben erg verkouden en hoest de longen uit mijn lijf. Daardoor heb ik nog niet veel geslapen. Piet heeft de laatste nacht onderweg helemaal niet geslapen maar heeft dat nu ingehaald: 19 uren aan een stuk!!

Caleta Horno 5

Our neighbour Greg

Carl in the kayak

Caleta Horno 4

Caleta Horno 3

Caleta Horno 2

Caleta Horno, 26 december 2009. Position S 45*22'52 / W 65*40'45

On the day before christmas we arrived in this beautifull fjord.

After a sail of only 40 miles from Puerto Santa Elena.

During the sail we had trouble with the autopilot. Probably because of our grounding on the rocks of the day before.

We plan to stay a few days in this Caleta for inspection of the damage and repairs.

The entrance is very difficult to find but thanks to the wonderfull C80 Raymarine plotter we could not miss it.

Right after the entrance we saw a boat tied with three lines to the rocks.

We could not enter the fjord, he was blocking the way in with his lines.

After many blows on our horn there was still no reaction, so I rowed over in the dinghy and knocked repeatedly on the steel hull.

There appeared a friendly face and he introduced himself as Greg, a canadian solosailor with his littke cat. He lowered one of his lines so we motored in till we were stuck with the keel in the mud. At last we put out our anchor and with the help of Greg we fastened four 100 meter lines with chains to the rocks on both, sides of the boat.

Yesterday , on the first day of christmas we made several walks on the rocks and cliffs with are surrounding the boat. Alas on the second walk the soles of my mountain shoes came off!

(See photo)

Today the wind is howling and we are glad to be in this protected spot.

As a guide to all the harbours and anchorages we use this big detailed Nautical Guide:

“Patagonia & Tierra del Fuego” written by Mariolina Rolfo & Giorgio Ardrizzi.

Caleta Horno 1

Puerto Santa Elena | On the rocks !!

Puerto Santa Elena, 23 december 2009. ON THE ROCKS !!!

Position: S 44*30'62 / W 65*21'20

After a relaxed sail of 140 miles in 25 hours we anchored in the bay of Puerto Santa Elena.

There was no living soul or any building to be seen. It looked very desolate, bu t we hoped to catch up with some sleep here in the lee of the land.

We anchored in 15 feet of water and pais out 80 meters of chain towards deeper water.

We went to sleep for a couple of hous and at 16.00 were rudely awakened by the terribhle sound of the boat scraping and bumping on rocks. The wind had turned and was blowing fiercely.

First we thought that the anchor had dragged. But that was not the case.

Because of the change in wind direction and the outgoing tide we weer lying more close to the rocks in very shallow water. The boat heeled over and the sounds were very frightening.

We had visions of a total shipwreck. After a while we decided to try to bring out a second anchor towards deeper water with the purpose to winch ourselves out of this horrible spot.

With the dinghy and the outboard I brought out a plow anchor on a line of 150 meter.

That was not an easy job in the howling wind and big waves but I succeeded.

After a lot of winching we were securely tied but unable to move. We were solidly stuck on the rocks. We could not do anything more and wait for the incoming tide which would raise the water level. Hoping the damage on the keel and the rudder would be only scratches we made dinner and waited till 22.00 . We were floating again, retrieved both anchors and anchored again on the other side of the bay in 45 feet of water.

The next morning we left for Caleta Horno.

Puerto Madryn 2

A salt lake

You can enlarge the photo´s by clicking on the photo.
Maybe you can see all these sealions on the beach.

Puerto Madryn, Argentina, 21 december 2009.

Position: S 42*45' / W 65*01'50

After a long sail of 74 hours and 507 miles we arrived 19 december at Puerto Madryn in the Golfo Nuevo having left Mar del Plata on 16 december.

Because it was saturday afternoon and a sunny beautifull day there were many little sailboats from the local yachtclub sailing around our boat.

We were the only foreign sailing boat in the bay and the all greeted us with big waving of theis arms.

The commodore of the yachtclub came several times in a dinghy and advised us to anchor more outside because of the danger of a changing wind and big waves.We invited him with a friend for a drink of genever with ice which they seemingly did not like

The name of the yacht club “Club Nautico Atlantico Sur”was very helpfull. The commodore is called Malebo.

Puerto Madryn is a pretty town with a lot of shops.

It is named after his founder, the Welsh Jones Parry, Baron of Madryn, who settled here in 1865.

There is no marina and you have to lie on the anchor. The anchorage is rather unprotected and after the wind turned we were moving very uncomfortable on the swell.

It was then also very difficult to reach the boat from the beach because of the big waves.

Today we hired a car and made a roundtrip in the National Park on the Peninsula Valdes.

It proved to be a ride of 400 kilometers!

Enormous empty pampa’s and sometimes we saw some wildlife and cattle: horses, sheep, cows, many birds and this strange animal called “Guanaco”on the photo.

At the coast we saw many of the sea lions and pinquins. But alas no orca’s or whales.

The whales are on their way to Antartica we were told after breeding baby whales in this bay.

When we left Malebo with a friend helped us also with getting rid of all the seaweed around the anchor chain (see photo). At an age of seventy he is still an active diver!

Puerto Madryn 1

A warm welcome of the Commodore and a friend

Malebo helps to remove the kelp from our anchor.

Guanaco , looks like a lama

Monday, December 21, 2009

The trip to Puerto Madryn

Best wishes

To all the readers of this website:

I wish you all a very nice christmas and a happy and healthy 2010 !!!!

Don't forget to look also on the website of Piet:

www.zeilbootjob.nl

The trip to Puerto Madryn

On wednesday 16 december we left Mar del Plata. Destination Puerto Madryn.
Quite difficult to clear out with all the burocracy of the Prefectura.
We had to fill many forms and answer so many questions.
After many hours we could leave.
The first day we had a good wind in the back and were surfing on the waves at a speed of sometimes 13 knots!!
The fishing line was out but we went probably to fast to catch anything.
the next day we had sailed 199 miles in 24 hours. So really fast.
In the night of thurday on friday there we met a big thunderstorm with scaring lightning and gust of wind at a speed of 40 knots. A lot of fighting with the sails to get them down as quick as possible.
After that the wind came on the nose and quieted down so we had to motor 24 hours to reach Puerto Madryn.
We did 507 miles in 74 hours.
All went well and we are enjoying the town now.
A very warm welcome by the commodore of the Club Nautico Madryn Sud, senor Malebo.
We offered him an old genever with ice which he seemed to dislike.
He made it clear that he disliked the english people because of the war about the Falkland Isles.
The argentinian people have strong antipathetic feelings about the outcome of this war.
It is beautifull summerweather here and we like it here in the first town of Patagonie.
This bay, Golfo Nuevo is famous for her wildlife: seals , whales, dolphins and pinquins.
We only saw some dolphins here.
Tomorrow we will rent a car and drive along the coast to look for more wildlife.

Mar del Plata 2

In th e Yacht Club Argentina , a sunny day!

How bad is life on the sea?

The scary entrance of Mar del Plata !

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Mar del Plata

Dinsdag 15 december 2009, Mar del Plata, Argentina

Zondag 13 December 2009 12.00 uur vertrokken uit de Yacht Club Argentina (YCA)
in Buenos Aires met bestemming Puerto Madryn.
Dat ligt op een afstand van ca. 600 mijl .Omdat de wind vandaag volledig wegviel zijn wij de haven van Mar del Plata binnengelopen om 10.00 uur vanmorgen.
Het was prachtig zonnig maar helaas de weinige wind die er was kwam uit het zuiden.
Op onze tocht van 290 mijl hebben wij allerlei wind gehad en relatief veel gemoterd.
De nacht van zondag op maandag ging geweldig voor de wind onder vol tuig in de monding van de Rio de la Plata. Met snelheden boven de 10 knopen.
Die monding is wel 120 mijl breed!
Die afstand van 290 mijl hebben wij in 46 uren afgelegd!! In de eerste 24 uren 171 mijlen.
Maandagmiddag nam de wind zodanig toe dat wij alleen op de fok hebben gezeild en later met een grootzeil met drie reven erbij.
Vannacht was een prachtige heldere sterrenhemel
Tijdens mijn wachten en overdag heb ik het boek "De kathedraal van de zee"van Ildefonso Falcones uitgelezen en ben ik begonnen in het boek van Eerde Beulakker: "Reizen tot op het bot" Van beide boeken heb ik enorm genoten.
Ondertussen heb ik nu de boot van Piet aardig leren kennen. Hij heeft veel electronica aan boord en waar ik vooral aan moet wennen zijn de grote afmetingen. Het is een 44 voets boot met veel zeil. Hij zeilt fantastisch vooral ook omdat hij met een totaal gewicht van ca 10 ton relatief licht is in verhouding tot zijn lengte.
Gezien de gribfiles die wij hebben binnengehaald op de laptop gaan wij morgen zo vroeg mogelijk verder naar Puerto Madryn want later in de week gaat het hard waaien op onze route.