SANTOS

SANTOS

 JUNE 11-17

We had planned to head to Sao Sabastio but had to re-route to Santos, the largest port in Brazil for container ships.  We needed to do repairs that were never done right in Piriapolis.  There appears to be an incredible shortage of competent repair people throughout South America.  The expected SW winds have not appeared and we are getting 35-40 knots from the East on a broad reach which means a rolling sea. For all you sailors, you know this is the worst.  I try to sleep and feel like I am riding a slo-motion electric bull in Texas.  A sleepless night ensues and a full day of rain.   Santos is a dangerous place.  So on our approach after midnight while Pati is asleep Marc sees a boat on radar which is heading right at us.  He does an avoidance maneuver but the bogie does not relent and continues to point directly at us.  Marc throttles up for all we are worth and the bogie just passes us and starts to follow us on our tail.  This does not give us a warm and fuzzy feeling but we are able to distance ourselves from this threat and we make our way into the harbor.   We arrive at “Iate Club Santos” @ midnight and pull into the first dock we find.  

MARINA LIFE

                   

After a much needed 9 hours of deep sleep Marc goes to shore to check in and finds an English Speaking Brazilian Sailor, Guilherme Kodja and he helps us begin the hunt for a mechanic to fix the bow thruster and wind generator.  Gui lines us up with a mechanic and invites us to join him and his brother, a dental surgeon for dinner.  He becomes our new best friend.  He was an attorney in the US for several years but decided that sailing was his passion.  He co-owns the company “Set Sail”, and is the rep. for Leopard Catamarans, and author of books on Marine life around this area.  He joins us for brunch the next morning on the boat to discuss possible diving sites and recommends marinas as we head north.    His son, 14 years old, is looking to spend a year or two in the states with friends in Belmont, Ma.

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SANTOS SUNRISE

BIRTHDAY WISHES

Gui expresses a desire to break away from the yachting business because of the downturn in the Brazilian economy.   Marc shares with Gui information about one of his ventures, VisionScope and Gui gets excited and voila they are now working on VisionScope Brazil.   Gui has arranged for Marc to be invited to present VisionScope @ a Brazilian Football (Soccer) Team Physcian’s conference in Florianapolis on July 18.  Ghia has also paved the way to have his company, SET SAIL, sponsor us for a slide show presentation of our Newfoundland/Labrador sail in 2002/2003 with comparative input from our Patagonia sailing journey around Chile in 2011/2012 in exchange for a week of what would be very expensive docking at the very upscale and terrifically located Rio de Janeiro Yacht Club.    

Authored by our friend Guilherme Kodja and a gift for us.

And as for wildlife, well Marc is still looking for thong hoppers (Brazilian bikini glad ladies with very thin bikinis) but because it is winter here they have not appeared.  But on our crossings from Port-to-Port we occasionally spot another “bird” specie, a few “Magellan” penguins who have migrated from the “Falklands”.  One of them swam right up to us as to say “howdy!”  When we were in the Falklands we had barely gotten there before all the nest were emptying to head north.  Mind you each species has different habitats---The Magellans dig tunnels and live underground,  the Gentoos build birds nests on the land and the Kings just hover around each other. We are also confronted with fishing boats of various sizes and line configurations as well as large container ships—makes for interesting sailing.

And last but not least we had the bow thruster fixed again and got the wind generator,  that was blown out in Patagonia with a 70 mph gust, operational.  

Tomorrow is Marc’s birthday, June 16.  How to celebrate?  I will feed him bodily with a massage and gastronomically with a special dinner, and a candle will top his apple pie that I saved and froze from Piriopolis.   He is all smiles. Marc’s vision was to sail as far south (Tierra del Fuego) as we did north (Battle Harbor, Labrador) ---mission accomplished.  And now it’s on to warmer weather and swimmable water!