Today is the September Equinox marking the first day of spring here in Brazil. Only 3 months until the start of summer, when we want to be heading into the deep south. Deliberately we haven't moved very much in the last month. It's 2 years since we left UK and time to both give Velvet Lady a good dose of TLC and continue our preparations for sailing in Argentina and Chile. We have spent the past 2 months scouring chandleries for bits we might need. We already have most things to pass the Argentinian safety check - we just needed a fire axe which we bought in Buenos Aires. In Parity we bought 120m long floating mooring lines and fuel containers, but we haven't been able to find 12 strand dyneema or netting. Preparing for Chile we made some really big upgrades. Before leaving UK we installed a new heater and a new watermaker. It is disappointing that these are the things that have given us most trouble. Despite making sure we bought 'internation...
365 days, 7000nm, 3 continents, 5 countries, 3 gales. We are Lin and Richard sailing on our 1986 Oyster 55 Velvet Lady. For those of you who don’t know us, this is not our first long trip, or even our longest trip. We’ve been making long trips in the northern hemisphere for the last 20 years. It is however our longest trip, just us, no charter guests and for Richard his first time across the equator. We left Mayflower Marina, Plymouth on 20 th September 2022, the day after the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was somehow disrespectful to set off on our dream trip the same day that Her Majesty was buried. We had been in the UK 3 months. Closing our Adventure Sailing business, emptying our lock up, working on getting the boat ready with the new equipment for South America and visiting family to tell them of our plans. Like many sailing trips – we were behind the schedule that we set for ourselves. ...
After 15 days and 1250nm we are back in Brazil. This is the story. Piriapolis 29 May 2024 It was dark and cold this morning when the alarm went at 6.45. Even just a little bit hazy. The sun was rising at 7.40 and by 8 we had lines off the dock and were leaving Piriapolis. We are heading out into a huge high pressure keeping the lows away. We know we will have to motor at first but hope it will give us time to make some northing before the next set of northerly wind comes. Once around the headland at Punta del Este we expect the sea to be a little bumpy at first but expect it to gradually ease. Mid ocean its reported to be 7m ! This first stretch from Piriapolis to Punta is flat so we take advantage and have bacon butties to take us on our way. We passed quite a few fur seals. They are really funny the way they move with their flippers in the air. They looked like they were either waving goodbye or trying to hitch a ride. ...
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