Sailing on Velvet Lady

We spent one more night at anchor in Playa Hermosa , another beautiful bay, before the forecast and clouds reminded us that it was time to head into the marina. We have been in Puerto Piriapolis over a week now and are just getting to know the place. The marina is well protected from most wind directions. We are stern to a good solid wall and the bow is secured to 2 buoys.  There are no ladders on the quayside, so our first chore was to walk up to a hardware shop and buy one, then lash it to the wall. To go ashore is nice and easy now, we launch the dinghy and pull ourselves to the ladder.  Now it is easy to get ashore we have been for a walk every day. It's a beautiful place. The marina surroundings are very green and the town is just a short, flat, walk away with everything we need. There is also plenty of countryside around to explore on our bikes. The most random thing is the chairlift, which goes from just ...

So we've been in Punta del Este 2 weeks now. Its a beautiful place in the sun but not so great in the wind and the rain. We get on and off the boat with the dinghy which is occasionally tricky in waves! The tidal range is only 0.2m but sometimes the wind direction can alter the tide by up to a metre. A whole new learning curve for us. We've been making great use of the shore hose cleaning salt off everything, on deck and below and of course been out and about exploring the town. Its light in the evening until 8 pm now so we sit on deck and people watch. Lots of activity on Oosterschelde as they get ready to head off on their next trip south. For us it will soon be time to explore more of Uruguay. Have a read https://velvetlady.wordpress.com/2023/11/27/punta-del-este-uruguay/ #sailingvelvetlady #sailinginuruguay #lifeonboard #PuntadelEste #oosterschelde #cruisingcouple

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. ...