Finally: we sail!

This will be brief, as my fingertips (what is left of them) are tender from the last week’s marathon sanding / scraping / scrubbing /solvents / laying / lugging session – all to get the boat done! (for the most part) and in the water! (all 40,000-some tons of her) and off to Buenos Aires (Hooray!)

The last few days in Piriapolis were wild, with an epic TBS (non-skid deck tread) measuring-cutting-laying-sticking project while Fiky’s guys finished polishing the hull and sprayed our gorgeous toe rail. We laid out the rolls of non-skid on the ground nearby and puzzled the pieces together to make the best use of the footage. We didn’t have time to affix it all to the deck before leaving for BA, so for now we walk on the port side of the boat: or ‘ice skate’ on the slick surface on starboard..

So finally, XPLORE was re-launched … and 24 hours later we were on our way to BA! She’s a spectacular boat, huge (67’), powerful, impressive. She sailed beautifully under just staysail and yankee and we arrived much ahead of schedule. The Rio de la Plata is murky – the color of chocolate milk – and shallow, so we kept an eye on the depth sounder (in some spots just 2m under the keel!) Skirting the shipping channel until the last minute, we also kept a lookout for the white lights signaling sunken ships and other hazards in the slender turbulent waters.

And then … Stephen let me drive her the last few miles into BA ;-) Approaching the harbor here, like so many other cities, it was a confusion of lights. Red – green – white – yellow … picking out the right lights for the narrow channel – and studying the horizon for ships shooting out. “See that dark blob in front of us?” Pascal announced. “It is a ship.” And a big one at that.

So finally we’ve left the dock – if just a quick overnight – and will pick up our mainsail and other parts, finish the TBS, reprovision, and set sail for Punta Arenas on Thursday (10/15). My battery is low and I AM IN BUENOS AIRES so I’m going offline now to go for a quick stroll through Puerto Madero and the nearby downtown area.

More soon & much love to you all ~ Betsy.

ABOVE: docked outside the posh Yacht Club Argentino ... we are too big for an inside spot, so enjoy our neighborhood of the fuel dock and ferries