Today we clean the boat, avoid sunburns, and eat lots of fresh veggies.

Buenos Aires materialized out of the mist at 10 pm last night under a beautiful crescent moon.

For a hundred miles preceding, the Rio de la Plata, which separates Argentina from Uruguay, had stained the sea brown with continental sediment. I can only assume this is from heavy spring rains inland, so that it felt like sailing on the Missouri River.

Thick water or thin mud, it’s hard to say.

It was incredible to be out of sight of land and yet only be in 20 feet of water. The charts were full of small X’s signifying shipwrecks — some we saw still had their masts 20 or 30 feet out of the water. After some trepidation we navigated our way through the maze of shipping lanes, dodging cargo freighters and super tankers in the dark into the inner port, where we were met by our liaison from the Puerto Madero Yacht Club where the Maggie B will be tied up for the next month (and will serve as my floating home) and were led through a narrow canal into the thumping heart of the city on Saturday night.

On our way in we were passed by two party boats full of dancers, the air filed with drunken Spanish and American rock n’ roll as the lights flashed red and green inside. Though exhausted, I was infected with the thin energy of arriving in a foreign exotic city late at night with over 3000 miles of ocean behind me.

Across the canal there is a strip of old brick warehouses fronting the water that have been transformed into trendy little restaurants and clubs, and that is where we were pointed by the captain of the yacht club, who said that even at 1 am, Buenos Aires would still be offering food and drink. Though Argentina is world famous for its steak, we found our way into a sushi bar where the exhaustion finally eeked out of us onto the white leather couches, replaced with some delicious sushi and vino blanco and topped off with a double chocolate ice cream cone.

Spirited back across the canal by our private watertaxi (seriously, the Yacht Club takes us too and fro at our whim in their handy little dinghy) we promptly collapsed into bed to the promise of a solid night’s sleep for the first time in a week. Dancing will have to wait until I exchange my rubbery sea legs for more solid earthbound ones.

Today we clean the boat, avoid sunburns, and eat lots of fresh veggies.

Location 34° 36S, 58° 22W
Tuesday 12.18.2007

The Schooner Maggie B remains safely tied up the the Puerto Madero Yacht Club at 34° 36S, 058° 22W. The YCPM isn’t really a yacht club, it is a floating function room (weddings, corporate meetings, etc.) with a small marina. The facilities are fine and the administration is eager and helpful, but there is no “Members Bar” where you can go and find fellow seafarers. I suspect that the YC Argentino is the place to be for that.

But in many ways Buenos Aires isn’t really a seafaring town. Yes, it is on a historic estuary, but there is about 100 NM of dirty brown 20 foot deep water before you get anything really like the open ocean. One clear sign is that even the biggest boat here in the marina has only perhaps a 30 pound Danforth anchor. Clearly they never go anywhere.

Buenos Aires is very cosmopolitan, very European. No indian faces anywhere, even in the tough parts of town. Yes, some gypsies from time to time, either ten year olds playing the accordion or a 12 year old with a baby in arms, but all the faces are Spanish, English or Italian.

This Puerto Madero area is the old, old dock yards. Built about 1890 but superseded by more modern cargo handling systems in 1930. It was left relatively abandoned from 1930 (a bad year) to ten years ago when the City and Federal governments got together and developed what is now the hottest area in BA. Our walkway to the boat isn’t illuminated by flood lights or the half full moon, it is the AON, ABN-AMRO and NORTEL signs. The restaurants are great and varied, but it is a bit unsettling to be only a week away from Cape Horn and have a TGIFridays, Bice and Hooters nearby. But, with help, we have found the Argentinean ones. There is really only one acceptable thing to order in restaurants, though, carne. I was in an Italian restaurant and ordered a Caprese salad, and a seafood risotto, with a nice bottle of Sauvignon blanc and the waiter and then the Captain, tried to talk me into a steak and a bottle of Malbec. What was I thinking?? Maybe two days of steak was all I could handle?

It is interesting to compare Chile and Argentina. Not fair, as Buenos Aires is the Washington and NY City of Argentina, where Puerto Montt is the ….. Newark/Jacksonville of Chile. But you get a sense. In Chile you saw signs of permanence and stability. It clearly was going to work out and get better gradually. In Argentina, it seems more fragile. Maybe it will work, maybe there will be the next crisis — tomorrow, next week or next year, but coming, for sure. Argentina is a “make hay while the sun shines,” Chile seems more…Lutheran.

NorthSails, Argentina is going to check out all our patches tomorrow and we need a diesel mechanic to slove Onan generator problems, but generally we are in good shape.

Hannah, Alden and Frank leave tomorrow for their homes for the holidays, Freddy left today. Curtis is going to stay with the boat and roam Argentina a bit. There probably won’t be a regular update until January 15th, when the crew for the next leg convenes. The next big challenge is where we should have the Maggie B for Carnival.

All is well.

Location 34° 36S, 58° 22W
Sunday 12.16.2007

The Schooner Maggie B docked safely in the Puerto Madero Yacht Club in the heart of Buenos Aires at midnight, December 15th. Our position is 34° 36S, 058° 22W. The arrival was very difficult. We are right in the heart of waterfront Buenos Aires. Now it is 1 AM and there are about ten restaurants within sight that are still serving. Perhaps we will find a steak and a glass (or two) of nice Argentinean wine. More stories tomorrow. We have come 1625 NM from Puerto Williams. It is a warm, dry spring night.

All is well.

Welcome to Curtis’ blog!

Chemist by schooling, builder by training, stubborn and somewhat irreverent by birth, I’ve been a forklift operator, concrete flatworker, printing factory grunt, lawn god (actual job description), DOE researcher, strawbale house builder, farmer, aspiring writer, commercial fisherman, and busboy.

Enjoy the posts!

Location 35° 12S, 56° 59W
Saturday 12.15.2007

At noon on December 15th, The Schooner Maggie B was at 35°12S, 56°59W. We are at the corner of Canal Punte Indio and Canal Intermedio, in the Rio Plata estuary, about 75 NM from Buenos Aires. The wind is from due south at 15 knots, and we are sailing with one reef in the main and our G2 Gennaker, “The Bird” up.

We have come 1540 NM from Puerto Williams.

The bay or estuary here has us all astounded. We have been sailing for a day, mostly outside of sight of land, in water between 20 and 50 feet. This is after being in the Chilean canals, where you can be in 500 feet of water 200 feet from land. There is a main ship channel that is dredged for the big boats all the way to….27 feet. The chart shows dozens and dozens of ship wrecks, most all with the name of the sunk ship. We go by the Astarso, Carumbe, Roco, Pingo, Calipso, Hierro Belgiano, Rio Santiago, Barcozo, and many, many more.

We are running later than I was hoping. We may not get into Buenos Aires until 11 PM or midnight. We are late for two reasons. One is I underestimated the current of the Rio Plata. Right now we have full flood with us, and the tide about balances the outgoing dark brown river current. When the tide was ebbing, we had about a knot and a half against us.

The more serious reason for being late is that we are now down to our fuel reserves, the 10 gallons in jerry cans. We are saving that until we get close, perhaps the last 30 NM (10 gallons = 40 liters = 60 NM at 6 knots). While we are sailing well, and we are sailors, after all, I had counted on motor sailing to hit the timing. I made the mistake of forgetting to write down the engine time when we refueled in Puerto Williams. I underestimated the distance we would end up covering from Puerto Williams, which will end up being 1600 NM. Then we used the engine a lot coming up the coast, more than we needed to, to help keep warm and to speed our arrival in BA. Finally, I didn’t take into account the use of diesel by the heater, which was low flow, but used 24 hours/day for a week. All in all, we ran the main tanks dry 125 NM from our destination. Thanks goodness we are a sailboat. Why don’t you have fuel gauges, you ask? We do, “Acu-gage Ultra-8″ – it says both fuel tanks are full.
I’m sure that my loving, faithful crew (especially Alden) will never, ever, let me forget this.

We are hoping that Buenos Aires is a “late” town.

All is well (really!).

Location 37° 45S, 56° 31W
Friday 12.14.2007

At noon on December 14th, the Schooner Maggie B was at 37° 45S, 56° 31W. We were under full sail, making 8.9 knots in a nice 20 knot southerly breeze. Buenos Aires is 187 NM away and we have come 1394 NM from Puerto Williams. The sky is a high overcast, but no rain as yet. We should arrive in Buenos Aires tomorrow afternoon. The computer says we will be at the Antipuerto Norte (northerly outer harbor) at 1423 on Saturday. We’ll see.

Last night when we were 25 NM off shore, we had thousands of dragonflies come aboard, perching everywhere. And lots of other bugs. Must have been a mating dance as all are gone or dead today. A flycatcher has been hanging out on our shrouds, probably having heard about our abundance.

We are now on a broad reach running up the Rio Plata estuary. Our entrance into this historic body of water was immeasurably improved by the accompaniment of a pod of False Killer Whales (Pseudorca crassidens). They average about 18 feet long and were a bit of a shock after much smaller dolphin. They played in our bow wave, wake and right alongside. Only the appearance of cameras on deck made them leave us….

As sailors making landfall after a long, successful voyage, we are getting ready in traditional ways: braiding hair – Curtis; shaving (?) – Alden; reading the history of the place – Freddie; studying the charts of the complicated channel – the Captain; and airing out the Little Black Dress – the Bosun.

All is well.

Location 39° 55S, 59° 25W
Thursday 12.13.2007

At noon on December 13th, the Schooner Maggie B was at 39° 55S, 59° 25W. We were motoring at 6 knots NE into a 15 knot NE’erly. A clear day, but with short chop that slows us down. We are all in “Delivery Boat” mode rather than “Perfect the trim of the jib to squeeze the last 1/100 of a knot out of the sails” mode.”

“We have come 1184 from Puerto Williams, we have 321 NM to go to Buenos Aires, as the crow flies, but we still have to get around the headland that makes the south shore of the Rio Plata estuary. We are as sheltered as we can reasonably be from the Northerly, but there aren’t a lot of tactics you can do when your course is 035 and the wind is from 035. Once past Mar del Playa we will gradually turn north, then northwest up the historic estuary.

We are waiting for the next system to go through, which won’t be until about dawn tomorrow. It will bring in the SW’erly, which will power us along. As of this writing (2000), our target speed to make Buenos Aires by 6 PM on Saturday is 7.6 knots. Certainly that is something the Maggie B can do. But currently with full cruising RPM, we are making 5.7 knots into the wind and waves.

During the afternoon, we were about 100 NM off the coastline. To my annoyance, a serious number of house flies somehow made it out to the boat, presumably helped by the wind. Then a very special visitor arrived! A lovely yellow/green parakeet with blue cheek patches flew into the Crew Mess, reported for duty and promptly fell asleep, perched on the Watch schedule. After a nap, it indulged in a snack (sesame seeds), some water, sat on Hannah and Curtis’s fingers, checked out its assigned bunk (a straw basket with paper towel strips for bedding), and promptly deserted for a more stabile perch. It must be mating season. We hope it brings back a mate.

More news tomorrow on our race to make Buenos Aires Saturday Night!

All is well.

Location 42° 35S, 61° 01W
Wednesday 12.12.2007

At noon on December 12th, the Schooner Maggie B was at 42° 35S, 61° 01W. We were motorsailing at seven knots more or less due north, still making for the coast of Argentina between Bahia Blanca and Mar del Playa. The weather is clear and sunny and the sea is mostly calm, at least calm for Blue Water. We are now in the lee of the Argentinean coast, which is only 150 NM away to our West, so rollers don’t have a chance to make up.

We have come 996 NM from Puerto Williams and have 495 to go to Buenos Aires.

We are expecting a fresh northerly to start about midnight tonight and our course should both give us some protection from the build up of the seas as well as having “banked” a lot of Westing that we can give up as we run along the coast towards Mar del Playa (38S/57deg30W). If we time it right, about when we get to Mar del Playa (the “corner”), at dawn on the 14th, the wind will shift to a strong SW’erly which will blow us up the Plata to Buenos Aires. We’ll see.

The waters here must be very rich. Where before we would generally see only a few albatross, here there hundreds. The fishing boats are out (draggers) and we have seen two pods of Southern Right Whales. We had a line out to catch fish for dinner, but had to pull it in as it was attracting albatross.

All is well.

Location 45° 22S, 62° 20W
Tuesday 12.11.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 45° 22S, 62° 20W at noon on December 11th. We were making nine knots headed about due north, with one reef in the main, full fore and jib. After a night of a 20 knot NW’erly, we are basking (literally) in a 20 knot sunny Westerly.

We have come 813 NM from Puerto Williams and have 672 NM to go to Buenos Aires. We are angling in to close the Argentinean coast where it runs East and West between Bahia Blanca and Mar del Playa because we are expecting a stiff North to NW’erly on the 13th, so we will have some protection and some “westing” to give up.

Our beloved Jorge, the Furuno autopilot that has guided us most all the way for the last 28,000 NM, has given up the ghost and gone senile, or at least it is now refusing to talk to the rudder motor. Furuno advises it most probably a blown circuit board in their control unit and will have us a new one directly, though obviously not before we make Buenos Aires. So we have to hand steer, not a hardship with five skilled helmsmen (helmspersons) on board. We are doing two hour shifts during the day and one hour at night. Last night Freddie was able to find the “sweet spot” when we were close hauled and the Maggie B sailed herself. I didn’t have to touch the wheel for all of my two hour shift, as she balanced between jib and main. The main was left just a little free and the jib a little tight: if she pointed up, pressure would come off the main, and the jib would press down; if she went off, the force of the main would increase and push the stern back up. With the helm set just right, she would slowly hunt up and down five degrees, always finding her way back.

The weather is startlingly different from just a few days ago. Today was the first time I’ve stood a watch without full foul weather gear in a month. We are searching to find our suntan lotion. Wool hats are exchanged for ball caps. But the Wandering Albatrosses are still with us as are the fun show of Peales Dolphins.

We still anticipate making Buenos Aires sometime on Saturday, 15 December, depending on how we get treated by this next system.

All is well.

Location 48° 38S, 63° 18W
Monday 12.10.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 48° 38S, 63° 18W at noon on December 10th. We are headed about due North true, reaching up along 63 degrees West Longitude. Right now we are making 10.5 knots, including a knot of favorable current (the Falklands current). In the last 24 hours we did 204 NM. The wind is a nice 25 knot SW’er and the seas are only 2-3 meters. The Maggie B loves this kind of weather – we are often going hull speed (10.2 knots) and below decks it is comfortable for me typing at the keyboard, Curtis watching a movie on the other computer and Alden and Hannah napping. We have the main up with one reef, full fore and full jib. The centerboard gives off a happy hum when we are going more than nine knots, and we are hearing it almost constantly.

We have come 612 NM from Puerto Williams and we have 872 to go to Buenos Aires. A betting pool has formed on our arrival time in Buenos Aires. Current guessing is between noon on the 14th and end-of-day on the 15th. The unpredictable part is there is a small northerly promised around the 13th, which may slow us. We are holding a bit more towards the Coast of Argentina than direct to give the seas less room to develop and to “bank” some westing that we could give up if faced with the NW’erly.

Our port diesel fuel tank has been giving us fits, acting like it is out of fuel when plenty is left. We had blown out the fuel vent, but discovered yesterday that the one-way valve that was just supposed to stop water coming in, also was stopping air from coming in. After an hour or so of running, a sufficient vacuum developed to reduce the fuel flow. Always new riddles!

All is well.