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.