10112011 Comodoro Rivadavia

                                  One for Mark                                                                             The Park

It’s a day of waterworks. The first problem though as this is a commercial dock the smallest pipe turns out to be a one inch with the power of the average firehose.

Trying to control the flow in order to fill the watertanks is an interesting exercise though by bending it and perserverance the job is done.

As for washing down, this is much more fun and I succeed in soaking all especially Peter whose on the scrubbing brush and for some strange reason, myself.

                               Bobs water works !     

The next event of the day is taking on more diesel. First we have to more further up the dock to where the fishing boats are tied up.

Here we face similar problems to the water system, as they are more geared up to big shipping and fishing boats that take on thousands of litres at a time..

                              Diesel                                                                 Water

Its all a bit of farce with the two guys and their ancient wagon, no pump or metering, gravity fed and a dip stick.

They finally manage to find enough hose to reach us and a suitable dimutive nozzle to fit our relatively small filler hole.

In the meantime having fixed the main water mixer tap and shower head that had come loose, the water maker pump was found to be leaking.

It now lies in bits in the cockpit, Thomas having gone off with parts various to try and find suitable replacements for repair

Fuelled up we return to our berth along side the coastguard and receive our first  visitors in the form of two coast guard officers from our neighbour

who are taken on tour giving Peter has a chance to practice his Spanish.

                                 Coast Guard visiting                                                           Our mooring

Later in the day we hand over the dinghy engine which is whisked away to be fixed, though ironically it starts first go and seems fine now!

Martello comes to visit, he works in the oil fields at the foot of the Andes and is a fellow sailor with a good knowledge of Ushaia.

The engine is returned, the cooling water inlet was blocked and we have more visitors, Mattias and his son who Lars and Thomas had first met in

Buenos Aires when his son was racing dinghies.

                                Mattias and son                                                                   Cranes

In the evening we go ashore in search of a Pizza restaurant and on our way back watch the dinky little cranes unloading a catch from one of fishing boats,

before climbing the near vertical boarding ladder on the Coast guard ship, crossing their helicopter landing pad, down another set of steps and crossing the gap to our yacht.

                         Big fender                                                           International crew

Bob the blog