Last night dinner with my new friends was very informative as well as being
very enjoyable, it was aboard SY Fernande owned by Pascal Grinberg, a 15 year
veteran of the extreme south. Regrettably I was suffering from single-hander’s
disease, after only 15 days of solitude and first night in I talked my head off.
My hosts were very kind and tolerant. Nonetheless in between gasps for breath I
learned quite a lot from Pascal. I shall be absorbing his comments for the next
several days and bearing them in mind as I continue my research and planning for
the coming months.
I visited Juan’s and Sarah’s boat today, a wonderful aluminium boat also set
up extremely well for high latitude sailing. It is very interesting looking at
the various boats down this way. I have a lot to learn. Juan and Sarah will be
crewing for Pascal this Austral summer, their destination Antarctica. They will
be leaving on the 15th. It is reassuring to know that Sylph, BC and I
won’t be too far behind such an experienced sailor.
I pulled the damaged jib out of the bag this afternoon and spread it out on a
nearby lawn for a closer inspection, how depressing. After such short service I
am not quite but very close to writing it off. I am preparing a letter to the
company that provided me with the sail, I will wait and see what response I get
from them before I allow my anger further _expression_.
I reconnoitered Piriapolis today, in particular the hardware stores. There is
quite a number of them so I have a feel for what work I can accomplish while I
am here. Trying to resolve my computer issues, this Toshiba now seems to be
behaving itself but as mentioned is a power hungry beast. I explored the option
of an external keyboard for the new net book but the keyboards available here
are missing a vital function key. At least I have pretty much confirmed it is a
hardware problem. While my problems are frustrating the friendly helpfulness of
the people here cannot but leave one with a positive feeling at the end of the
day.
As I walked up the dock this morning I noticed a very strong fishy smell,
looking around I soon discovered the source, a very large lion seal has taken up
residence on the end of one of the piers. When I returned later in the day it
was still there and providing a great deal of delight to the local children.
Happy laughing children can cure anyone’s blues, even mine.
All is well.
Bob Cat:
Quiet day. Lion seals smell like something I’d be tempted to eat, alas the
scale is all wrong. What to do? I know . . . . Zzzzzz.
