Alongside Mar Del Plata, Argentina.

Monday at last, holidays are over so hopefully we can get things into gear and get out of here (nothing against Mar Del Plata but there is grass growing on Sylph’s waterline).

Some good news today. It looks like I have found a company to ship the blown out headsail back to the sail broker in the US and with a little bit of luck we might be able to get a replacement mainsail made by the end of the month. That will be a relief as we will then be able to have it shipped down to Ushuaia which is still in Argentina and should therefore be a lot less hassle. And after there isn’t a lot of civilization until

Valparaiso - a bit of a long haul and a lot to ask of my rapidly deteriorating mainsail. Pato, the North Sails rep here in Mar Del Plata and the only sail maker has been extremely helpful.

Still waiting for my batten car parts, arrived from Australia in Buenos Aires on New Years Eve, I will start chasing those up tomorrow as well.

Weather when last I looked seems OK for a Thursday departure, so I am working towards that and will keep my fingers crossed.

Oh - and the colour has come good on the little netbook, still has some issues but at least I can read the screen without feeling like I have just popped some LSD.

All is well.

Bob Cat:

Some tuna for dinner tonight - and about time too. I have found that sitting quietly by my bowl, giving the odd whimper and looking up at the skipper with big sad eyes yields the best results. The hit rate still is a lot lower than I would like and I am working on other strategies a little more in keeping with my natural feline dignity. While looking sad and doleful is not my natural temperament and it is all I can do not to give a good old honest caterwaul, which I just have to let out occasionally anyway, things are desperate and one has to do what ever it takes. Sitting quietly by my food bowl is hard work and requires an extraordinary exercise in patience, if it was mouse (especially by the name of Copernicus) I could wait all day, but a can of tuna is hardly in the same category. I really need to recoup my strength . . . Zzzzzzz.