Teamwork saved us once again!
Joy Sailors!!
The weather rules, this is impressive, it is a joy that this is one of the few things we can not control and in turn seems the answer to our aggressiveness against the planet.
We set sail from Ushuaia on the morning of the 10th, with a new group of crew and adventure and nature enthusiasts, no less than 16.
Not without first overcoming from the fixed crew of Alegría Marineros and some of you, a big problem at the last minute, I tell you …
The gearbox
On the 7th in the morning we set out to dock at the pier of Afasyn one of the two yacht clubs in Ushuaia, Afasyn and El Náutico, we are now in the Nautical has more normal prices … but the Afasyn has some more services, such as hose for diesel.
Well, entering the dock the reducer broke and the boat was without propulsion, even Nicholas could not avoid a small collision with a sailboat that we had in the bow. We caused little damage and they are already doing the repairs, on the way back they will pass me the consequent bill, they are things of sailing, nothing ever happened for not doing anything …
What a face that we were left with when we saw that the reducer did not work and the crew arrived the next day …
Imagine the situation, 14 people full of enthusiasm to sail to Antarctica and us with a breakdown in the southernmost city in the world …
We decided to tow the boat to El Club Náutico and once well moored, we began to disassemble the reducer. Nicholas and Leo dedicated themselves to dismantling and I to look for alternatives and information. The first thing that is done in these cases is to call Centramar, Javier, they are in Madrid and they know everything. In addition to solving it, he is my guardian angel… All sailors should have this contact in their agenda…
He pointed out the most frequent failures of this ZF brand inverter. There were 3 alternatives, the hydraulic pump, a filter gasket or the dumper.
The Dumper
Nico and Leo dismantled the reducer and the worn dumper without teeth appeared… the fault is already located, the same 7 at night, now it was time to find the spare part, in Ushuaia there is not, in Spain Centramar has it but importing to Argentina is expensive and slow. We looked in Buenos Aires and Paula Caviccia got us the distributor, Roberto Bettiga, he had 3 models at prices… Imagine but sailing is like that… Even so I bought 2 dumper for the next occasion that will be in a few years, I hope, it only remained to bring it to Ushuaia and this region has customs with respect to Argentina. We had to find a way to do it quickly and there came one of you, Francisco Gullo a follower friend who offered to cross Buenos Aires and take the spare parts to an express parcel agency of Aerolineas Argentinas …
The next day in the morning the piece was already on the boat, the same team, Leo and Nico mounted the inverter, it weighs about 80 kilos, and at lunchtime it was already tested and working, how wonderful! This is a good teamwork, it is very nice what we are all achieving together, the crew of Alegría Marineros and all of you who are there behind … or rather in front…
I never thought that what is happening could happen, realize dreams with all of you…
Thank you very much for being there!
The Weather
I keep counting, the 9 already ready, this breakdown without having contacts and this equipment would normally be 15 days until it is solved, as very fast …
On the 9th we gave the crew this great news, we gave the corresponding talks, safety, coexistence, and environmental responsibility in Antarctica, review of the weather and time to sail …
At last we set sail on the 10th, we sailed to Martillo Island to wait for the right weather and sail to Antarctica, I want to tell you that things are not very easy, that I am writing to you from an anchorage where we have had a gust of 78 knots of wind and that the wind lifts the water as if it were dust …
