Archive | December, 2012

I have never before spent vacations getting fiberglass on my hands, dust in my lungs and power tool noise in my ears.    But as horrid as it sounds, it was a blast.   The boat building process is much slower than our recent experiences in online shopping.   It does not come to your doorstep via fed-ex.   You can’t track its progress on line.   And its delivery is not expressed in days but seasons.

Taxi Ride from BA Airport

We are legally allowed to bring gear down as we are considered by Argentine import laws as a Yacht in transit.   The interpretation of this can be a bit random so we try not to walk around with a red flag saying “Mr Customs guy please come check us out”.     We played it low profile and traveled with 6 airplane-sized boxes and two large duffles.    This process was smoothed out by being upgraded to business class (thanks American Airlines).    On arrival to BA one box and one bag had gone MIA.   Turns out the check-in Lady in NY was distracted by her personal call and put another passenger’s bag tag on our duffle (NO thanks American Airlines).   Given a few days the two missing valises showed up in BA.   Funny post script was the other guy’s bag was going to LA.  The airline mistakenly brought his bag to our hotel and I was tempted to leave a note for the rightful owner inside his roller bag.  It would have been a photo of the roller bag sitting between two bikini-clad women poolside with the message from the bag to the owner “Tired of being dragged around.  Had to take a vacation.”.

We actually had a very busy week including a visit to the sailmaker.  Torkel is great and now the final details are sorted.    We bought a few things locally, such as a dingy anchor and a diesel fuel can.    We loaded our 6 boxes and 2 bags into the storage locker we share with hulls 42 and 45.    There are two very large factories that build the boats.  The first does the messy work with fiberglass. Our boat is still in this factory but will graduate to the finishing factory in the middle of February.  To make this move, the boat grabs a ride from a tractor trailer despite the trip being less than a kilometer.   But have you ever tried to move a 20,000 lb boat on a dinghy dolly?    So we spent lots of time in both factories, had a meeting with the builder to double-check the work order and went for a daysail on a recently splashed Antares (True North).   I have noticed something about the attitude at Antares.  They continue to work on making the boat better.   They do this with less fanfare than a auto manufacturer, but these little improvements hopefully result in a better built boat.   Owners of older hulls may be jealous.  For example the deck lights are now LED which reduces weight aloft and improves aesthetics.  Upgraded interior fans have sleep timers to save battery power. There are lots of little tweaks.   Now you can see why I thought the vacation was fun.

Hotel San Isidro Plaza

As a final note I strongly recommend our hotel.  It has a hip boutique feel and great staff.   It is a 40 minute walk to the factory or 10 minute cab ride.   The factory is in San Fernando and the hotel is in neighboring San Isidro.   San Isidro is a bit more fun if you are visiting for the first time.   For example there was a great restaurant Primum (25 de Mayo 272, San Isidro, AR.+54 11 4732-0870)  which is a short walk from the hotel, but keep in mind dinner starts at 9 pm.

Delta

Tigre was named after the Jaguars that were hunted in this region by the first Europeans. Tigre is a popular tourist spot and plays an important part in the local timber industry.   Tigre is also a gateway town to the Parana delta. This delta comprises 5,000 square miles and is where fresh water from two rivers meets the salty ocean water.   The brackish  water creates a diverse ecosystem.   We did the 2 hour tour, which meant we covered less than 1% of the delta.  The early bits are an Argentine version of the Floridian intercostal route.   On our next visit aboard Red Fish (the dinghy) we plan to go deep into the delta and see exotic wild life.

As you can see from the satellite map the region is very lush with water coursing through its veins.  It is not all water and shrubs: there is a school, water buses and other services to support the full time residents.   I really like wetlands and maybe someday I will buy a fanboat and move to the Bayou?  Need to learn Creole first.

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