RIO DE JANEIRO

So we made it. Sorry about the silence but the internet here is very "iffy".

About 30 minutes after posting my last blog, we were all sitting counting the miles and hours to go, knowing we would be able to pass Myrtle if we could maintain the speed we were doing under the spinnaker, then there was this "BANG" like a shot going off............. we blew our Spinnaker!!!!!!!!! Within about a second and with no change to the wind speed or any warning our spinnaker (genniker: the big kite like sail we had been using most of the way) blew out. It ripped about a meter up from the tack and right across the corner. :( So our race was over. We quickly snuffed the sail and pulled the main up and the genoa out and kept going but our speed was down about 3 knots. :( 

Well we enjoyed the race and the cruise and had a ball and are then second anyway lol :) 

As we reached Cabo Frio we turned on our engines. It took another 6 ours for us to get to the finish line. Its a long long way :). 

Rio is awesome from the sea at night. The "follow me" boat met us an the line and led the way to our swing mooring at the yacht club. On reaching there at 0400 hrs we cracked a 5 year old bottle of KWV Brandy and drinking it straight up we had killed it by 0600hrs. At about 0800hrs we caught the "cockarocko" (sea-taxi runs 24 hours for the yachts) over to the club to get signed into Brazil. That took a good 4 hours and in the meantime Rob and Kevin sampled the Rio beer. We were soon to join them and stuck there till about 1500hrs when we poured over to the boat for a sleep. By 1800 we were up showered and ready to hit the club to check our opinion on their beer. lol. Well it was a long trip :) 

I have never been a beer drinker but due to extreme language disabilities one takes whatever one gets so we drink beer or caparinhas. :) 

Caparinha night was last night. We caught the bus to Copacabana beach and walked along sampling the different stalls Caparinhas. Once we decided on a stall for dinner, it had a guy playing music and singing in english, we settled to watch the beach volley football and relax. It was actually quite funny as although the guy was singing in English, reading the words, it soon became obvious he had no idea what they meant :) Dinner was hilarious, we went through all the waiters in the place trying to find one that understood us. After many tries we ended up pointing to things on the menu until he nodded and we all had that. It turned out our first dinner in Brazil was a cheese burger. hahahaha. 

Today was boat wash and scrub day then back to the club for beer lunch, phew life is tough in Brazil. Tonight there is a local restaurant that is known as the place to eat meat, as much as you like for a fixed price of R$30.00. It is going to be amusing to see what we end up with. 

More on that soon.

Thanks to all for the messages, emails, love and good wishes.

the rat CATchers