Visit to San Fernando

I had a terrific day visiting San Fernando and seeing Martin Costa of North Sails and Daniel Martinez at his rigging business.

But first, a few words on Brenda's situation.  Brenda's flight from Sydney to Auckland was delayed at first for four hours, then for a full day due to mechanical problem.  I spoke with her this morning and the airline had put her into a superb hotel room with panoramic views of the city.  She wasn't able to give me her new ETA but was certain that she would not be arriving in BA on this day, so I decided to use my time wisely and make the trip to San Fernando.

I then telephoned Stephen in Perth   Stephen had sent me messages on Brenda's delay by two emails and one message to the hotel.  I received all three messages but I stuffed up my acknowledgements to him which wound up in my email "draft" box. The telephone call was good because I was able to confirm to him that all of his messages had gotten through and it gave me a chance to thank him for handling things so well.  ... He had even set up a system whereby I could Skype Brenda's phone via Estonia of all places, and that worked like a charm.  It's great to have a TechnoGuru in the fold.

The Skype calls reflect the first smart thing that I did today.  Instead of purchasing Internet time for an hour at a time I purchased an entire day (only 32 pesos) so that I didn't have to feel restrained by worry that my Internet access time would run out.

The second smart thing that I did was to telephone Martin of North Sails.  I told Martin that I was in BA and hoped to visit him today.  Martin then gave me a very detailed and lucid set of instructions on how to find him.  This re-enforced the instructions that Pato had given to me.  It involved (1) Finding the Retiro train station in BA, (2) Purchasing a ticket to Olivos, (3) At Olivos finding the train station of the Tren De La Costa, (4) Purchasing a ticket to Marina Nueva, (5) Walking to find North Sails on Del Arca street.  The third smart thing that I did was to invest 45 minutes into researching my itinerary on the Internet, rather than following my impulse to rush off to get to San Fernando as soon as possible. 

I found the Retiro train station, only a few blocks away from the hotel, and purchased the ticket for Olivos for less than 10 pesos.  Alfredo had told me that my Spanish pronunciation was "perfect", which may be true for  certain phrases, but the girl at the ticket counter knew different and replied to me in English, which I appreciated.   Olivos was about 6 stations down and with help "Por favor, donde esta la estacion de el Tren De La Costa?" I found my way to the train station and found the Tren De La Costa to be the modern and comfortable electrified train through some of the most genteel suburban towns of Buenos Aires, as had been described to me. 

I did a Google search which reported Buenos Aires proper to have a population of 12.8 million people (in 2010), but I was told today that the population is 20 million, which must refer to the megapolis of "greater Buenos Aires", and almost equals the population of Australia.  It is the second largest city in South America, after Sao Paulo Brazil.   An article descirbes it thus: "Buenos Aires is considered an Alpha World City as listed by the Loughborough University group’s (GaWC) 2008 inventory. People from Buenos Aires are referred to as porteños (people of the port). Buenos Aires is a top tourist destination, and is known for its European style architecture and rich cultural life."  People have also described it as the "Paris of South America" for its rich cultural life, particularly in the fine arts.

I feared the encounter with the hustle and bustle of such a large city, but after my train ride I came to realize that Buenos Aires, like all large cities, is composed of a central district surrounded by many, well, small towns.  When I got off the train station at Olivos I found myself in a pleasant, leafy, slow-paced town that had an "neighborhood" feel in which I could live in comfortably.  The problem of Buenos Aires, of course, is having to commute in order to earn a living, the bane of all large cities. But for anyone fortunate enough to not be forced to battle the traffic or train crowds in order to commute to work, life in the "exurbs" would be as good as that of Seattle, San Francisco, or dear-to-my-heart Perth.

From the Olivos station I followed the instructions of crossing the tracks, then I had a choice of going left or right.  "Left" felt right and it turned out to be the right choice.  A block away I stumbled onto Del Arca street and soon found North Sails.

Meeting Martin Costa of North Sails was a very good thing.  Our "chemistry" was very good and we got along very well.  I really liked the guy.  Martin explained that his bank had changed its SWIFT number about a year previously yet he found it to still be working OK and gave it to me.  (Bad choice, Martin, my good friend.)  The second SWIFT number that he sent to me was the new one and it apparently worked OK.  (Neither Martin nor my bank have confirmed this.)  Nevertheless, work on my sail has begun because Martin could see that I had attempted to make the funds transfer properly (and in fact he is sure that he has my funds).

Martin took me through a detailed tour of the North Sails facility and it is an impressive operation.  The sail loft is very modern and seems to be staffed with plenty of people who seem to know what they are doing.  They have two numerically controlled (i.e. computer controlled) cutters.  The older one is "manual", which seems to use a blade, with a wheel to hold the fabric down.  The newer one is a laser cutter which uses vacuum to hold the fabric down.  I was able to see the laser cutter in action.  First it mark the cuts on the material. This presumably allows the operator to inspect the plan.  Then the cutting is done with a laser at amazing speed, sealing the material as it cuts.  I felt part of  the cut and it was ... exquisite.

After a comprehensive demonstration of their manufacturing process we had a very useful (to me) discussion of the care and maintenance of sails.  To begin with, North Sails would not have recommended a laminated sail for cruising, even though it would have meant more profit for them.  Laminated sails may be stronger initially, but unless special care is taken of them, they will have a shorter life than ordinary Dacron sails. This confirmed what I had learned the hard way.

I learned a lot about the maintenance of sails.  If a boat is not expected to be used for a month or more, its sails should be dropped and stowed away.  Otherwise they are subject to the onslaught of the UV rays (OK, somewhat mitigated by the UV cover of the sails), and the fungus growth from moisture percolating through the rolled up sail.  I told Martin that I had never seen any visible evidence of fungus but he assured me that it happens.  The message was: if I expect the boat to lay unused for more than a few weeks, drop and stow the sails.  I told Martin that I learned to sail on my own starting at age 42 and did what others did, and everyone else seems to leave their sails up all of the time. Yes They Do, he replied, but it is to the detriment of the sails.  I then asked if it was OK to stow a sail dried but encrusted with salt.  As expected he suggested that any sail to be dropped first be rinsed with fresh water, then dried before stowing.

I was then ready to walk to Daniel the Rigger but Martin insisted on driving me.

Martin was terrific. He  showed me literally every piece that they would use on my rigging.  "No Chino?", I teased him, and he bristled at the thought. It will all be name brand equipment out of the USA or UK.  The wire will be 316 grade s/s out of the USA.  We had detailed discussions about the rigging and now  he has a better picture of what is required.  He can change  the 8mm top shroud wire to 10 mm, but I must climb to the top of the mast (gulp!) and establish the diameter of the rigging pin at the top of the forestay.

I then told Daniel that for a money transfer to his USA account I would need a street address of his USA bank.  He didn't have that so he gave me the details of his Swiss bank account, which includes its street address.  This night I will be transferring $5,000 of my hard earned dollars to that Swiss bank account.

Daniel then drove me to Baron, a large chandlery with the look and feel of West Marine in the USA. Unfortunately I found the prices shocking.  10 mm Spectra rope cost 39 pesos, or  more than $8.50 per meter.  The 20 meters that I wanted for my roller furler would have cost $173.  I decided to make do with my existing line, which I'll reverse end-for-end.  I was too shocked to check the price of their LED lights.  Also, to my surprise they had no cruising guide for Brazil.  I told the girl "But why?  Brazil is next door."  She replied that Brazil is a long way away. "Long?  La Paz Mexico is a long way away.  Brazil shares a border with Argentina." was my retort.  Very disappointing.

I then reversed my  journey and returned to BA.  At the Olivos station there was no ticket agent so I climbed on at Oliovos to the train to BA, expecting someone to come around and take my money.  That was fine until we got to Retiro station at Buenos Aires.  At that point I realized that a ticket was required to get through the turnstile.  A lot of the young people were either ducking under the turnstile or jumping over it.  I thought   Screw It, I am tired, can't be bothered with finding out how to retro-pay the ticket."  At age 68, with a liter of 80-proof  bourbon and 750 ml Merlot that I had in my back pack and the netbook hanging off my shoulder, I thought, "I'll jump the turnstile like an Argentio delinquent."  I jumped  the turnstile, saw an official watching, and kept going with a scowl on my face.

Back at the hotel I poured myself a drink and settled in for the night, with the thought that the new headsail and rigging projects were in good hands, and I could expect the best.