Friday, March 25, 2016 at sea, Patagonia, Argentia

  
It’s 2:30 in the afternoon, we’ve just had lunch, Barnaby is snoozing away, and I’m watching the black-browed albatross soar along as our ship sails up the coast toward Brazil. We’re so happy to finally be ensconced in our cozy room and cruising after three days of airports and long flights. 
Last night, our captain announced that one of the ship’s main engines (there are two) is not running (apparently they can’t get it started), so we’re going along at around 9 knots — half the speed we need to maintain our schedule. At this rate, it will take us 9 days to get to Rio. While our captain seems in good spirits, I’m sure he’s very stressed. His crew is working around the clock trying to fix the problem. All of my shipmates seem content, we did just arrive, and we have all signed on for a long ocean voyage. There are terrific naturalists and scholars on board that are lecturing about the ocean, wildlife and history of the area — so there’s no shortage of activities. But this will surely affect our trip, and the longer it’s not repaired, well, we’ll just have to wait and see how it unfolds. I’m glad the weather is gorgeous and we’re not trying to outrun one of those terrible storms this area is so famous for.
We learned today that the Brazilian’s call a glass of beer: “A loura suada” — the sweaty blonde. (That may be what they call me when we arrive. Ha!) I wish my friend Trudy were along, she would really enjoy sharing stories with our Brazilian naturalists. One of them spent many years in Northern Brazil documenting folklore. He said he also spent a lot of time at the beach — studying. I’ll bet!!!