16–23 March 2014: The first week in South America – Port to Puerto Madryn

Land ahoy matey!  6,906 nautical miles sailed and we finally arrived at large to Uruguay’s capital Montevideo.  Despite both of our bikes being subjected to a little petty theft whilst in Paranagua and Zarate from external dock staff, primarily coming onto the boat to discharge cargo, we were still brimming with that just-rolled-off-the-ferry feeling. Aside […]

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25 Feb–13 Mar 2014 – Life on a cargo ship (Part 2): Ahoy! Land is in sight…

Eight days in, we dropped anchor to spend the afternoon in Dakar.  The crew instructed us to be back by 20:00 sharp having released us at 15:00.  Past our curfew and the ship would set sail, no questions asked, or search party mounted by the sounds of it.  A local, John, who looked streetwise was […]

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17–25 February 2014: ‘Roll, roll, roll your boat, gently down the stream..’

In our case, stream translates to the Atlantic ocean and by boat, we’re talking about a 200+ metre long, 30 metre wide freighter weighing in at just shy of 45,000 tons, with all her cargo.  Her engine reached around 25,000 bhp compared to say Pearl, my bike, which has 48 bhp.  Meet our magnificent vessel […]

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