Windhorse Sailing

With Steve gone, Francis and I carried on. After dropping Steve at the dock we picked up Luis Salinas, the mechanic. We loaded his tools in the dingy and set out to fix Shangri-La’s transmission. Luis had spent the last three years in Stamford, Connecticut working for a marine diesel outfit. It made him the perfect guy for us. He knew what he was doing and for my sake spoke enough English well enough that I could follow along. Included in all his tools that we brought out to the boat were six wood blocks. Punta Del Este had all the trapping of a modern city, but these looked primitive with regard to my transmission. Luis soon proved with these blocks that we could not have fixed this problem at sea. With our help, he disconnected the prop shaft on one side of the transmission and the engine block on the other. With a crowbar as a lever we raised the engine block enough to slide out the transmission and put the wood block underneath to hold the engine in place. Placing the engine in such an unstable position could not have been done at sea.

Now that we had the transmission out we could open it completely to get at the problem. Francis and I asked if he minded us watching him work, as we were keen to learn. Just as keen to teach, Luis invited us to his workshop where he had all the gear necessary for the job. His workshop turned out to be his home. A home for which his work in the U.S. made possible It had a large front lot full of neighbor’s vehicles he was in the process of fixing. In the corner of the lot was a stone and brick barbeque with a fire going on which a Flintstone rack of ribs was simmering. It looked to be a great set up and we didn’t realize it yet, but it was for us.

Mauro, Luis’s 15-year-old son came out to learn with us. Luis had been teaching him the trade since they arrived back in town from the U.S. four months earlier. He was more excited to speak English with us than to help decipher the problem with out transmission. Mauro made us each a gourd of Yurba Mate, the local tea. Everyone in Uruguay walks around with a shoulder bag holding yurba mate and a thermos. I had read about it, but until Mauro showed us, didn’t quite understand. He showed us the art of filling the gourd with the right mixture of hot water and Mate. How to pack the tea against one side of the round container and pour the water on the other side leaving the top of the pile of crushed tea leaves dry to absorb the moisture from below. Traditions aside, it was super caffeinated drink that left me “jacked” all day.

As I drank the mate (ma’ tay) we got to work on the trannie. Luis inserted a small magnet that picked up metal shavings, not a good sign. We removed 12 bolts to get in and found that the shavings came from a washer that had worn away. That tiny washer allowed enough excess room for the forward clutch to push away the gear rather than engage it. That washer left us at sea for what I would estimate was two extra weeks. The cause was apparently poor transmission fluid. It also hadn’t been changed in a while when I took over the maintenance. Having found our problem Francis and I sat down to a meal of beef ribs with Luis and his wife Marianna - overall, a very great day.

Luis and Marrianna told us about their time in the states and how much they loved it. It was good to be home, but they would never forget the kindness of the families they met in Connecticut. Francis and I became the beneficiaries of that genuine gratitude. They invited us to their daughter’s high school graduation party the following Saturday where the rest of the cow from which we had our lunch, would be served to classmates and friends. I accepted the kind invitation. I thought that since Francis is 20 years old, he would enjoy the crowd and I would be lying if I didn’t admit I almost burst out “I gotta see this.”

So far Punta Del Este had been a real homecoming. People loved our story and took us in as their own. The next day Luis returned to Shangri-La and we all reinstalled the transmission in less than an hour and dropped the mooring for a flawless test run around the bay. We said goodbye to our guide Mario and settled things with Luis. We would move Shangri-la up river to Montevideo and return to Luis’s town of Maldonado for the party on Saturday.