Rio Baby!

End of Leg 1: Rio de Janeiro

We finally made it into Rio with a warm and welcoming reception!  We made it to the soon to be Olympic Marina de Gloria around 0800 and were welcomed with a cheering applause from friends who made the trip out and the other boats that arrived before us.  Even more spectacular, we were greeted with an ice box of cold beer and champagne from Ana's family for a toast!  We all cheered and then broke out into a sea chante of "Early in the Morning" led by a very excited Susie who was happy to finally be on dry land!  I didn't see any of the boats arriving before us, but pretty sure we were the most enthusiastic boat on arrival!

Arrival into Rio

Once the celebrations were over it was straight to maintenance work on the boat, which took most of the day and then the deep clean began...the dreaded deep clean!  At least the people working in the office didn't think we were the worst smelling boat that docked?  We finished the day around 8 pm.  By then everyone was exhausted and desperately in need of showers and drinks! 

However, what we found out throughout the course of the day is that our accommodations were a complete sham and we were not sure we had anywhere to stay for the night!  One of the oncoming leg 2 crew who had arrived the day before and staying in the apartments we booked was shocked to find the place not up to standards...as in no lock on the door, no running water, layer of filth on the floor and cockroaches!  It was too late to find other accommodations for the night so she had to tough it out, barricaded the door and slept with her diving knife in hand!  So after hearing this dreadful story that poor Amanda had to suffer through, we were all hesitant about the accommodations that were booked.  We sent out a few of the crew to meet up with the agent to check out all the apartments.  Luckily for us but not Amanda, they took her to the wrong place and all the apartments were actually in decent condition!  So finally by the time we were ready to head off the boat, we had a place to get to.

Marina de Gloria is next to a park which you can trek through to get to a main road to get taxis.  The taxi pickup at the Marina is over an hour wait to get a taxi there, so we made the decision as a group to truck it through the park where various muggings occur with all of our heavy ass luggage!  Luckily no one attempted to rob the fifteen of us making our way through the park but I heard one of the skippers had an attempted mugging at some point during the stopover but instead of giving him anything, he just pulled out his diving knife and scared the mugger away!  These diving knives really come in handy, I need to start carrying mine around more often!

So we finally make it back to our apartment, which was massive!  There were five of us staying in the apartment I was in, Leo, John, Lucy, Jan, and I.  It had four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen area with W/D, and a large living area and dinning room, perfect for all of us to get our separate space in!  I was dying to shower, so I immediately headed for the shower opposite my bedroom to get clean.  I have all my wash kit set up ready to go and as I go to shut the glass sliding door, it shatters everywhere all over me!  I immediately shout for Lucy to come to my rescue who happened to be our medic on the boat (her job is never done).  I also had Jan and Amanda in the apartment at the time who are medics as well on the boat, so I was certainly covered in terms of medical assistance!  Jan was outside my door when I shouted for Lucy so he repeats my cry for help followed with an "I can't go in there, she's naked!"  Although, I had already grabbed a towel that was luckily hanging next to me at this point.  Then Amanda shouts back, "Is she conscious?!"  Which Lucy smartly replies with, "Well she wouldn't be asking for help if she wasn't conscious!"  Lucy makes her way back and finds me in a pile of shattered glass with blood oozing from my thumb and toes.  She lays a towel down for me to walk over and takes me to the next bathroom to assess the situation.  

The damage, bathroom floor already swept up at this point

Luckily I had only minor cuts and nothing serious. After she cleaned and bandaged me up, we were all now down to two showers between the five of us to quickly shower and get ready before we were due to meet up with the rest of the crew for some Brazilian BBQ and drinks!

Our Brazilian spread

Espresso martini...my life will forever be changed!

We finally made our way out looking like new people freshly cleaned and showered and one shade lighter after washing all the built up dirt off of us.  We met at this great champagne bar which soon became our new meet up/hang out destination then made our way next door where we stuffed our faces with an amazing selection of Brazilian meats!  It was a long night and I think we finally made it home around 4 am, had a quick nap and then it was back to the Marina early in the morning to finish our deep clean and maintenance work.  

The rest of the days were a blur with a lot of boat work and some drinks here and there but no crazy long nights.  There was also a crew party thrown in there somewhere with more delicious barbecued meats and food.  I also worked a corporate sail, where we take out local officials for a quick day sail.  I was told the people would just be the owners of the Marina, etc.  However, what I came to find out afterwards, which Huw failed to mention to us as he came back with the crew, was that we were carrying one of the most famous Brazilian Olympic athletes on board with us!  Torbyn XXX, winner of several Olympic medals and past Volvo Ocean race skipper, basically the guy knows all there is to know about sailing.  So as we are sailing, we went to tack and there wasn't enough wind for the yankee to cross over so Torbyn goes to pull it around in front of the winch.  All I can think is safety first and what if the sheet goes flying out of his hands and gives him rope burn.  So I nicely tell him, oh you probably shouldn't touch that rope...having no idea who I am talking to!  He was polite and dropped the sheet.  I was mortified when I found out who he actually was!!!  There was also a Rugby Tournament between the teams scheduled after that but got rained out so we went to a pub instead!

Rando photo of me cleaning my feet in the sink...standard

We had our first official day off on Monday.  We must have gone out the night before because I remember waking up very tired, but I was on a mission to find some kind of salon to get pampered first thing in the morning before everyone woke up so I could meet up with them later.  Ana came with me, then I headed back for what I thought would be a quick snooze since she had another Clipper event to attend.  I quickly passed out and found the apartment empty when I finally woke up around 1.  Jan and Leo were off sight seeing and had left a note for us to meet them in the afternoon in Santa Teresa.  Since John wasn't mentioned, I did a scavenger hunt for him in the apartment and found him still snoozing in his room!  Granted I had just woken up but that was after being out earlier...what a slacker!  So I conjured him up to go with me to meet the other guys.  

Exploring Santa Teresa

Monkeys!

This guy is just walking his cable car, no big deal...

Num, num, num!

We finally made our way over to the famous stairs in Santa Teresa and walked right into Jan and Leo!  We explored the little streets in the area and then stopped for some drinks and food near the tram stop.  We were hoping to jump on the tram and see the sights but it apparently closes at 4 pm, so instead we kept walking down the street in the opposite direction and found where all the remaining pubs were!  We found an awesome little pub up some steps which we parked for a good portion of the night and where I had my first affogato...an espresso with ice cream, the best of so many worlds!  We were having such an enjoyable time that we convinced the rest of the crew to meet up with us in Santa Teresa and hang out there for the night.  We continued our journey on to the next pub where we met up with everyone else, had a blast, and then of course found some random hole in the wall to go dancing at...awesome night!

Afagotto!!!

We are obsessed with dessert :)

Jesse and I practicing our fish faces

We also had Tuesday morning off before our Leg 2 debrief in the afternoon.  I had plans to meet up with two of the new leggers and go hang gliding, but the previous nights activities kept me in bed longer than expected.  Instead, John, Leo and I headed up to visit the Christ Redeemer statute.  We missed the train, so took various shady vans up to the top...not ideal in the state we were in...but we made it none the less!  There were some awesome views up on top and that was another thing checked off my list.  We made it back just in time for the Leg 2 briefing.  After that it was a team debrief, then we all parted ways to repack for the race start on the next day before we met up one last time as a team with leg 1 and 2 crew.  We met at our favorite champagne bar again and had Brazilian BBQ for the last time.  It was a shorter night since we had to be up early and on our A game for race start!

Copa, Copacabanaaa!

Bathtub of champagne, need I say more?

Leg 1 and 2 crew final meal together!

This certainly wasn't the same experience I usually have when I travel, since I was really there working instead of sight seeing, but at least I got to see some of the sights!  We have so many plans for Cape Town including Shark diving, wine tasting, safaris, Table Mountain, the list goes on....so we basically better smash it on leg 2 so we have time for everything!