Harmon and Randall's Voyage…

Leg 4, November 17, 2025

My wife Jorun (pictured below) and I arrived in Rio on November 6th. Randall had already been here since November 1 with the purpose of getting Mōli ready for our next leg. WARNING: This blogpost is more of a Rio travel journal than a Mōli sailing journal. Sailors be warned!!

Jorun and I came directly from the airport to our “home” at Rio de Janeiro’s Yacht Club and met Randal directly. BTW, Jorun visiting is a big deal. Of the 15,000ish miles Randall and I have sailed, and the (almost) countless stops we have made, this is the first visit by a wife (on this trip). Randall’s wife, Johanna Bloor, paid a visit to Randall in Ushuaia on a prior Figure 8 journey (ostensibly to deliver critical parts, but there was some R&R in there I hope). http://figure8voyage.com

Above: After exchanging “Hello’s” Randall got down to business describing the new anchor chain spools that he just had commissioned at the Yacht Club machine shop. Turns out that as beautiful and perfect as they were, they were 1/8th of an inch too big, so they had to be milled down accordingly. We all marveled at the old-world machine shop capabilities right here at the yacht club. The price for these custom spools that will likely outlast our lifetimes? About $100, so sailors, come on down!

Above: As soon as I landed at the Yacht Club, I needed to drop my 68 pound duffel aboard Mōli (filled with warm clothes, both rubber and insulated boots, peanut butter, canned goods (mostly Mexican) and jerky. Since our departure last August, the Club had moved Mōli to a different slip. This one with a better view of Sugarloaf Mountain – you can see the tram in the background. Our benefactor, Carlos, made certain to give us an unused mooring from members rather than the guest moorings that were considerably more expensive.

So nice to have Jorun with me! She joked that she is my girl in every port – or at least this one! Let’s take a moment to demystify the “girl-in-every-port” cliche. Circumnavigating the Americas is fun and exciting in its own way, but at 34 years of marriage, hitting the town in search of local companionship, shall we say, is a non-starter. First of all, as lonely as one gets out in the middle of the vast marine expanse, knowing that you have a life, a wife and an intact family relationship waiting for you back home is of immense comfort during those lonely and not so lovely nights out at sea. Also, and let’s be honest here, I barely have enough energy to get myself from point A to point B and the thought of expending any of that in pursuit of heathen impulses is not even close to being attractive. So for the time being, while I am away, Randall, among all of his other jobs, shall continue to be the apple of my eye. Hope that lasts.

But sometimes I get jealous!!

ABOVE: Christ the Redeemer – While Randall was far too busy bringing Mōli back to seaworthiness and could not bring himself to leave the job-at-hand, Jorun and I were able to take the day and tour Rio and I was able re-visit many of the classic’s.

ABOVE AND BELOW: Back to the Selarón Steps in Santa Teresa – It took almost no time for Jorun to find the Swedish section of the steps.

Even though Randall, nor I nor Jorun does Instagram, tourists are lined up for hours to get their private pictures taken in strategic, social media ready locations. We solved that problem by asending to the top of the stairs for our picture.

Above: We had asked our guide to take us to the local Synagogue in the Copacabana neighborhood. He tried one or two locations, and by the third, we ended up back to the Jewish Community Center of Rio, now closed for Shabbat.

Above: We ended up going out to dinner and at Barraca da Chiquita in Copacabana. The Piraracu Fish (stew) was amazing and the accompanying coconut rice was out of this world. We convinced the waiters to lend us their hats with the Star of David sewn on – this was as close to a Shabbat dinner as we were going to find.

BELOW: Iguaçu Falls (in Portuguese) or Iguazu Falls (in Argentinian) Spanish are truly one of the wonders of the world. Actually, three water falls around the world compete for that designation: Niagra Falls (Three rivers and three falls separating Canada and USA) has the highest volume of water flowing through it (85,000 cubic feet per second that fills Lake Erie) but has a drop of only 150 feet (which is why it is so popular to go over the falls in a barrel!); Victoria Falls (Zambia and Zimbabwe) is 5,200 feet wide and has the highest vertical drop (334 feet) and a flow rate of 38,400 cubic feet per second. It is credited with being the world’s largest sheet of falling water. Iguaçu is considered to be the largest waterfall system in the world consisting of 275 individual waterfalls in two converging (the Iguazu and the San Antonio) rivers spanning 1.7 miles. The largest drop is 269 feet and the flow rate is 62,010 cubic feet per minute.

While bordering on three countries (Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay), Iguaçu provides the most resources to Brazil including 100% of the hydroelectric power. While tourism is the predominant business at the falls, it was not long ago that agriculture dominated the state.

We began our Iguaçu tour on the Brazil side which provides more sweeping panoramic views of the entire system. There are many outcroppings where you can get dangerously close to the falls for the perfect views and get completely soaked.

This is the final view from the Brazil side. You could bring your own cup to drink of the waters (but it is not recommended!)

Above and Below: The Argentinian side offers more extensive walking trails that get you closer to the falls. Brazil and Argentina have an agreement whereby you can practically avoid all border chaos in your pursuit of river viewing if you hire a local guide. This enabled us to take a 30 minute car ride from our hotel in Brazil, cross the border, and end up on a raft in the Iguazu river in no time.

It is obvious that you are in Argentina as soon as you cross the border because literally everybody is drinking their mate tea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB718ue_LF0 It is super traditional…they all carry around a thermos of hot water and one large mate “bowl” that resembles a big pipe. It was not uncommon to see the mother schlepping the thermos along with the mate bowl and silver straw and ritually serve it to her family – first to the father, then to herself, then to the oldest child and then to the younger child.

Above: Argentina offers rafting trips, and most tourists avail themselves of one. Rafters have two options: a wet or a dry trip. I tried to persuade Jorun to join me on the wet trip to the famous “Devil’s Throat” falls, but she preferred to take in the beauty from afar. Not sure how anyone can pass on the opportunity to go INTO the falls…

Above and Below: This is from the final viewing point in Argentina. With the sun shining and the water flowing at full bore, it is not uncommon to see the magical rainbow.

TOUCAN ALERT!! (It’s not what you think.)

ABOVE AND BELOW: As a baby boomer I was “taught” that Toucan’s were the happy, fun and friendly birds as depicted by the Kellog’s Froot Loop cereal (my childhood favorite) .https://www.wkkellogg.com/our-foods/our-brands/froot-loops gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21128590792&gbraid=0AAAAA9XlrwlMxezJN4gLHTmQOZrk7K5Xz&gclid=Cj0KCQiAiebIBhDmARIsAE8PGNJ498pKIH5puuj2oc2uVwRH2sKRKTFHSq9eSoJHo1JlWswrjnAmBTYaAsVMEALw_wcB

My oldest daughter still remembers the stuffed Toucan named “Conrad” we gave her to keep calm and occupied on a long plane ride. We had a lot of fun with that happy bird. I was therefore pleased as punch as the Toucan below landed in the tree near me. I waved “Hello” to the friendly flyer. With her long, colorful beak, she nodded back and I could swear she smiled as she gave me a wink.

Above: Everybody loves a friendly Toucan, right?

Above: In one fell swoop, my “friendly” Toucan turned out to be an apex predator. It was time for the meal of the day, and today’s special was blackbird eggs fresh out of the nest. I was so confused…. don’t they just eat Froot Loops and make children laugh?

Above: The blackbirds were quite upset and were doing all they could to keep the much larger Toucan out of their nests – namely by dive-bombing the Toucan. I have to say that it did not take long for me to “switch sides” and root for the small blackbirds. I felt so bad that they were losing their babies! At some point the Toucan gave up searching for eggs and went after the dive-bombing blackbirds. The end result was not pretty.

Above: Well, there you have it – the smiling Toucan with blackbird feathers in her beak. Note to self: Don’t piss-off a Toucan.

Above: Jorun and I returned to Rio, somewhat emotionally scarred from the Toucan incident. Neither of us are “beach” people – we have never taken a beach vacation in our lives. But nevertheless, we felt it important to at least hang for a minute or two at Copacabana Beach (Ipanema was the next beach over). The water was in the mid 70’s (not that either of us went swimming). We decided to just relax, that is until a local family sat down next to us and set up a concert-size speaker and started blasting Samba at full volume.

Above: The City of Rio and the various Brazilian jungles are known for their orchids. While you can roam around town and see them growing wild, the botanical gardens provided a nice relaxing variety of orchids.

Above: Jorun stands within the sacred sumaúma tree, known in English as the kapok tree. It is a giant tree found within the Amazon rainforest, often called the “queen of the Amazon” and is considered sacred by many indigenous peoples. It can reach up to 200 feet in height, growing up to 13 feet per year. https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/species/kapok-tree/

Above: As Jorun prepares to leave Rio, we indulge in our favorite beverage. What makes the fresh-young sweet coconut so perfect in this environment is the fact that it is chilled. After you finish drinking the coconut water, if you hand the coconut to the waiter, it is returned to you cut in half, and you now have a spoon to eat the soft coconut pulp. Many times inland, they have a plethora of young coconuts. But it is like 90 degrees out, and they are not chilled. Still sweet and delicious, but not chilled. Big difference.

Above: As Jorun takes her leave back to Sweden to help her mother Ing-Marie, I get down to my work on the boat. The first job at hand is to do an inventory of foodstuffs on board, see what is missing, and then get ready to shop.

Above: You can see what I brought with me including wraps, stuffing mix, and lots of canned goods not available in Rio.

Above: I also spent quite a bit of time shopping for our fresh foodstuffs. Above is fresh garlic, Rio de Janeiro style. Each local has their own way of processing and presenting fruits and vegetables. Love this way of prepping the garlic for sale.

Above: I am trying not to make a big deal of this, but the longer we are at sea, the more differences between Randall and I manifest themselves. Take peanut butter, for instance. Randall insists he has no preference to creamy peanut butter. So then why were there 18 jars of creamy aboard (now down to 12)? I couldn’t take it any longer and when daughter Ingrid introduced me to the ultra chunky brand above right, I was hooked and brought four jars onboard for just this leg.

Above: Let’s put this in the “hope we never have to use this” file. Long time readers will recall the hurricane-like conditions we endured on our way from San Franciso to Alaska. The wind briefly gusted to 60 knots and the swell was north of 25 feet. As we could not sail with the wind (wrong direction) we had to deploy our drogue to prevent us from being blown back to San Francisco.

While the drogue was deployed back then, Randall spent a great deal of time and energy making sure the fittings were holding and there was no chafe on the lines which were under severe stress. We made it through the storm just fine (the knock-down blew out a lot of our electrical and briefly flooded the boat), not a bad price to pay.

As we live and learn, Randall designed the new drogue holder with oversized shackles. The design load on the drogue is 22,000 pounds and the new, high strength line is specked to be 16,000 pounds tinsel strength per line which should be sufficient to hold a 40,000 pound Mōli. I think…..

Above: It took too long to figure out where all of the boat yard workers at the Yacht Club were eating their lunch, but Randall discovered this midway through his return. The food was simple, cheap and of decent quality. It was also fun to hang out with the boat yard crowd. I made it in just before we left town. Randall pointed out the cashier’s Israel hat to me, and I quickly went over to find the origin and story behind the cap. Alas, a massive language barrier prevented me from getting the story but we still shared a good laugh and a high-five.

Above: Back at home, we typically wait until the end of Thanksgiving to begin the Christmas season. Not so in Rio de Janeiro. It has been Christmas time since the beginning of November. Hard to get into the mood when it is 80 degrees outside. Nevertheless, mother and daughter enjoyed the holiday theme outside of a major shopping mall.

On our last night in Rio, we took Carlos and his wife Ana to one of their favorite Portuguese restaurants. Like so many of our previous stops (Newfoundland, Azores, Madera, Cape Verde) Cod is king and we all enjoyed it as a gourmet dish (except Ana who had octopus).

Above: As a thank you present, we gave Carlos an official San Francisco Giants jersey with his name embroidered on as well as a cap. Soccer is THE game in South America, and we are not quite certain if this gift will have any meaning. But Raposo will always be Number 1 in our book.

Above: We found that the local sense of humor in Rio de Janeiro is subtle but very prevalent. Witness above the designation of the male and female bathrooms in the restaurant. Not sure how they would handle unisex!

ABOVE AND BELOW: Getting Randall off the boat (there is ALWAYS something to do) and out of the Yacht Club to participate in a tourist activity is next to impossible. I consider it a victory that I “kidnapped” Randall and insisted we ascend the double cable-car system of Sugarloaf Mountain to see some of the best panoramic views of Rio.

No more fitting way to say “Goodby”, or “Tchau” to Rio.

ABOVE: As we were getting ready to set sail of our next leg, we said our goodby’s at Rio de Janeiro’s Yacht Club. We came full circles we said “Tchau” to our faithful Silvio who took us from land to Mōli and back on so many occasions.

Above: Here we are on Mōli as we are just motoring out of the yacht club. Sugarloaf mountain in the background.

Above: Not sure how they knew, of if they knew, but the crowd along the promenade seems to wave us goodby as we head out to sea.

So long Rio de Janeiro!