We’re spening the week in Montevideo. We had hoped to be using this week to get our car into Uruguay, and the ship was scheduled to arrive over the past weekend. Alas, the ship is sitting off the port of Navegentes, Brazil. That is the last stop before Montevideo, but she hasn’t put in there yet.
The culprit seems to be the port of Navegentes. The port is at the mouth of the Itajai-Acu river, and heavy rainfall in southern Brazil has caused flooding and, downstream, high currents in the Itajai-Acu. That has caused the port to shut down several times over the last two months and they’re working through a backlog. According to Maersk:
21 November 2023 – Update 06
In our commitment to keeping you informed and ensuring the seamless management of your cargo, we hereby inform you that the port of Navegantes has closed Monday 20th due to the strong current. Unfortunately, we cannot provide a specific timeline for when the port will reopen due to adverse weather conditions expected in the upcoming days. If restrictions persist, contingency plans will be activated and individually communicated concerning the impacted vessels.
As previously communicated, we may face some congestion in nearby ports, such as Paranagua and Itapoa. We greatly appreciate your cooperation in expediting customs clearance for import volumes during this period.
https://www.maersk.com/news/articles/2023/10/23/brazils-southern-ports-situation
And so on.
It seems that the port is once again open, but the MSC Tavvishi is currently one of four ships sitting in the harbor waiting to get in.
I did meet the customs agent and get my Uruguayan Certificado de Llegada, which I think gives me permission to present said document to the customs authority? I don’t know. But I have it.
So we’re hanging out here. I recently read Epictitus’s Enchiridion and I’m trying to keep that in mind: “Demand not that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.” Jessie and I are looking into to alternate plans: we have a list of places we wanted to go in Uruguay, so we’ll probably just start working on that without the car.
And in the meantime we’re enjoying Montevideo. I’m having the kids work on Uruguay blog entries now (I’m literally telling Sydney to get on with his writing as I type this), so they’ll update on the other stuff.
3 Responses
“It’s all part of the adventure” we say as we just spent 15 days broken down in Phoenix. You seem to be so calm about the matter. I probably would have used stronger language. Your pictures and the expressions on all of your faces say as much as your descriptions of your adventures.
Wow! That is disappointing. Did it come as a surprise to you or had you been tracking the vessel?
Anyway, as you mentioned, there is a lot to see around there and maybe get a tad ahead with the school work so that that won’t be a chore when the car does arrive.
It’s the things that don’t go according to plan that give you tales to recount long afterwards.
“Demand not that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.”
I think this characterizes every project I’ve ever been on — though I lacked the wit to recognize it for the most of them.
Boas Festas!