Asado

The asado is an Argentinian tradition that is both a way of cooking meat as well as a traditional gathering. Meats are cooked for hours over charcoal – the meats are often a combination of beef, chorizo, and blood sausage, although other meats can be included.

A tradition at 40 Grados Sur, the boat yard where Ohana was built, is that after a boat is launched, the new boat owners hold an asado for all of the workers at the factory who contributed to building the boat. It’s a time for the new owners to say thank you to everyone in the factory. It’s also traditional for the owners to give a short thank you – both girls prepared a short speech in Spanish and did an amazing job speaking to a room full of people in Spanish!

Thankfully for us (and everyone enjoying the asado), although the owners pay for the asado, they’re not responsible for cooking the meats. The factory foreman did all of the grilling outside in back of the factory, along with help from some of the other workers. We all sat down at makeshift tables and benches on the factory floor to break bread together. Fittingly, the planks that we ate on were the same planks that Ohana rested on during her trip down the narrow streets of San Fernando on her way to the water. We feasted on succulent bife de chorizo, salad, and bread, and the girls ate their weight in chorizo sausage.

We are so incredibly grateful for all of the people at 40GS who built our boat and helped this dream come to reality. Not to mention all of the help with foreign customs and bureaucracy, and helping us navigate needing to come back into Argentina within days of being exported…another story for another day.