November: Still Early Spring

Not all that warm here, yet.  But the days are getting longer - daylight lasts till after 8 pm.  I like that part. 

 We left the USA on October 27th, after a delicious dinner at UmaiZushi in the Atlanta airport.  The Delta flight left at 11pm. EST, maybe 30 empty seats, mini-video screens for every seat with lots of games and movies.  I watched the one about David Foster Wallace ... "The End of the Tour."  And an intriguing Italian story of two brothers whose latent Cain and Abel complex rears up ugly between them.  Richard watched different movies; I bet he can't remember either one.  We donned blinders, dozed a bit, and pretty soon there were the snowy peaks of the Andes beneath us while the flight attendants served croissants and coffee.  Landed in Santiago at 9:30 am, Atlantic Standard Time.  Yes: Chile is in the same time zone as Halifax, Nova Scotia.  However, as of this year, 2015, Chile has decided not to bother with all that Spring-Forward/Fall-Back business.  Stick to Standard.

One more flight, and devoted friend Tere met us at the Puerto Montt airport with her car.  She delivered us to Hostal de Los Navegantes, across the road from the marina.  We were really happy to get horizontal, at last, for a little nap. 

 



A windy view from Hostal room - can't quite see Abrazo.

By Thursday, Richard had checked the boat and arranged for Abrazo to be hauled out for bottom-painting.  Liliana, new owner of the Hostal, drove us up to the Valle de Volcanes to show the apartment she had for rent, which we quickly decided was about right for us.  Liliana needed a few days to get it rental-ready, so we enjoyed Hostal life till the next Tuesday.  My Book Club friend, Sonia, took us on a tour of apartments and cabañas near the marina, but the only one that looked better than Liliana's was priced at $80 per night US ... a bit too steep for these retirees!  L's deal is $500/mo including lights, gas, water, internet AND tv.  It costs us each about $2.50/day to make the round trip between apartment and marina via bus and colectivo.  But I assure you, I don't have to go to the boat every day, and right now Richard is out sailing for a week to 10 days, so no bus fare to worry about there. 


Here's the view from my bedroom window today, looking to the west.  So far there are four clusters of these four-story condominiums, but behind me, acres are already cleared for more.   West is the direction to the Santa Isabel supermercado, about 5 blocks away, and to the bus stop, about 7 blocks.  Anywhere along that walk we might flag a colectivo for a ride down to the Jumbo, or to Centro, where the buses run the Costanera from Pelluco, where we lived last winter, to the marina in Chinquihue where Abrazo is moored when she's in town. 
Here's the view from my living room window, looking north.  The voices of school kids decorate the air waves three or four times a day.  And there might be a good walking trail in the park beyond the elementary school.  So far I've gotten plenty of exercise walking for groceries, and doing the 3 flights of stairs up to the apartment a few times a day.

Soon it will be warm enough around here to look for a park.

Our friend Larry Z. from Michigan, is here for a month of Chilean adventuring.  He's a Great Lakes sailor who navigated the Canadian Gulf Islands with Richard, aboard Abrazo, in the past ... and who circumnavigated Vancouver Island with Richard and his brother Bob back in 2008. 

We had a few days of visiting here while Larry helped Richard get the boat ready to go: inflating the Avon skiff, hanking the Genoa onto the forestay, provisioning for the 7-to-10-day sail they planned.  Richard had already painted the boat's bottom, replaced the zincs, re-attached the main sail to the mast, put in a new battery and restarted the Fridge-Freez. I'd helped by packing half the 20 kgs of briquetas nativo (Chilean presto logs) down from the Jumbo market, onto the Costanera bus, and out to the boat for the wood stove.

Saturday morning we all went to the Farmer's Market on Presidente Ibañez for the final load of food, including eggs.  The senora at R's favorite market stand picked out the biggest eggs for him.  She's glad to see this gringo back in town.  However, on the bus back to the boat he had to point out that the problem with those big eggs is they don't fit into his secure plastic egg crates.  Last time he had big eggs stored in cardboard egg crates they ended up broken all over the foc'sle.  Such is the sailor's life.  

Hi, Larry.

Put the Avon on the foredeck, and then strip off the Mainsail cover.

 

 

 

Pull the genoa out of its bag, lead the sheets to the cockpit.






 

All aboard.

 

No email on this trip, and they probably won't be in phone range much, so you'll have to wait till they get back for a voyage report.  There's been a lot of cold rain and brisk wind here in Puerto Montt since they left Saturday afternoon.  I hope the wood supply holds out.