Ping's Winter Solsticial Cruise.... or life in the Roaring Forties.

[El Pinguino]

A simple plan... head off on Friday afternoon... a 16 mile run down to my mate's 'bach' on Isla Puluqui and back to Pto Montt on Sunday.

A bonzer weekend was had by all... we even had a sail up and drawing for about an hour on the way north.

We did have a bit of fun on the way down. A later departure -1600 - than planned and with sunset at 1730 meant that the last hour and a half would be in the dark but no probs there... the run in through the chorito ( mussel ) farms would be 'up moon' and the moon was almost full.

Unfortunately no plan survives first contact .... with fog.

And so it was with about 2 miles yet to run and us still on the outside of the chorito farms. First the lights of Calbuco vanished, then the lights of the fishing boat a mile ahead vanished ... we felt our way onwards with vis down to a few hundred metres... a whistle.... a white light ahead... a call of 'caballero..caballero!' from out of the murk. Then we found we had run up a bit of a blind gulch... reversed our course and tried again further out. Found another gap and soon came up with a local workboat with a rope around its prop being slowly rowed home. Offered them a tow which they declined.
Now the depth is down to 4 metres and the blackness of the land is close ahead. Right hand down a bit and thirty minutes later we are entertaining Simon, our 6 year old grumete, with 'Chicken Run' while I knock up some beef stew.

The rest of the team arrived on Saturday afternoon, we had an asado at the bach that night and a pleasant run home today... Sunday.

So that was it.... another weekend in the life of Ping.

The pics.... a view towards the entrance of the caleta... we entered inside the chorito buoys around the right hand headland. Due to the 'marea roja' the shellfish industry is currently shut down so where you once had a line of buoys you now often find this situation as the buoys and associated kit have been lifted for maintenance.

And finally, a view of V. Orsorno and V. Calbuco on the way home. And yes that is a black dog under the dodger... 'Manchita'.

[Jim Cate]

Hmmm... Roaring Forties, eh????

Sounds like a good cruiser weekend, Ping. Good One.

We just had about 36 hours of rain...

Jim

[El Pinguino]

Hola Jim,
Remarkably dry here... just like summer but colder.

Even the locals are talking about it... I don't think there is a word in Patagonesian for 'drought' but they may have to invent one soon.

Since early May maybe one wet day... plus 3 or 4 overnight showers.

However the day we arrived in Vina del Mar and bused up to Santiago a few weeks ago ( after that delivery) it bucketed down.

Considering how dry Santiago normally is the amazing thing was that there was an umbrella salesman on every corner..... they would go broke in Montt just now..

[Snowpetrel]

Ha ping, looks like our recent Tasman crossing! Maybe you got the same slow moving high... enjoyed Puerto Montt, I expect it has changed a lot since I was there in 2007. You headed further south this year?

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[El Pinguino]

Hola Ben,
you would still know the town centre but the place has grown more than a bit. Fastest growing city in Chile etc with a complete new dormitory town, Alerce, out towards Pto Varas. Town now extends quite a way out past Lider and the big roundabout on the way out to Ruta 5.
New terminus de buses in town.
They are building a bridge over Chacao but not sure what is going on there as work seems to have stalled.

You can keep your tasman weather, I think we have our own home grown highs.

Plan to go south late September but a bit of work yet to do, yet another major overhaul on the windlass, new autopilot drive has yet to arrive, espacher awaiting parts , and most importantly source and fit a new pair of lowers. Found two broken strands at the top of one of them.... only 3 year old and 15000 miles.

Not sure if I will spend a year in the south or come back up in winter 17.

Then I need to decide whether to import the boat in 18 or 'go foreign' for a bit
Cheers
Ping

[Snowpetrel]

I didnt know it was so fast growing. Such is life! I remember meeting a nice lady in that bus stop who gave me directions to the airport bus, I didnt have a clue what all the spanish bus numbers meant, and no one else spoke any english...

Are you going to fix Ini's vane? Shame about the rigging. They just dont seem to make it like they used to. Out of curiosity did you use swages or swageless fittings?

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[El Pinguino]

Yes, Ini's vane is on the 'fix it' list but not just now.... not needed in the channels.

Swaged onto those 'T' fittings at the mast.. Sta-locks at the deck.... thinking of converting to tangs on the lowers but that would take time... no decision as yet.... still trying to get my rigger in Melbourne to answer his emails......

Ping

[El Pinguino]

Well, that worked..... no sooner had I said how pleasant the weather was in yesterday's post but the sun vanished, a rather cold wind appeared, and a serious bit of drizzle started up.
Sun was back today however.

One change I didn't mention was how quiet it is here in the winter these days. Mine seems to be one of only two foreign flagged boats in Pto Montt just now with crew on them. The other one is on the hard, Vanuatu registered , haven't met the skipper, believe he is French.
Maybe 8 or so other foreign boats on the hard laid up. Seems there are a lot of Fifos around these days...can't say too much - I'm one myself.
Boats arrive , a week later they are laid up ashore and the crew have headed back to Europe for the summer.
10 or 12 years ago, even 8 years ago, winter would see quite a lively social life what with potlucks and barbies and stuff... even three years ago there was a bit of winter life.
Dunno where it went....

Another observation is that the vast majority of O/S boats here have come up from the south... ie the Atlantic.. very few out of the Pacific. Only myself and one other from NZ this year, none directo from Oz. Not sure where the Vanuatu boat came from. No boats from the US or Canada ... Interesting......

[gpeacock]

Hang around till next year and we'll be there. Coming South from Baja assuming we don't get sidetracked on the way to Easter island.
Gary