My First Spring Birthday

Yesterday (September 19) was one of the most important days of the year on board Sila, my birthday. This birthday was more important to me than most of my others for one main reason and many highlights. The main reason was I enjoyed my first Birthday in Spring. September normally means a Fall birthday, but not in the Southern Hemisphere. Although spring does not technically start for a few days, it is the first time the trees have had buds instead of colorful leaves for my birthday.

I enjoyed what felt like a luxurious amount of presents. I even got a few early. First off was a Birds of Chile book from Mama and Daddy. I love identifying birds and spending an entire hike searching for a single bird type. The second, and one of the best, was from another boat we had met. They have been cruising through Patagonia for awhile but are now planning to head for the tropics. As a gift, I received their old crab trap. It is designed to catch southern king crab. I have spent many hours researching how to catch and prepare king crab and cannot wait to enjoy this southern treat.

I also received a birthday dessert early. On Sila, we do not have refrigeration, much less a freezer. Because of this, we almost never have ice cream on board.  Since my birthday dessert was my choice, I asked for homemade ice cream sandwiches. Because we were planning to leave the marina on my birthday, we had my dessert early. Mama made chocolate chip cookies and went on an ice cream mission with Jack to the nearest town. Although we only used a third of the ice cream for sandwiches, it all was gone by the end of dessert, which is good since we had no way to keep it overnight. I think Daddy was the primary culprit but I will admit I did have a spoon or two of ice cream.

On my actual birthday, we had peach pie. Mama made the delicious pie but it was Daddy who was quick to point out that the P stood for peach, not Porter.

When my actual birthday rolled around, I was perfectly excited with what I  already had received. Jack pestered me throughout breakfast until I finally gave in and he handed me his present. I took out an awesome little space man with a helicopter head that flies around. We almost landed him in a puddle of syrup on the table, so our flights were driven outside. Unfortunately, it was windy, rainy, and we could only control the altitude of the space man, not the direction. We decided that we would probably lose the Space Man if we flew it outside. Jack had a great idea, and we went up to the marina bathroom. There was enough flying space, and the floor was big enough to land on. So my first present that day was flown with the risk of landing in toilets.

 Here is the space man.

Here I am with a wooden sword from Jack, slippers from Mama and Jack, and a Chile hat from Mama and Daddy.

 The little harbor where I spent my birthday- Estero Chope. You can see one of the yellow churches famous in this area. And you can tell that this is an area with really big tides.

The next wonderful highlight was a gift that was not an object, but still easily one of the best presents. It was not even from Mama, Daddy, or Jack but from Richard, an HMI alumnus (Richard Freund, RMS 15) who is visiting for a few days. Richard taught Jack and me how to play Texas Hold'em poker. 

 Here Jack is, bleeding all the chips out of us. As you can see, I have very few coins. Jack's horde is hidden by his arm.

I have been saving spare change from the various countries we have visited so we used them as poker chips. Even though their monetary value varies greatly, the gold colored ones were worth two silvers which were worth two bronzes. Jack beat us both twice in his first two games. We were not using real money but it was still so fun. It was in my top five favorite presents because I am certain that I will be playing poker with the Rabbit for a long time.- Porter