Photos: Rapa Nui to Puerto Montt, Chile

Some photos from our 2,100 mile passage from Rapa Nui to Puerto Montt, Chile.

The obligatory photo taken right before departure. 

You can just barely see the Moai of Hotu Iti to the right of Pete's head.

 Pete and the famous "hippo ball"

Soon after leaving Rapa Nui, the temperature dropped and the sea got bigger so, like Molly in this picture, we would spend most of this passage wearing foul weather gear

 While there are not many pictures that show it, we had a lot of wind and big ocean swells on part of the passage. 30-35 knots of wind was the norm for a few days and we experienced gusts into the 40s and even 50 knots a few times at night. The camaraderie during the day in the cockpit is a nice contrast to the solitude of night watches.

 The picture doesn't tell the whole story as this picture was taken on Day 6 with F7 Winds. F7 on the Beaufort scale means the wind was blowing steadily between 28 and 33 knots.

 A confused sea with a beautiful sunset

 The Rabbit, on watch, working to get the wind pilot (self steering) set correctly.This is not easy for any of us and Jack worked hard to improve his skills on this passage with great success.

 When Porter was on watch, Pete would call him the "wilting blue footed carrot-booby"

The Rabbit doing his daily writing assignment. A few moments before the photo was taken, he was wearing the swim goggles to protect his eyes from the smell of cooking onions.

Homemade bread (from Christopher) and onion soup (from Molly) for lunch

 Pete takes a turn doing the dishes in the cockpit

  There were several days in the middle of the passage when we would have squalls come through just before dinner. Then it would clear up and we would see rainbows ahead of us.

 The squalls also made for beautiful sunsets

 Molly and the Rabbit dancing on the poop deck as part of the half-way there celebration

 Spider Man pays a visit

 Christopher and Molly made this delicious quiche together

It took Porter about five days to read Lonesome Dove.

 During Molly's afternoon watch, the boys would often listen to Harry Potter on the speaker in the cockpit. If he was not napping, Pete would listen too.

 Porter and Christopher in math class

 Jack doing his last day of 5th grade math while on passage

 Molly making flourless chocolate cake to celebrate the end of 5th grade math

 We had absolutely no wind for a couple of days. But the benefit of the glassy calm ocean was that it was easy to see the albatrosses and the whales

 And this baby sea lion came right up close to the boat since we were barely moving

 Another stunning sunset. Poor us!

 More fresh bread from Christopher

 

Pete takes a photo of our hitchhiker

 Christopher takes a photo of our hitchhiker!

 The hitchhiker- a Cape Petrel who spent several hours sitting on deck

 A school of dolphin escorted us into the Canal Chacao, the entrance to Puerto Montt

 With significant tides, we flew through the narrow part of the canal at nearly 13 knots. You can also see the odometer, which reads 14,510 miles- the number of nautical miles we have covered on Sila since she went in the water in April 2013.

 The boys admiring the views of the mountains and volcanoes around Puerto Montt.

Christopher's first attempt at the "end of passage group selfie" was zoomed in too much!

The happy crew at the end of a successful offshore passage

Sila on the dock at Marina del Sur, with laundry drying on the life lines