Photos from Chile

Finally! After several weeks in Puerto Montt, we left the marina and have begun our voyage south through the Chilean fjords. We have been joined by a 5th crew member for this next section, Jack Fields. Jack was a student in RMS 17 and returned to be an apprentice in Semester 30, which was our final semester at HMI. Although he has no prior sailing experience, we know from doing our final HMI winter trip with him that he is an excellent cook and a great adventurer. With two "Jack's" on board, we generally refer to one as "The Rabbit" and the other as "Big Jack."

Within an hour of leaving Marina del Sur, Christopher was teaching Big Jack how to steer Sila

This has become a common scene of late: the boys snuggling in the lower bunk while reading. Porter has been reading the Brotherband books out loud to the Rabbit, while he follows along. Rabbit tells me that he can understand this more complicated book better when Porter reads it to him and Porter says he likes the challenge of reading out loud.

 Big Jack preparing to swim. And looking good!

 Big Jack claims he was toasty warm, except for his feet, while swimming in water that was 5 degrees Celsius. He has gone swimming multiple times since joining the crew, often doing laps between the shore and Sila.

 While on a walk on Isla Guar, we asked the man on the left about the nancla (the plant I am holding) we saw growing on the side of the road. A few hours later, he and his friend rowed out to Sila to deliver several stalks. We shared a bottle of wine while they showed us how to peel and slice it then dip it in salt. I would say that nancla is somewhere between celery and rhubarb and makes a fine, fresh treat especially when you don't have many fresh vegetables on board.

  Happily at the helm as we sail into Caleta Zapatero. This was when it really began to feel like we were closer to the mountains than to the towns and cities. I think I am wearing four upper body layers under my rain jacket as it was never warmer than 6 degrees Celsius that day.

 Porter and the Rabbit holding live Centollones. These are false king crab, smaller than southern king crab but we are told they are just as delicious. We traded with some locals, giving wine and a few pesos for five crabs- everyone was happy! We are hoping to start catching our own crab with Porter's crab trap as we head south but it was nice to have these ones first.

 Big Jack and Porter learning how to prepare the crab legs for cooking

 Working on the transom in the rain

 

All smiles as he breaks into his first crab leg in Chile

 These two birds are in the falcon family. They are Chimango Caracaras- the southern hemisphere ecological counterpart to crows in the northern hemisphere. Their call sounds a bit like laughter and we have seen them all over the place, often in small flocks, which I understand to be uncommon behavior for raptors in general but normal for these caracaras.

 I am pretty happy as we motor, with absolutely no wind, into Estero Quintupeu. The water is deep and the mountains simply jut straight up out of the ocean.

 Behind big Jack, you can see the narrow entrance to the fjord, Estero Quintupeu. The way it lays out, you really cannot see into the fjord from the channel outside. Apparently the German battleship, Dresden, hid from the British navy in this inlet in 1915. Once we went through the little opening on the left of the photo, we understood how it was possible.

 Porter and the first of many waterfalls that we would see in Estero Quintupeu

 The Rio Salto has a spectacular waterfall that comes shooting down off the mountainside into the ocean. The coastline is very bold (it gets deep quickly from shore) so we were able to drive Sila very close to the falls. Big Jack and the Rabbit suited up in their rain gear to enjoy the mist at the bow

 With the waterfall right behind, it looks like Christopher just brought Sila straight down the falls.

 Estero Quintupeu was the first place where we needed to use our shore lines. We dropped the anchor and then backed toward the shore. Here you can see Christopher and Big Jack slinging a rock. We also put another line in the trees to the right so that we had two stern lines to shore and a bow anchor securing us for the night.

 Giggling boys with a rainbow in Estero Quintupeu

 After some rain and clouds on our arrival in Estero Quintupeu, we awoke to a stunning view in the morning. Calm seas and clear blue skies.

 Christopher took this picture looking down one of our shorelines. I still cannot get over the reflections.

 Porter and Jack admiring the Rio Salto waterfall again as we left Estero Quintupeu

 This time, I drove the lap around the waterfall so Christopher could take photos and be on deck

 

 In Estero Cahuelmo, we went for a long, difficult walk on the beach. There was lots of scrambling over big rocks and stepping around the muddy tidal zones.

 The mountains at the head of Estero Cahuelmo were stunning. There is something about those snow capped peaks.

 Graffiti on the beach...

 Christopher, Big Jack and the Rabbit in the dinghy as we motor to shore in Estero Cahuelmo for our walk

 As we were setting sail out of Estero Cahuelmo, I kept hearing what I thought were voices or perhaps a motor running. I could not figure it out until we noticed the colony of sea lions. We sailed close enough to really see them.  Porter wrote about them in his post, Sea Wolves and Sea Hedgehogs, but here you can just start to get a sense of how many Lobo Marino de un Pelo (Southern Sea Lion) were in one place.

With Sila's solar panels in the foreground, you are only seeing half of the beach that was covered in sea lions. We have seen many in the last few months, including some huge males on the docks in Marina del Sur, and yet to see so many in one place was extraordinary

 Sila, anchored in Puerto Bonito. Muy bonito indeed!

 A few days ago, we found a good place to dry out the boat near Mechuque (see the Rabbit's post about our time in that town). Drying out involves first finding an area with big tides. Here we had 6 meter tides- plenty of change. Then at low tide, you have to find an area that is relatively flat with a good bottom, not too muddy but no big rocks. Then you check at high tide, using the handheld depth sounder, to make sure there is plenty of water for the boat to float there without hitting. Once we located the place, we drove Sila in very close to shore and put out a bow anchor, a stern anchor, and another line to shore to hold the boat in place as the tide went out. Several boats of locals came by to tell us that there was not enough water where we were anchored. We would thank them and then explain that we were trying to dry out. They probably do not see many sailboats that have a lifting keel like Sila.

 Here Christopher is greasing the propeller. In the photo above, I am scraping barnacles off the zinc loaf, which is there to prevent corrosion on the aluminum hull.

 And here she is, balanced on the centerboard trunk.

 There are all kinds of reasons why we are glad that Big Jack is part of the crew right now. One of those reasons, and really a minor one at that, is that he has decided he wants to learn to bake bread. We are happy guinea pigs as this delicious raisin bread was a perfect breakfast.

 We were anchored off of Chiloe, near the town of Rilan. To get to the town from where we were anchored, we had to walk along the beach. On one side was this pig.

 On the other, this boat was tied just below the high tide line so she floats at high tide.

 In the town square in Rilan, the Rabbit ran many laps. It looked like so much fun, soon Big Jack and Porter were following along. Skate park without the skateboard.

 We went for a lovely, long walk along the quiet roads outside of Rilan, getting up the hills to see across the bays near the island. This was our lunch spot- just on the side of the road, but beautiful nonetheless.

 Christopher near Rilan, on the island of Chiloe

And the Rabbit. You can just pick out the blue roof and the steeple on the church in Rilan. The island, Chiloe, is famous for its beautiful wooden churches and this was the first one that we toured.

 Porter and the Rabbit rowed ashore with Big Jack one night to see the locals digging clams. They spent about an hour helping and then gave their clams to the people who had showed them how to do it. The next moring, when this photo was taken, the two boys rowed ashore before breakfast and used sticks to dig clams, filling the bucket with this local delicacy.

And then Porter cleaned them, preparing them to be steamed. This meant we all enjoyed fresh  cherrystone clams for lunch as we sailed on the genoa from Rilan to Castro, where we are now. -Molly