The Earthquake

As I’m sure you all know by now, I was not present in Chile for the earthquake, but just barely. I left the morning of Friday, the 26th and the quake happened the following night/early morning. I was preoccupied by Mario’s struggle to enter Peru (see Mario’s Epic Journey) so at first I was not as effected as I could have been by the news. As the day passed however, the reality of my fortune began to sink in. Had I decided to leave just a day later I would not have been able to fly out of Santiago for God knows how long. It still isn’t at its full capacity several weeks later. Plus the idea of being there alone and trapped in a terrifying 8.8 quake still gives me the chills.

I wrote to Mark to make sure all was well at sea. Since they were about 200 miles offshore the tsunami wave (which travels along the sea floor very rapidly) had passed beneath them without the slightest hint of anything unusual from where they sat. Had we been in the marina, or the place where we’d passed Concepcion by only a mile offshore, it would have been an entirely different story. I joked that one of their lucky charms aboard (perhaps the dried seahorse) was doing its job, but with any other timing this could have been the end, or at least a major setback to the project.

Next, I set about writing to all my new friends in Chile. Everyone was well but the marina was a mess, several boats lost and major damage sustained. Pictured here are the before and after shots of the marina. Also, most of the people we met are among an upper class and would have been living in homes that were up to pretty high standards.

Chileans are amazingly resilient people and they seem to be rallying from the disaster remarkably well. Still, it gives me pause to think of the power of nature and those that were unfortunate enough to be paired against it.

Concon/Vina del Mar/Valparaiso

Our hosts at the Yacht Club Higuerrillas turned out to be the friendliest yet. No one was afraid to come by to say hello or ask who we were. We got to know many of the kids in the sailing school program there by name and the Club manager, Francisco attended our every request. We held a presentation, Open House events with boat tours, and kids’ classes. All of which were well attended by very enthusiastic participants.

We were also invited to a luncheon one afternoon by Mauricio and his comrades at the Naval Club in Vina del Mar. We dined with Naval officers and friends which all sounds very classy but, thanks to one man named Ronald, thing were brought back down a notch or two. Ronald is a Chilean Scottsman with a fancy for drinking and dirty jokes. Unfortunately for us, he could even tell them in English. In between conversations over our concerns for the ocean and the environment good ole’ Ron would insert a sex joke, just to keep things interesting.

The next day Mauricio and his wife were kind enough to take me on a tour of Valparaiso. Kirsty and I had tried to go over the a couple days before but despite our best efforts, the best thing we found was the most random street fair I’d ever seen. Among the items lined up in the stands: books, nail polish, flowers, light bulbs, furniture, CDs, and beautiful arrays of carefully laid out plumbing supplies. As cool as that was, I felt I could use another trip into the city.

I had been excited to ride the famous old ascensors that climb the sides of the steep hills of the city. The first one we took was near the busy port. We walked on with several other people and one dog that seemed to know exactly where it was going, and the old pully system kicked into gear. It was a beautiful view and a short ride. At the top the dog walked off first and Mauricio and I followed.

His wife met us at the top in the car and then we went into the Naval and Maritime Museum which used to be Mauricio and Alberto’s Naval school. Mauricio guided me through Chile’s turbulent history of wars at sea, showed me where his mother was born, just next door, and I even got a picture of him with his grandfather’s portrait. It really brought the museum to life. Next, we drove over to La Ascensor de Concepcion to ride one of the most famous ones in the city. I finally felt like I’d seen Valparaiso for the colorful and historic city that it is. What a special treat that day was.

I had no shortage of friends in this city as they seemed to be cropping up everywhere. Chileans are, as I’ve stated before, some of the most amazingly friendly people I have ever met. So before I left I was also invited to the home of Ana Maria and Jorge, whom I’d met at Alberto’s house in Chiloe but live very close to the Yacht Club there in Concon. Jorge is an artist so he invited me over to see his paintings and his studio and I shared a wonderful vegetarian lunch with the three of them. I would love to come back and visit them again in the future.

The boat was scheduled to leave in the morning on a Wednesday but due to the all too common complicated bureaucracy of the Chilean customs system the crew was not able to depart until late that afternoon. It was a great headache all the way around but it didn’t taint our experience with the country in general, which was shining.

I headed out for Santiago with Kirsty and dropped her off at the airport and then vegged out in the airport hotel for another day before I left for Lima.

Sailing the Southern Pacific

We began by navigating our way South back out of the channels. The scenery reminded me a lot of the San Juan Islands back home, it was gorgeous and very easy sailing. Near the end of the channels we stopped for the night and anchored outside of the home of Alberto Montenellro on the island of Chiloe (cheel-oh-ay). Alberto is the author of a guide to the Patagonian channels of Chile which was instrumental to Ocean Watch’s navigation of these waters. When we wrote to him about using his guide he happily invited us to his home for dinner. His daughter Ana Maria, son-in-law, Jorge, and their teenage son also joined us. Alberto did all the cooking. His wife had passed away several years ago so he was very pleased to have guests and company. He was a very lively host and cooked a very fine meal. There were mussels (which I don’t normally eat but I could still appreciate) and grilled salmon and potatoes. After dinner we rode the dingy back to the boat under the bright southern stars and all slept full and happy.

The following morning we weighed anchor around 6:30 to catch the outflowing tide into the Pacific. It was a perfect blue sky and deep blue sea and relatively calm. Around eight off to the starboard side I spotted some whales. They were too far away to identify but we’d been told that Blue Whales were common in that area and time of year.

Soon the seas and the wind picked up at our backs and we were scooting right along at about 12 or 13 knots. By that evening the swell had grown to a wild and wooly 14-15 feet! Because we were traveling with the wind the motion wasn’t as bad as it sounds. One wave would come up underneath us and then we’d surf swiftly down the leeward side. Sleeping wasn’t entirely easy in these conditions. I had a hard time getting my neck comfortable. Every time it was just right the boat would roll and I’d lose my spot. The leecloth that ties up across the side of the bunk was definitely necessary. I came to really like the privacy and coziness it afforded as well.

I was on watch with Mark, David T. and Kirsty-four hour day shifts and three hour nights. I impressed the crew by always being the first up for my shifts. It was just too painful to lie there longer, lamenting the loss of sleep. Better to just get up and do it. Conversation flowed easily and after the first day or two we had built up enough jokes between us to pass the hours very quickly. But beware of what you let Herb overhear because it just might make it into the public blog…

Time becomes as the sea aboard Ocean Watch, fluid and dreamy. One morning we had another pod of dolphins join us. They swam alongside us for a couple of hours, dodging and surfing through the large seas.

The sea flattened around the time we were passing by Concepcion (epicenter of the recent Chile earthquake) and we finally had to turn the motor on after two quiet days of pure sailing. We plodded on for another day and finally pulled into the marina in Concon, about forty miles south of Valparaiso.

We had a large party of welcomers including some press, Yacht Club members, a host of excited children, Mauricio Ojeda (friend of Herb’s and classmate and coworker of Alberto’s) and two of his thirteen grandchildren. We conducted a couple interviews and then climbed ashore for a beautiful lunch on the terrace overlooking the marina.

Mario's Epic Tale of Pain and Folly over a Visa to Peru

To all who have seen the bizarre facebook status updates as they've gone by, here's the whole story of Mario's difficult journey to Peru and back over the past three days.

He came to meet me here in Lima on Friday so he left early Friday morning. He had an all day layover in Panama City and he arrived in Lima about 10:30 Friday night. We were all excited to see each other and then I got a phone call from him saying that he couldn't pass immigration. I thought he was just teasing me so I laughed at first until I realized he was serious.

Apparently, citizens of Central American countries need a Visa to enter Peru. It only costs $12 but they make you buy it in your home country. The airline allowed him to check in without checking to see that he had this Visa. So he got stuck in the Lima airport all night on Friday to be sent back to Panama on Saturday morning.

He needed to get to a Peruvian consulate so I thought it made more sense to just stay in Panama for the weekend until the consulate opened on Monday so he could fly directly from there without risking another long layover. He spent all Saturday talking to airline officials and finally they said he could leave the airport.

As he left the airport however, the arrested him. I guess because he was in transit, technically deported, he wasn't allowed to exit the airport until Costa Rica. Of course no one had told him that either.

So they put him in a room with 8 smelly guys and nothing like a bed. And someone had even stolen his toothbrush, which, if you know Mario, is a really big deal. This is his second night spent in an airport since he left CR. He called me exhausted and upset, as you can imagine, and there was nothing I could do. I told him to go eat and buy a new toothbrush and that I loved him.

He was supposed to fly out the following morning at 7am but just as he was about to board his flight they canceled the entire flight due to plane trouble. He tried all day to get on another flight but he couldn’t track down any airline officials all day and when he did all that was left was the next morning. He still couldn’t leave the airport. So Mario spent ANOTHER day and night, his third, in the airport.

He was then supposed to be on a flight this morning (Monday) at 5am. They said they would call him but they changed the gate without telling him so he missed that one too.

Finally they put him on a flight that left at 8:40 this morning and he must be on it because I haven’t heard anything otherwise.

Once he gets to Costa Rica he has to go to do battle with TACA to make them give him a new roundtrip ticket back to Lima, since it was their fault they didn’t properly check his passport on check-in. I think truly, it’s the very least they can do. Also he will have to go to the Peruvian embassy and hopefully get the stupid visa and then maybe, if that all comes together, he can travel all over again just to come see me.

It’s been a nightmare and every time I think it’s at its worst it worsens somehow.

So he’s had terrible luck but I, most certainly, have been very fortunate. I left Santiago just a matter of hours before the earthquake. The airport has been shut down for days and will continue to be for a while more. I can’t imagine how awful it would have been had I tried to leave the country just a day later.

So that’s our epic tale for the present. Not even including all the stuff from work. Life’s been very weird lately so I’m hoping things will begin to normalize soon and Mario and I can just have a nice vacation together in Peru.