This morning we packed and prepared the boat to be left for a few days. The rental car agency dropped the car off and by a little after 10:15 am we were on the road. Ruta 5, Panamerica Sur, is a 4 lane divided highway we used for most of the drive. It is a well maintained road and if not for the signed in Spanish you might think you were in the United States.
We took a short detour to Frutillar, a German community on Lago Llanquihue. Across the lake you can see two of Chile's many volcanos, snowcapped Osorno and Calbuco. One restaurant had carved trolls outside and a fellow playing accordion. We chose another restaurant farther down the street with a view of the lake. Rich and Rita had the Wiener schnitzel, while Don had the pork schnitzel and I had a great chicken soup. We drove along the shore and saw a large fish farm on the lake before going back to the main highway and into Puerto Montt.
It was raining heavily as we checked out the marinas. They are all full of sailboats for the 5 day regatta, starting on Jan. 25. The race is similar to the VanIsle 360 where boats race from one place to another each day and at the end complete a circuit around an area. We saw sailors preparing, carrying sails, tuning rigs, loading on food and water. Many of these crews are professional racers.
The last marina we stopped at was Club de Yate Relonclavi, which also has a hard stand area as well as docks. Our friends, Chris and Margie of SV Storm Bay of Hobart have their boat here. We last met them in Tenacatita. We will meet them for dinner on Friday to exchange information, they want to know about cruising the coast up north and we want to know more about the yacht club and points south. Seems like a fair exchange.
We are staying at a hotel close to downtown Puerto Montt and even have a view of the water from our room. Don, Rita and Rich enjoyed the sushi buffet for dinner while I had pasta.
Tomorrow we will explore more of Puerto Montt.
Sent from SV Windarra iPad
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