Still at Coquimbo

 

We are still here, watching the gribs, waiting for the southerlies to decrease. In the meantime we are enjoying the sunshine, the wifi at the yacht club and meeting new friends.

Today we met Sebastián Canoras, his parents and their friends. Sebastian's father is a circumnavigator. They are also friends with Ginger and Peter, late of SV Marcy but now of SV Irene. Sebastian has been windsurfing in the Bahia passing by Windarra. We had a great conversation here on the patio. They have invited us over for New Years's eve. How cool is that!

Coquimbo photos

Wooden church in downtown

Ramp to go up the hill, no cars though

Yachting Club de Herradura

29 58.781'S, 71 21.678'W

This morning we got the dingy inflated and went in to check into the yacht club. They are very welcoming and helpful. We get three days of free moorage and it will cost about $20 a day after that. We found out that they have a launch which will pick shuttle us to/from the boat. Wish we had known before we got the dingy out. Live and learn. The yacht club handles our check-in with the port captain as well.

Yachting Club de Herradura

Windarra at anchor

 

They called us a taxi so we could go into Coquimbo and see the folks at Entel, the company we are using for internet with the cell phone. With our limited Spanish and there was no one there that spoke English we did manage to get our phone up an working again. Unfortunately we only get 7Mb a day until January 1st and then we should have 120Mb. We will see.

We found a nice restaurant across the street for lunch and then we walked around town. In one plaza there was a nativity scene. Next to it was a tent blaring middle eastern music and a sign promoting the mosque in town. A little bit of everything.

We also saw ramps similar to Lombard Street in San Francisco leading farther up the hill. On top of the hill is a giant cross standing 93 meters high. It is supposed to have a museum as well.


Cheers

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Day 8, Passage to Valparaiso, Bahia de Herradura

29 58.781'S, 71 21.678'W

We left Isla Damas this morning. Before we left we checked the gribs for our passage south to Valparaiso and decided that we should go to Coquimbo instead and wait for the winds to calm down farther south.

We are now anchored at Bahia de Herradura Guayacan with is bordering the peninsula where the city of Coquimbo is located. Even though we tried to reach the Armada and the Club de Yate on the radio we received no response. So we anchored near the club and will launch the dingy tomorrow to do our check in.

More to come...

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Day 7, Passage to Valpariso, Isla Damas

29 14.115'S, 71 31.310'W

We arrived at Isla Damas at 4:46 pm and promptly anchored. Rich fixed our drinks and we sat in the cockpit, enjoying the silence with no engine running and scanned the shoreline. No penguins so far but many sea birds.

 

Tonight we will enjoy a steak dinner and watch the DVD, "Love Actually". We are looking forward to a good night's sleep in our bed instead of the cockpit.

No sure if we will be leaving tomorrow or not, it depends on what we see in the gribs, but until then, it is time to relax.

Merry Christmas from Isla Damas, Chile!

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Day 6, Passage to Valparaiso

27 23.579'S, 71 04.500'W

We continue our travels south. We had more favorable winds today and were able to use the staysail and yankee. At times we were going up to 7.4 knots speed over the ground which helps offset the times were we were only doing 3.5 knots.

We hope to be at Isla Damas tomorrow around noon and we will stop there. It is supposed to have lots of wildlife include Humboldt penguins. I am not sure what they look like specifically but I guess we will find out.

We hope that everyone will have a restful and relaxing Christmas tomorrow and we miss you all and wish we were with you or that you were with us.

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Day 5, Passage to Valparaiso

25 15.214'S, 70 45.689'W

This morning after transmitting our position to the Chilean Armada, we left Caleta Blanco Encalada and headed south. We saw two whale blows, lots of birds for a while but then not much else. The hills along the shore are beige, gray and then the tops are the hills are reddish. There has been little in between.

We had a little arts and crafts time, whipping the ends of some triple braid that we use for docking or with mooring buoys. The line had chafed from the piling in Iquique and is now two lines. Rich looked in our book of knots for a suitable knot to join the two. He also made some leather straps to put on shackles to help open them.

We are heading towards Isla Damas. Our fallback is Puerto Caldera if the weather does not cooperate.

Cheers.

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