Monthly Archives: May 2019

Sugar Shack alone at Bahia Llucio

El Mar: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

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El Mar, the sea, the ocean, the Pacific.  All the same, a challenge.  Must admit, it has been a bit frustrating traversing across this side of the ocean.  Perhaps it is our route and I am being unfair, but gesh!  The majority of our days sailing down the coast of Chile have been with the wind and current on our nose.  We can figure out how to deal with that, but then you couple those conditions with the swirly seas and it becomes downright uncomfortable.

Please refer to the “live blog on 21 February 2019” as I don’t want to be repetitive.

The 600nm trip from Quintero to Valdivia should have taken us between 5-6 days.  We padded it a little as all of our trips have taken longer than expected with the stronger currents and weather conditions.

Early on the 4th morning, we were seeing almost 2 knots of current and over 20 knots of wind pushing against us.  El mar was so squirrely that our auto pilot could not hold our course.  We had a choice.  We could either keep our heading and make it to the next safe harbor 60 miles away.  At our speed it would take us 2.5-3 days.  Or we could turn around, backtrack 40 miles and hide out in Bahia Llico.  We decided to backtrack.

Bahia Llucio

Bahia Llucio is a one horse town. Well, not literally, but there are only about 4-5 streets, 3 small tiendas, 6 restaurants, and a fish market.  We walked the entire town in 10 minutes.  However, they do have a magnificent, long beach peppered with lovely little sea shells, crabs, clams, and muscles.

The bay is surrounded by lush, green trees which is a stark difference to its Northern towns.  Fishing boats are pulled in and out to sea using a tractor and a dozen dogs are your welcoming committee.

Bahia Llucio Anchorage

Bahia Llucio Anchorage

It was cold, so we were in full cold weather gear when we went to shore.  The pack of dogs followed us on our walk down the beach.  A small herd of cows were sun bathing, but would have nothing to do with Matt.

Bahia Llucio beach walk

Bahia Llucio beach walk

We hit out in this bay for 4.5 days before a weather window presented itself.  We had 180nm to conquer against the wind, waves, and current.  El Mar was cooperating as we were leaving.  The trip started out decent enough, we had a double reef in the main for about 12 hours before taking it down.  But then, el mar started to mimic a washing machine cycle making it a really uncomfortable ride.  We forged ahead and arrived at the Valdivia mouth at dawn.  A short 2-miles up the river and we arrived at Club de Yates Marina Estancilla.

Valdivia - Club de Yates

Valdivia – Club de Yates

Some fun photos.  Matt surrounded by his computers and charts, sunset and sunrise

Matt navigating from inside

Matt navigating from inside

Sunset at sea

Sunset at sea

Sunrise at sea

Sunrise at sea

This is what it looks like when a fishing boat encroaches on your space.  Of course, this only happens at night.

Close encounter at sea

Close encounter at sea

TRIP 1 – Thwarted and had to backtrack

  • Total miles – 377
  • Total hours – 76
  • Max Speed – 11.1
  • Average Speed – 4.9

TRIP 2 – Continuation to Valdivia

  • Total miles – 199 nm
  • Total hours – 40.25
  • Max Speed – 8.3
  • Average Speed – 4.9
Humbolt Penguins Pichidangui

Pichidangui, Pichidangui, Pichidangui

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Just because it is so much fun to say, “pichidangui” pronounced “pee chee don gee.”  We left Coquimbo before dawn with the hopes of making it to Punta Sierra.  It was a long shot, but we really wanted to make it there before dark.  An 80-mile trip at an average of 6kts should have taken us 13 hours. Which would have put us in right at dusk.  However, we had very little wind and what wind we had was on our nose.  We also had waves and a 1-1.5 kts current pushing us backwards.  So, as it was we could not make it before dark so we decided to carry on to Pichidangui.

We arrived in Pichidangui after 143 nm over 27 hours with an average speed of 5.3 kts.  Bright, beautiful, blue water, sun on our faces and a greeting committee.  The Club de Yates team met  us as we were circling for a good spot to anchor (kind of like a dog does to find the perfect place to pee).  They offered us a “gratis” mooring which we gladly accepted.

We went ashore to do the formalities and check out this quaint little town.  The check in process was relatively easy, strange as that has not been the case in previous ports.  We signed in at the Club, they called the Armada, and we were good to go.  Sweet.

Club de Yates Pichidangui

Club de Yates Pichidangui

We walked the entire town in less than an hour.  It is super small with two tiny “mercardos” a feria artesaneria (arts area where they sell to tourists, several dive shops and restaurants.  We decided to grab lunch at the Club restaurant with the hopes of gaining access to their wifi.

Club de Yates lunch overlooking Sugar Shack

Club de Yates lunch overlooking Sugar Shack

Humbolt Penguins

On the way back, we noticed a lot of people heading over Isla Locos a large rock off the anchorage.  People were going over there in kayacks, SUPs and little tour boats.  Hmmm.  Calls for an investigation.  We took sweetie over there and to our great surprise there penguins!  What penguins in Chile?  Yep, here is a great article on Chilean penguins.  The ones we saw are Humbolt penguins and they did not disappoint!

Isla Locos looks like it is partially covered in snow – but in reality, it is lots and lots of bird poop.  Way to ruin the illusion, right?  However, it does have some beautiful vegetation which we have not seen in the northern parts of Chile.

Isla Locos home of the birds

Isla Locos home of the birds

Humbolt Penguins of Chile

Humbolt Penguins of Chile

Humbolt Penguins of Chile

Humbolt Penguins of Chile

Birds of Isla Locos

Birds of Isla Locos

Awesome, Tranquil Bay!

When we got back to the boat, we settled in for the afternoon.  About an hour later, the Armada stopped by.  Not surprising as we called them when we arrived.  They checked our paperwork and informed us we had to go to Los Vilos to check out.  What, $hoot!

We decided we needed to go back to shore to try to find transportation to Los Vilos.  It is about 30 kilometers away, too far to walk, no taxis and no uber.  The team at CDY talked us through some options, which were slim.  Luckily, one of the guys said his dad could take us and bring us back for 25 mil pesos (or about $39).

The next day, we met Joel who drove us 30 minutes to the Los Vilos Capitaneria.  They were very nice, but exceedingly slow.  An hour later, we were back in the car on the way to Pichidangui.

A little fatigued, we decided a walk on the beach would make us feel better.  There is a 3.5 mile long beach that needed to be explored.  The sand has bright, shimmery, gold flakes all over it which makes it mesmerizing.

Gold flakes on Pichidangui's beach

Gold flakes on Pichidangui’s beach

We also walked up and around a hill and found a beautiful, little resort called Kon Tiki.  We wandered around their fort which faces the ocean and captured some fun photos.

Kon Tiki view of Phicidangui

Kon Tiki view of Phicidangui

First shot is the pool at Kon Tiki and the other shots are of the long Pichidangui beach

Pichidangui Beach

Pichidangui Beach

Bought some local art for the boat – these are made from palm fronds

Pichidanguay art work and beach walk

Pichidanguay art work and beach walk

Ovo Beach Bar in Coquimbo

Coquimbo Fun and Kindness

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Random acts of kindness brighten everyone’s day.  We have found that Chileans in general are extremely kind and very willing to go out of their way to help you.  Maybe its because the northern part of Chile is a holiday destination and everyone is in a good mood?  Or maybe just because it is who they are.  The Chileans we’ve met here in Coquimbo seem to take random acts of kindness to an entirely new level.

Every day, and I mean every single day, we’ve been here, we have had kayakers, SUPers, small sailboats stop by to welcome us, say “hi” and compliment us on our boat. We are not the only sailboat in the bay.  The marina manager personally took us in his car to the Capitaneria to straighten our our inflated bill from Huasco.  Locals have given us tips of where to go, what bays to stay in, and places to see.  It’s been refreshing and inspiring.

Sunday Funday

We decided to head to a beach bar on the other side of town.  Even though we could not remember the name, we knew we had passed it on our 10-mile walk. Luckily, I remembered it was near the New Pirats bar we stopped at for drinks.

Since we knew it was over 6-miles away, we decided to take a collectivo to the center of Coquimbo and then walk along the beach.  Effectively, cutting our walk in half, down to 3-miles.

It was a beautiful day.  The sun was shining, a cool breeze, and lots of people out and about  It was Sunday after all.  The collective (shared taxi) drops you off at Unimarc and the mall.  On the side of the mall is a living wall which is absolutely beautiful.  It has a huge array of colors, plants, and textures.

Living wall on side of mall, Coquimbo

Living wall on side of mall, Coquimbo

We continued past the Abasto Feria (fresh market) and walked along the beach toward Ovo Beach Bar.  The entire place was empty and just reaching out to us.  We ordered some drinks, enjoyed screaming fast wifi while basking in the sun.  Matt had me do a little photo shoot, but I kept laughing.

Ovo Beach Bar, Coquimbo

Ovo Beach Bar, Coquimbo

BEER RUN

We have heard from dozens of people how expensive it is to purchase any type of liquor in French Polynesia.  As you might recall, we stalked up on rum and vodka while we were in Panama over a year ago.  Yes, we still have a decent liquor stash, but our beer ran out months ago.

We loaded our push cart into the dinghy and headed to Lider, the local Walmart.  We found it on sale for about $0.60 per can.  Pretty darn good considering it is usually much higher than that here in Chile.

We asked a Lider employee if he had cases in the back and he just kept pointing to the newly stacked display.  Even though we didn’t want to cause them extra work of restocking, he insisted.  In order to get to the cases on the bottom, we had to move the individual 6-packs aside. Another employee came up and asked what we were doing and we told him we wanted to buy 15 cases.  He said, no problem, let me get them from the back.  What, you mean we don’t have to load them ourselves?  He came back 10 minutes later with 15 cases in our cart.  I tried to pay him but he would only accept my huge smile and hug.

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS CONTINUE

After the store security triple counted the beer, we paid and called Uber.  Our driver actually got out and helped us load the cases into his car.  Once we arrived at the marina, he helped us unload them on to the side walk.  WOWZA, 5-star rating for him.  Matt went to get the cart and the marina manager came by to give us a hard time about the stacks of beer.  He then called his son over to help us cart them across the yard to the dinghy dock.  Sweet.

Just when we thought we had exhausted all the kindness out of this country.  A local fisherman stopped to help us load the cases from the dock into the dinghy.  Man this could not be more astonishing.

But here is the thing.  This is not unusual behavior for Chileans.  Everyone we have encountered in this beautiful country has been extremely nice and willing to go out of their way to help us.

Beer Run February 2019

Beer Run February 2019

Let’s just hope Matt doesn’t drink them all before we get to French Polynesia – after all that is 2 months away.

Other Fun Photos

Manager at Club de Yates, Rolando

Coquimbo with Rolando

Coquimbo with Rolando

A night shot of the Millennium Cross

Millennium Cross at Night

Millennium Cross at Night

Sugar Shack Playa Herradura with Millennium Cross to far right

Sugar Shack Playa Herradura with Millennium Cross to far right