Anchor down at 20.12.354
S / 70.09.188 W, Iquique , Chile. We
left Lima Peru after four months of incredible, indelible experiences. (Peru will be posted at a later date) A fine
motor sail of 116 hours, uh, nope, we did get to sail 10.5 hours in the wrong
direction. (I prefer going in straight
lines, a sail boat does not give that option when going against wind and
current. Given our chosen itenarary, we
will be going against wind and current for many more miles.) So, we have motor sailed a lot, much more
than the average sailor. Captain Don
only really complains when he starts seeing the fuel needle move in front of
his eyes in between blinking.
We called the Port Captain about two miles out and received
a rather quick response. We anchored amongst the tugs and pilot boats. Next call was to announce anchor down. Again a quick response with a few questions
ending with a stay put, we will be out in 20 minutes. We did not time them having become quite
familiar with “latin time”, two very
young Navy Personel arrived. They took
copies of crew list, boat documentation, zarpe from Peru, and our
passports. They returned a couple hours
later with three more people, the police, agriculture, and health agents. Spanish flying, stamps exchanging, laughs
with Captain Don and his stamp, he didn’t want to be left out, me passing the
candy bowl around, all visiting officials love and appreciate some type of
treat, more laughs and handshakes, we are now almost in Chile. Because we arrived on a Sunday we would still
need to go to the Armada office the following day to pick up our tourist visas
and find out how much we would pay for entry.
They did say we could go ashore if we wanted, but having arrived after 5 days at sea, we really only
wanted to eat a meal we didn’t have to chase on a plate and go to bed.
 |
| first look at Iquique sprawling doorway to the Atacama desert |
 |
| cargo ship we anchored close to |
The following day dinghy down, we go to marina and speak
with Patricio, the manager of Club de Yates Iquique. He showed us the slip we would be in and
viewed the tide tables as to the best time to come in. This is a shallow bay with many rocks. We need at least 6 feet at very minimum. He pointed to the markers we were to line up
with to enter, two red triangle shapes mounted on poles, one next to the
street, the other down on the rocks. He said just keep yourself in line with them and we have no
problemo. An agreed price of 12,500
pesos per day including wi-fi, water, and electricity.. We shake hands and off to the Armada Office,
a large yellow building standing at the end of the bay and around the corner
from the yacht club.
We asked to speak to Carla, the young woman who was on the boat the previous day. She handed us our tourist cards, good for 90 days, and bid us another welcome to Chile. She also said we needed to visit the Aduana’s office and the agriculture office. She found a friend of her’s to interpret directions to both those places and sent us on our way. While we waited for Carla, another woman, Veronica, approached us and said she would be calling her boss to find out how much we would pay for entry into Chile. They have set fees for boats of 25 tons or more that pay for entry into each port around $40 US. We are only 19 tons so she would have to find out. We told her we would return with a cell phone number she could reach us at when she got the information. Away we go to the Aduana’s. This particular port has many aduana offices and on the third try we found the right one. Lucky for us the agriculture, SAG, office is next door. The aduana office wasn’t quite sure which papers they needed since not many visiting private yachts come this way. After much deliberation between co-workers it was decided we needed clearance for our boat. (Our spanish listening skills still need work). Copies of boat documentation, passports handed over and we’re now officially in Chile. The SAG office said we needed nothing more.
A Chilean cell phone sim chip and lunch would now be our
priorities. The young naval officer that
had come to the boat recommended the cell company Entel. He is from Valdivia and gets good signal
where ever he has been in Chile. Easy
enough, the plaza has an Entel office and a variety of lunch spots. Only, this particular office does not sell
chips or prepaid plans. We were directed
around the corner and four blocks up.
Ok, off we go sidetracked only a couple of times with lovely hand carved
wooden chime clocks, stands with nuts and dried fruits, sidewalk cafes with
beautiful pastry counters and coffee aromas that had me salivating as we
continued our search for Entel.
Thankfully it was really just three blocks from the plaza. The person in charge of handing out a number
and a line for you to wait in spoke English.
Lucky at last. He took us
directly to a service person and explained what we wanted. No problemo.
Now can we eat? Awe,
but where? Back in Plaza Prat we stood
looking at the Torre Reloj clock tower designed by Eiffel and built in 1877
from wood. A brief stroll on the wooden
sidewalks peeking inside establishments, reading any menus posted outside, we
settled on a Croatian place that included a glass of wine with the price of
lunch. I thought desert at lunch was special, this
place included appetizer, desert, and
wine at lunch.
 |
| Torre Reloj Clock Tower, Plaza Prat |
 |
| we sat outside at this quaint Croatian restaurant, sipping wine indulging in peach mousse, wow. |
We made a quick stop at the
Armada office to give Veronica our cell phone number and then onto the marina
to confirm time and slip with Patricio.
At 18:30 we would bring Limbo in, med moor, anchor off the bow. There is a small finger pier with cleats and
the dock itself is a floating dock.
Tides here average 4 to 6 feet. With
the time left we’d get in a short
nap.
There was some hesitation
with the appointed time. We thought it might be too dark at 18:30, but Patricio
assured us not to worry. Back aboard Limbo,
we nap a bit and around 5 p.m. a tender to one of the pilot boats knocks on the
hull. A brief exchange of niceties,
conversation ensued regarding tides and our being able to enter the marina. There were 4 fishing boats rafted together in
front of the red triangles we were suppose to line up with. They say their good-byes and again we’re
thinking we should go now even though it’s only 5. All looks good, we line up doing a small
diversion to the port of the fishing vessels, passing them and then back on
course. Captain Don maneuvers Limbo to
drop anchor, tighten up and stern to the dock.
Patricio and another person caught lines as we churned the water
propelling Limbo in place. I say all
this because it then came to our attention there is a two hour time difference
in Chile. They have daylight savings
time. So when we thought we were eating
at 1 p.m. it was 3 and at 5 when we thought we were risking a new bottom job, it
was 7. No Problemo.
 |
| marina at Club de Yates Iquique |
 |
| Local fishing boats adding lots of color to the bay |
