Our new
port, Club de Yates Higuerillas is a popular resort area for Chile, home to a
50 year old yacht club and a stretch of beach running from Concón to Viña del
Mar.
The busiest season is from December
to March, the yacht club with weddings and parties every weekend, beaches
packed, people on the streets holding up signs, reading “cabanas”. This could be anywhere USA. Unlike Peru, many have cars here. There are hundreds of high rises and malls
that span three blocks. Name brand
stores, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Columbia, the list goes on.
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| water is less than 60 degrees F. |
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| here they're in swimsuits,on the street we were wearing a light jacket! |
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| Club de Yates Higuerillas |
We arrived
two days after Fedor Konyukhov, a Russian, left to row across the Pacific from
Chile to Australia in a specially built boat, for 9173 nautical miles in 6
months. Crazy? I think so, but extreme
adventure is not for everyone. He has
many credits to him, he’s circumnavigated the world 4 times, he’s climbed 7
summits , he’s solo rowed the Atlantic, North Geographic Pole by ski 3 times,
South Geographical Pole by ski unsupported.
www.konyukhov.ru I was sorry to have not met him
The marina
is super for cruisers, even though a bit expensive. The marina calls in your arrival to the
armada and provides the zarpe on your departure. There are two water taps on the dock, one for
washing the boat and one for drinking water.
The bus service is frequent and cheap.
There is a Super Lider (Lee-der)
equivalent to a USA Wal-Mart in Viña del Mar about a 10 minute bus ride and 20
minute bus ride to Valparaiso.
We had not
planned on staying long, only long enough to see the fireworks and kill a very
annoying mouse that had been eluding us since Iquique.
Some men on a power boat in Iquique told us about Valparaiso and the quest to set a
Guinness World Record with the largest fireworks display. This we had to see. The previous record was held by Kuwait in
2011. It has been several years since we
stayed up for mid-night. The boat next
to us had a gentleman that spoke English and in passing I had wished him ‘Happy
New Year”. He let me know that in Chile,
“it is bad luck to wish someone feliz ano
before midnight”.
The marina’s
yard had been quite busy the week prior building the 3 barges that the
fireworks would be discharged from.
There were three of these barges for the bays in our immediate area. The main show was in Valparaiso with barges such as these placed in the bays all the way down to Concón, two bays down from us.
We had our
champagne prior to leaving the boat and around 10:30 p.m. we walked out to the
jetty and up into a lookout tower. We were soon joined by a group of 6
Chileans all carrying champagne which they insisted on sharing with us at the
stroke of midnight. Then the good wishes
flow with hugs and kisses for the New Year.
What a fantastic fireworks display.
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| the lookout on the break wall looking out into the bay Jorge told us that it is next year they’re going for the record. Dubai got it for 2014. |
We did spend
a bit of time here waiting for weather, exactly 21 days. In that time we bought a mouse trap that did
not work. We had our little problem with
us for so long we started calling him “Ratatouille”. We then bought glue strips
for his feet to get stuck in. This
worked. We had caught our hitch hiker,
only he wasn’t a mouse he was a rat! Should
have been calling him “Willard”. So gross
and creepy. They crawl along the dock
lines and onto the boats. We asked Jorge
how many cats the marina had. “No one
knows” he said, but many. He told us the
board of directors had wanted to get rid of them and was having them hunted. The owners requested that they leave the cats
because the poison they’re using was like a breakfast cereal for them. They were multiplying and getting
stronger. Sounded like our
“Willard”. Captain Don slung him far
away into the deep blue. (I hope the
glue wasn’t water soluble and he was able to swim back to shore, yikes). Now that he was gone, we tore the boat apart
again. Every drawer, cabinet, the floor
boards, everything up and out. Shake,
wash, clean, sterilize. So good to have
water on the dock available.
We took a
day trip to Valparaiso looking for a must have book of charts, the Atlas
Hidrografico de Chile. You can purchase
online @ www.shoa.cl/pagnueva/publicaciones.html or go
to 254 Playa Ancha - Valparaíso - Chile - Teléfono
(32) 2266666 - Fax (32) 2266542. They had one copy
available. Lucky us. We spent the rest of the day tooling around,
riding an ascensor up the hills
(cerros), which is what Valparaiso is known for. One of these ascensors, 15 in all, was built in 1883 and is still in
operation. There are many hill tops
providing panoramic views of the city and the Pacific. I tried to see one of the cemeteries which were
according to Lonely Planet is where tombs are “ornate mini palaces”. I caught enough of a glimpse from an ascensor
to realize I was going to have to hike two hills on foot to get to it. I really didn’t want to climb another hill
since we were carrying our new Chilean Atlas weighing no less than 10 lbs. It’s going to be a great coffee table book
someday.
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| Ascensor |
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| view from ascensor |
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| wooden mechanics for the ascensor |
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| view of Valparaiso |
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| cemetery |
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| cemetery |
While
waiting for weather we also tried to arrange for a bottom paint job. This was impossible with our boat. A painter was arranged and pricing
acceptable. The haul out arranged. We could not find paint. We have an aluminum boat and cannot use paint
that has copper in it. The haul out
service has 2 charges, the haul by the hour and then the pressure wash by the
hour. Prices are based on the size of
your boat and the taxes. We had arranged
to have our boat hauled and washed just before we’re ready to leave which
worked out great.
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| This bird had her nest at the end of the lift dock! |
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| bird nest at the end of this track |
Jorge had
arranged for us to purchase some necessities for going south from one of the
suppliers the marina uses, Carlos. He
came to the boat with his Port Supply Catalog and we placed our order. The following week he came back with the
items we had chosen. Prices were comparable
to what the catalog pricing was for the US.
A weather
window finally presented itself, so we arranged for our haul out and pressure
wash. Did some provisioning and Jorge obtained
our zarpe to Valdivia 465 miles away.
Still heading south—next port Valdivia
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