Wishing all our friends and blog followers a happy Easter celebration!
Today we have more wind and thus more waves / unruly sea, but this makes the trip shorter ;-). Average travel speed today over 7 knots.
Current position: 30deg20,8'S and 084deg52,8'S
Michaela
P.S. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag an Markus H.- hoffe, Du liest das.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Marcus and Michaela sailing the world's oceans on their most beautiful boat Alita. Join the adventure!
30.03.2013
29.03.2013
Out on the pacific ocean
Days like today are the most beautiful. Blue skies, sunshine, easy wind letting us travel at 4,8-7 knots with a nice wave which softly rocks us but does not thorw us around. We're listening to relaxing classical music and everybody is relaxing, enjoying and happy.
Yesterday morning, on the 28th of march 2013, at around 9am local time, we left Isla Robinson Crusoe (Juan Fernandez). We had a great 2 days there with hiking, horsebackriding, Gyuri and Thomas eating Lobster - a specialty there. The island is beautiful, a mixture of desert, tropical rainforest and volcano. All mountains up to 1000m high, only the small spot where the viallge is can be inhabited. THe rest is too mountainious. Around 600 people live there together with many beautiful dogs and probably live off the few tourists that come there. Max 15 per week travel there by plane and once in a while a sailor comes by. There is a beautiful lodge, probably the most expensive hotel on the island - 40yrs in business already. All the "down"town, meaning the town not on the hill, had been devasted 2 years ago in a tsunami created by an earthquake on Chile mainland. They are still in the middle of reconstruction. Everything is new and actually made of hig quality woods. There are parks, at least 3 children's playgrounds, a soccer field, a public gymn, 3 little supermarkets etc. Flowers bloom everywhere out of desert dirt floor with colibri rushing around between the blossoms singing their happy songs. Butterflies share the smell and looks of the blossoms with them. Happiness and peace lies over this little place.
When I hiked up the mountain to Alander Selkirk's lookout you can feel how it must have been 300 years ago, alone on the island for 4,5 years hoping one day a ship would find him. The Scotish guy gave the story for Dafoe's Robinson Crusoe. That's why the island is called Robinson Crusoe island. And Isla Juan Fernandez - the guy who later found the island. When you walk up to the lookout you pass by a part where supposedly Alexander (or Alejandro, how they call him there) used to live. Just like the Goombay Dance Band sings in their song "Robinson Crusoe" (which I put on when we arrived at the island): he learned to be a carpenter, a farmer, a scientist, fisherman....You can definitely survive on this island, but you have to help yourself...
There are 3 ways to explore the island: hike for hours, ride on a horseback - or better muleback, and by boat. That's also the way to get from the airport to the town. You choose when you book. Hiking takes hrs up and down the mountain, horseback takes 5hrs, boat probably an hour. For the first time in my life did I ride on a muleback (Maultier). It was great, a lot safer on the steep mountains than a horse. And the canter (galopp) as good as horses, mine was very soft, just great. Poor thing had to climb up the ountain so steep and path so narrow that even hiking myself I would have become nervous on some parts. All went well and I got to see more desert and the volcano part of the island.
Our current position is: 31deg 49,6' S and 082deg 02,7'W, water temp about 21deg C. Wonderful deep blue ocean, seagulls flying around our boat. This is peace.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Yesterday morning, on the 28th of march 2013, at around 9am local time, we left Isla Robinson Crusoe (Juan Fernandez). We had a great 2 days there with hiking, horsebackriding, Gyuri and Thomas eating Lobster - a specialty there. The island is beautiful, a mixture of desert, tropical rainforest and volcano. All mountains up to 1000m high, only the small spot where the viallge is can be inhabited. THe rest is too mountainious. Around 600 people live there together with many beautiful dogs and probably live off the few tourists that come there. Max 15 per week travel there by plane and once in a while a sailor comes by. There is a beautiful lodge, probably the most expensive hotel on the island - 40yrs in business already. All the "down"town, meaning the town not on the hill, had been devasted 2 years ago in a tsunami created by an earthquake on Chile mainland. They are still in the middle of reconstruction. Everything is new and actually made of hig quality woods. There are parks, at least 3 children's playgrounds, a soccer field, a public gymn, 3 little supermarkets etc. Flowers bloom everywhere out of desert dirt floor with colibri rushing around between the blossoms singing their happy songs. Butterflies share the smell and looks of the blossoms with them. Happiness and peace lies over this little place.
When I hiked up the mountain to Alander Selkirk's lookout you can feel how it must have been 300 years ago, alone on the island for 4,5 years hoping one day a ship would find him. The Scotish guy gave the story for Dafoe's Robinson Crusoe. That's why the island is called Robinson Crusoe island. And Isla Juan Fernandez - the guy who later found the island. When you walk up to the lookout you pass by a part where supposedly Alexander (or Alejandro, how they call him there) used to live. Just like the Goombay Dance Band sings in their song "Robinson Crusoe" (which I put on when we arrived at the island): he learned to be a carpenter, a farmer, a scientist, fisherman....You can definitely survive on this island, but you have to help yourself...
There are 3 ways to explore the island: hike for hours, ride on a horseback - or better muleback, and by boat. That's also the way to get from the airport to the town. You choose when you book. Hiking takes hrs up and down the mountain, horseback takes 5hrs, boat probably an hour. For the first time in my life did I ride on a muleback (Maultier). It was great, a lot safer on the steep mountains than a horse. And the canter (galopp) as good as horses, mine was very soft, just great. Poor thing had to climb up the ountain so steep and path so narrow that even hiking myself I would have become nervous on some parts. All went well and I got to see more desert and the volcano part of the island.
Our current position is: 31deg 49,6' S and 082deg 02,7'W, water temp about 21deg C. Wonderful deep blue ocean, seagulls flying around our boat. This is peace.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
23.03.2013
Ready to cross the pacific
Alita is painted and maintained, the new crew members are aboard, food stored, Marcus and I are tired from all the work. No time for anything else, not even for blogging. Will write more when we're out there.
We'll leave tonight or tomorrow morning.
I uploaded some pix from Puerto Montt and here on: http://sailing.smichah.de/#50.0
Here just a few of them:
Puerto Montt
Kelp - they sell it for food, we hated dealing with it on the boat....
Our log: 9999,9nm
AND: the change to 10000
Vina del mar
Desert on the way to Santiago
Alita ready to go back to the water
beach pool in yacht club
Pelicans
There is a huge sand dune here, unfortunately the buil millions of homes there
Lavender at the beach
Wish us luck for the long pacific crossing...
We'll leave tonight or tomorrow morning.
I uploaded some pix from Puerto Montt and here on: http://sailing.smichah.de/#50.0
Here just a few of them:
Wish us luck for the long pacific crossing...
18.03.2013
Alita happy on land
Just a quick note: we're making progress and Alita is enjoying her relaxation on land. Her lower body is nice, clean and white again, the bow thruster works, the motor is in service, some painting on deck going on, sewing to be done....Tomorrow we hope to get the orderd motor spare parts and the new batteries. With the batteries we'll almost double our energy power....
I really enjoy hearing the ocean all day while working and at night. The ocean breaks about 30m from our boat behind the water breaker. ...
I received a relaxing massage today, so I feel better as well...
So long for today, back soon with a few pix.
I really enjoy hearing the ocean all day while working and at night. The ocean breaks about 30m from our boat behind the water breaker. ...
I received a relaxing massage today, so I feel better as well...
So long for today, back soon with a few pix.
15.03.2013
Sunset from Alita at land
14.03.2013
We're in Concon/Higuilleras
Made it to the Yacht Club safely last night at midnight. 685nm in 3,5 days!
New records: highest speed 14,3knots, highest etmol (travelled distance per day): 210nm.
Taking Alita out tomorrow.
New records: highest speed 14,3knots, highest etmol (travelled distance per day): 210nm.
Taking Alita out tomorrow.
11.03.2013
Hallelujah
That was the name of a boat in the last marina. When you looked at it, you would also say "Hallelujah" if you made it alive over a longer distance.
But "Hallelujah" is also waht my dad would say, and maybe is saying from heaven, when I told him, that today, march 11th 2013, at 1817 UTC, on position 39degrees 00,5minutes S and 074degrees 16,07 minutes W the counter on our log went from 9999,9 to 10000 nm. We started in June last year with 0000,0nm on the counter. So we travelled 18520km (about 11575 landmiles) since then adding to the about 2400nm of the trip from Turkey to the Gran Canaria. And at this historical moment Alita shows from her best side, racing the waves downwind with between 7,5 and 9,5knots, with just the genua out,at between 20 and 30knots wind from behind. Unfortunately the waves don't come straight from behind, they almost never do, so we get thrown around a bit and can't really sleep - but thanks to the lifting up center board (hochkippbares Schwert) we have a lot less of that efect than any kiel boat. By the way, for german speaking people: Marcus wrote a little appreciation about Alita, the things we love and the things which we do not like so much, in the last entry on the german blog. If I have time I'll translate it and post it on a separate page here in this blog. All the technical data about Alita can be found on the website. The bottom line is: we LOVE our Alita and would definitely buy the same boat again, especially for this tour.
Since we're travelling so fast at the moment we expect to arrive in Valparaíso either on the 13th at night or 14th early in the morning, so a day earlier than expected. Got work to do....After 10000nm Alita has really deserved the body massage (cleaning her body with high pressure water) and new paint we're going to give her as well as all the maintenance to make her fit for the next passage to New Zealand.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
But "Hallelujah" is also waht my dad would say, and maybe is saying from heaven, when I told him, that today, march 11th 2013, at 1817 UTC, on position 39degrees 00,5minutes S and 074degrees 16,07 minutes W the counter on our log went from 9999,9 to 10000 nm. We started in June last year with 0000,0nm on the counter. So we travelled 18520km (about 11575 landmiles) since then adding to the about 2400nm of the trip from Turkey to the Gran Canaria. And at this historical moment Alita shows from her best side, racing the waves downwind with between 7,5 and 9,5knots, with just the genua out,at between 20 and 30knots wind from behind. Unfortunately the waves don't come straight from behind, they almost never do, so we get thrown around a bit and can't really sleep - but thanks to the lifting up center board (hochkippbares Schwert) we have a lot less of that efect than any kiel boat. By the way, for german speaking people: Marcus wrote a little appreciation about Alita, the things we love and the things which we do not like so much, in the last entry on the german blog. If I have time I'll translate it and post it on a separate page here in this blog. All the technical data about Alita can be found on the website. The bottom line is: we LOVE our Alita and would definitely buy the same boat again, especially for this tour.
Since we're travelling so fast at the moment we expect to arrive in Valparaíso either on the 13th at night or 14th early in the morning, so a day earlier than expected. Got work to do....After 10000nm Alita has really deserved the body massage (cleaning her body with high pressure water) and new paint we're going to give her as well as all the maintenance to make her fit for the next passage to New Zealand.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
04.03.2013
Thermal Hotel and Chiloé
Here are some pictures of the Hotel with the Thermal Pools I had written about: http://sailing.smichah.de/#47.0
Chiloé
Chiloé is
Chile’s most desired island for vacation. It is not a place to go for swimming
and “beaching” like Chile’s Easter Island (although I see kid swimming in the
14°C cold water), but it sure is a beautiful island with lots of possibilities
on the island itself and the surrounding islands. Mostly green nature to watch,
two National Parks partly along the southwest and west coast with great hiking possibilities (not as tough hiking as
in Torres del Paine National Park) as well as offers for horseback riding, Golf,
Kayak, whale watching, Pinguin island and so on. The island lies just an about
50km Ferry ride away to the south of Puerto Montt, which is civilized area
reachable by car/train/plane. From north to south the island is a bit less than
200km long, probably around 50km wide and consist of green hills, lots of
farming, lots of (vacation) homes with big lots, a couple of towns, the capitol
Castro (around 18000 inhabitants) and the one paved highway #5 (besides that
only sand/stone streets. The people here are very friendly, relaxed and mostly
live of fishing (especially all the (ugly) salmon farms and the mussle farms)
and the industry and tourism around it.
A specialty
on this island are the houses on piles. The first inhabitants were all
fishermen and did not want to build houses on the land. In order to build over
water they needed high piles since the tide has a couple of metres here. The
wooden constructions have become typical for Chiloé and so today they still,
even on land, often build houses on piles. That’s what I have understood talking to
people here, but maybe I did not get it right. Fact is all the houses at the
waters and near the waters are on piles
and many inland as well.
Another
unique architecture here are the wooden churches. The whole church including
the interior is made out of wood – in the design of stone. Except for the
windows, they are made out of glass. Unbelievably beautiful. Here: Iglesia San Francisco, World Heritage. By the way: there was a voting on the colour of the church. They say it was a long process. I wonder why...
AND: the german to be found.
Some more impressions on the island:
We’re tied
to the pier in the marina Quinched, about 10km away from Castro. Due to the
road situation you need 30Min. for those 10km (less than 7miles!). This place
here is very peace-and beautiful. Like a park with picnic area on the hill, a little
café open tues-sun from 4-8pm. The facilities are good and in local wooden
design. They even have a washing machine here which you can use for $4/load,
which is the cheapest washing we ever had on this whole trip.
All pictutres of Chiloé can be found here: http://sailing.smichah.de/#48.0
Jens, our
last crew member, left at 1pm today. Marcus and I finished cleaning up Alita,
tomorrow we’re gonna head out again. Destination: short stop in Valdivia and
then race up to Valparaíso to do all the work on the boat. In two weeks we’re
supposed to head out to the great big Pacific Ocean, with one or two new crew
members anxious to set sails.
Chiloé is
definitely worth a visit if you’re in Chile and nearby anyway – as well as the
Hotel with the Thermal pools in Bahía Dorita.
Abonnieren
Posts (Atom)