[PUP] Ice Dancer 01/04/07: Following the Peruvian and Chilean coast south

[Georgs Kolesnikovs]

Here's the latest from

Dick and Gail Barnes
Aboard Ice Dancer II, a Nordhavn 57
Friday 1/4/07 12:30 p.m.
28 47.9S   071 37.3W
630 nm South of Peru

Thursday 1/4/07
27 03.8S  070 49.7W (Puerto Caldera)

Wednesday evening we tied to a mooring ball at the Puerto Caldera 
Yacht Club.  This was our second club visit and were treated 
similarly...great.  A launch with three aboard met us upon arrival, 
led us to our mooring ball, tied our line, waited while we secured 
the boat, took us ashore, drove us to the Armada office for 
clearance, etc.  All of the above was at no charge.  It is the policy 
of the club to accommodate visiting yachtistas.

The club is a small facility in a town of about 12,000, consisting of 
mooring balls, a landing dock, club house and grounds.  Like most of 
the ports we have seen along the northern Chile coast, the primary 
activity is shipment of metals and concentrated ores mined in the 
interior.  A reasonably large fishing industry is present.  The fleet 
targets sardines that are rendered into fish meal at a local plant 
and shipped to fish farms to feed salmon.  The locals complained 
about falling stocks of larger fish, the cause being inescapable.

Today, we are running 65nm south to Puerto Carrizal Bajo, a 
river-mouth anchorage not shown on our charts, but described in a 
cruising guide.  Winds are calm under a June-gloom, foggy sky.  Water 
temp 63, air 65.  Today, the fan was stowed and heat turned on.  We 
will see if the fog follows the California pattern and burns off this 
afternoon.

Thursday 1/2/07  6 p.m. local
25 39.1S  070 38.7W

Last night, we enjoyed Caleta Blanco Enclada, a hook and rock pile 
that is protected from the predominant south wind.  The cove had 
several skiffs of double ended design, brightly painted in red. 
Ashore were fishermen's shacks, but no people.  One guess is they 
were at home for the holidays.

Sea birds keep changing as we head south.  More surprising than the 
shapes, sizes and plumage are the songs they sing; different from 
anywhere we have traveled.  Large fur sea lions look somewhat like 
the shaggy male lions of Africa.  Air temperatures are moderate for 
the latitude, cooled by the Humboldt Current.  The backdrop for all 
of this is the stark, barren desert that rises sharply from the coast.

This afternoon, we anchored at Caleta Cifuncho, about 125 miles south 
of Antofagasto.  In this well-protected cove is a fishing village of 
perhaps 25 houses.  A handful of tent campers are scattered along the 
sandy beach.

Days are getting longer, with the sun up from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. 
Tomorrow, we will run another 80 or 90 miles down the coast.

Sunday 12/31/06
Antofagasta

We are attending tonight the gala New Years Eve dinner and party at 
the Antofagasta Yacht Club.  Everyone here has been extremely nice 
and friendly.  Arrival of our boat is unusual for the club and local 
citizens.

We are moored parallel to a very old, iron pier that may have been 
designed by Eiffel, from its style.  It is abandoned and boarded up, 
but the kids, lovers and fishermen find a way to its end.

Boats are modest sized, mostly sailboats.  A fleet of old, brightly 
painted fishing boats is across the "old harbor", called that to 
differentiate it from the busy commercial port, just south.

There is much surge in the harbor, but we are comfortable with a 
stern anchor tightened against the mooring.

Yesterday's fueling was another adventure.  We backed in between 
boats and a pier for the travel lift and strung long lines at all 
corners to keep us out of trouble.  A tank truck delivered the 
diesel.  It makes one appreciate a floating fuel dock.

We have our Zarpe (cruising permit) in hand, with authorization to 
leave Monday morning for Puerto Montt and a stop at the yacht club at 
Algarrobo, if we can get a slip or mooring.  Otherwise, we will be 
using caletas or coves for several nights of anchoring.

Antofagasta never endures rain, and the hillsides are testament to 
that fact.  It is probably three times the size we saw twelve years 
ago, when we last visited.  It seems prosperous with a mall complex 
as modern and large as most in the U.S.  The demand for copper has 
provided lucrative financial input for this area.

Thursday 12/28/06 11 a.m. local
23 38.6S lat.  070 23.9W long.

Anchored at 10 a.m. Thursday at Antofagasta, Chile.  We will now wait 
on board for the National Police, Customs, Armada de Chile and 
Agriculture to separately come to visit.

The local yacht club was extremely helpful in getting us hooked up to 
a mooring and contacting the respective authorities.  In an few days, 
when the paperwork and onboard chores are completed, we will start 
down the coast.

Wednesday 12/27/06 5:15 p.m. local UTC-3
22 11.9S   072 13.6W

Tomorrow should put us into Antofagasta.  Then we can de-slime the 
boat, change main oil, change main transmission oil, change main fuel 
filter, clean main air filter, fix dinghy leak, check in with all the 
branches of government, buy food, buy fuel and push off again.  Ah, 
boat maintenance in exotic places.

We have sun this afternoon, which is a treat after a couple of 
overcast days.  In general, the weather has been cooperative on this 
leg of the trip.  A little further down becomes more complicated. 
Water temperature is down to 71, which impacts the weather.  The 
Humboldt current is flowing up from Antarctic waters.

Tuesday 12/26/06 1:38 p.m. local
19 40.6S  075 05.9W

Gail has been a great trooper on this crossing, only complaining when 
the apparent wind on the nose gets up to 30 knots and we start 
pounding.  The wind waves are local and therefore steep and close 
when that happens.  For comparative numbers, 1800 nm is the same 
distance as San Diego to 200 miles north of Juneau.  We have about 
360nm left to go, putting us in at a good time on Thursday.  Seas are 
reasonable, today, so we are running at higher speeds.  If conditions 
deteriorate, we will have the extra miles in the bag and may be able 
to reach Antofagasta at a good time of day, nonetheless.

Hours of favorable ham radio propagation keep dropping. We still have 
three or four stations that are reliable, but are not running as fast 
as when we had a stronger connection.  It will be interesting to see 
how it holds together as we fall off the south end of the earth.  Ham 
nets that I could hear, up and down the east coast, are now very 
faint.

We are getting e-mailed weather charts through ham radio high 
frequency transmission, a Pactor 3 modem and our computer.  The 
server is Winlink, using an AirMail program. I order Saildocs, grib 
files, and they send one every day for two weeks for the area 
selected, which now is from Galapagos to Cape Horn.

My other weather source is weather faxes received HF over the SSB.  I 
was using New Orleans, NOAA and now I'm using Chile.  The frequencies 
are all loaded in the Get Fax program, which is also from AirMail.

We spent considerable time getting these programs to work well and 
eliminate on-board interference issues.  They work great and it was 
well worth the effort with Alcom Marine Electronics and Shea Weston 
of Offshore Outfitters, San Diego.

Sunday 12/24/06
7:30 p.m. Chile Daylight Time
15 53.7S  079 06.3W

This morning we passed Lima, Peru, 200nm offshore.  Seas are 
bouncier, which is slowing us down a little.  No vessels have been 
sighted for two days.

We would like to make Antofagasta early enough Thursday to anchor and 
check in with the authorities, before they go onto overtime rates. 
Paperwork is a cottage industry in Latin countries, it seems.

Our grandson, Diego, is arriving in Santiago from Anchorage on 
January 11.  We are working toward a schedule that would put us at 
Santiago's coastal community of Vina del Mar or Algorrobo at about 
that time, so he and his grandparents (and others) could come down 
for a visit.

Distance to go is 675 miles of 1800 total.

Merry Christmas to all.

Friday  12/22/06 5 p.m. CST
10 36.1S 082 01.4W

Closer reading of Peru's regulations complicated use of Arica for our 
Chilean port of entry.  Peru claims and controls its waters out 200 
nm, for boats of all sizes.  Staying out until we hit Chile's border 
would make an awkward approach to Arica; therefore, we are taking a 
nearly straight shot to Puerto Antofagasta.  Estimated time of 
arrival is Thursday afternoon.

Friday 12/22/06 noon
10 06.9S 082 23.3W

Only 900 miles to go. I guess that's getting close.  Thinking of 
relativity, if we could travel faster, it not only would take less 
time, if wouldn't be as far (just ask Einstein), and we wouldn't age 
as much. We should get there sometime Wednesday, at about five days 
older.

Weather changes from bright sun to squalls, with trade winds 
constantly within 15 degrees of the bow, one side, the other or on 
the nose.  The only change is whether they are 12, 15 or 20 knots. I 
don't think we'll see sailboats heading this way.  I think they sail 
to Easter Island, then take the westerlies to Valdivia or Puerto 
Montt.

Our friend, Terry of Houston, remarked that he had not sneezed once 
since joining us in the Galapagos.  On reflection, Gail and I had not 
either.  In Mexico, there was lots of air pollution, even out on the 
Pacific Coast.  Sunsets looked like L.A., with the big red disc.  In 
Houston, he said his nose runs all the time.

Thursday 12/21/06
07 53.8S 084 28.2W

We are cruising along 225nm off the coast of Peru.  This morning, we 
passed two large fishing boats, working their catch.  One had a huge 
array of bright lights that may have been for squid.  Another hint 
was the scattering of small squid on the boat deck this morning, 
along with flying fish.

We stopped for an engine fluid check, only to find that the raw 
cooling water impeller was fried on the auxiliary engine.  So, some 
unplanned maintenance took place this morning.  All is back together 
and working well.  The impeller problem resulted from a vacuum leak 
on the sea-chest strainers.  I knew that they were showing wear and 
had Nordhavn's parts department order spares.  I shouldn't have put 
off changing them.

Wednesday 12/20/06
05 37.2S  086 34.4W

We are plugging along against the Humbolt Current, just like a salmon 
running upstream.  No salmon here, this morning, but we did catch a 
nice mahi mahi.  That means putting the fishing poles away for a 
while, until we thin out contents of the freezers.

Skies are heavy overcast, with light squall conditions.  Maybe we 
will get enough rain to wash off the boat.  Conditions change 
quickly, so it could be bright and sunny in a few hours.

Things are routine, on board, with three-hour watches alternating 
overnight.  We have detected no boats on radar, by sight or by our 
automatic information system (transponder) since leaving Islas 
Galapagos.  The AIS would pick up any ship within 50 miles.  For 
entertainment, we are watching a Middlebury College physics course, 
on relativity.  It is challenging, but like a sedative if you are 
tired.  In the middle of the night, action movies or up-tempo music 
works better.

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