On Friday the 21st of October we had arrived back aboard Sequitur, which was stored on the hard in the yard of Club Nautico Reloncavi along the CanalTenglo from Puerto Montt. The near-steady overcast, the single-digit temperatures and the copious rain disguised the fact that Spring was already a month old. We began by camping onboard with few creature comforts and commenced the slow process of awakening Sequitur from her winter slumber and getting her ready to carry us onward.
The electricity in the yard and on the floats in the marina is 'dirty'. I'm told variously that it has a bit of stray current in the neutral or in the ground. Whatever; both of our isolation transformers read it as being reverse polarity and will not accept the shore power. No great problem, simply plug our 30-Amp Black & Decker 3-phase battery charger, which we had bought at Sodimac in Valdivia. Oops; great problem, we had loaned it out in Valdivia, and we just discovered that it had not been returned. Fortunately we still had the rental car from Santiago for another day and a half, so Sodimac was added to our Saturday's shopping circuit.
Sodimac was out of 30-Amp chargers, and we could find none at any other store, so we bought a 10-Amp one, which will do, but will considerably cramp our style. We cannot run the generator while we're out of the water, so with a trickle of 10 Amps from the charger and the input from the solar panels in glum the weather, we'll need to budget electricity. We stopped along the way to fill four jerry cans with 80 litres of diesel, and at Supermercado Jumbo we bought a huge load of heavy staples, including three ten-kilo bags of flour, two dozen beer, a replenishment of wine and other things that would be awkward by bus. Also, because we had emptied Sequitur's fridges, freezers and larder of all fresh goods before we had gone back to Vancouver, we bought a full supply fresh setting-up-galley goods.
Slowly the battery bank came up to the point where, after a couple of days, we could flash-up the Espar furnace to supply us with heat and hot water. Fortunately, my diagnosis of its failure to run when we had arrived in Puerto Mont had been correct; the diesel level was below the furnace intake. The next day we ran two loads of laundry through the washing machine, turned-on the large fridge and Edi set-up the sewing machine to do-up new cockpit cushion covers. Sequitur was beginning to feel like home again.
While Edi sorted, inventoried and reorganized the food stores, I overhauled the main and secondary anchors. The galvanizing on the 100 metres of chain on the Rocna is still very fresh, and I saw no need to end-to-end it yet. I re-marked it in 10-metre lengths with coloured ties, using the rainbow sequence: red for 10, orange yellow, green, blue, then double red for 60, and so on. I also added a white tie at each 5-metre length. Hopefully this is all redundant; our AutoAnchor cockpit control and rode counter has finally been made to operate correctly after so many bumbling attempts by the fit-out yard in Vancouver. In Valdivia, Alwoplast was easily able to correct the incompetent work that had been previously done.
While we were in Vancouver, I was finally able to track-down a propeller shaft rope cutter that would fit onto our 38.1mm diameter shaft and into the 25.5mm gap between our VariProp and the strut bearing housing. R&D Marine in Hertfordshire, UK make a broad range from 316 stainless to fit most shaft and strut hub diameter combinations. They quoted £182 including express shipping to Vancouver. The cutter arrived with everything necessary for installation, including hex wrenches, LockTite and an 8mm drill bit to dimple the shaft for the setscrew. The instructions were in concise, un-translated English. Drilling the 3mm-deep dimple into our very hard stainless shaft required four full battery charges on our portable drill, but other than that, it was simple to install, and should save our hiring divers to untangle lines from the screw.
When we had stocked-up with food and spares in San Francisco and began seriously laying-in our wine cellar, Sequitur had settled into the water to the limits of her bottom's antifouling. The slightest ripple would wet the unprotected area of the hull and Sequitur regularly grew a beard. Now I wear a beard, but Sequitur is a lady, and a beard is unbecoming on her. We need to move the antifouling up, or as is commonly said among cruising sailors, raise the waterline.
The weather began to dry-out a bit during our second week back in Patagonia, so through Tideswell Marine Services, I arranged to have Sequitur's bottom done, including raising the waterline 8cm. David, the British owner talked two of his workers into spending the Saturday of a four-day long-weekend cleaning and sanding the entire bottom and then applying a first coat of primer above the existing line. Then everything ground to a halt for Chile to celebrate Halloween. This is a national holiday here, and the next day is also, so that people can recover from their sugar overload. Officially they are supposed to be observing All Saints Day and All Souls Day.
While we were employing 'Manuel Labour' on the hull, Edi and I took advantage of the sunny day to bus along to the market in Angelmo. This is a long, rambling collection of buildings with a focus on a seafood and fresh produce market. Although most produce arrives by truck, some still arrives by horse and wagon.
The tidal range in the Puerto Montt area is more than seven metres, and it is very common to see boats dried-out twice a day at low tide. Some of them, though, don't always re-float with the tides.
Besides what arrives by truck, the Angelmo fish market is supplied by many small fishing boats, which raft-up seven and eight deep along the pier.
There are small, impromptu merchants spread-out in a central courtyard, some with only a few items to sell, others with a broader selection.
Inside are more permanent stalls, offering a nice selection of fresh produce, artisanal cheeses, homemade preserves, honey and assorted condiments.
Mixed-in with the produce stands are the fish mongers. Many of these offer fresh whole fish, and it appears that as the day progresses, the stock is gradually converted to fillets, steaks and other renderings.
There is also a large selection of shellfish at some of the stalls, but with the prevalence Red Tide and the danger of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning, we have decided to restrict our shellfish to the certified canned variety for the present.
Behind most of the stalls were workers, young and old, busily adding value to the sea harvest by opening, cleaning and packaging a broad variety of seafood.
These were then displayed on sloping easels for the customers to easily browse. The attractive displays worked well; there was a steady stream of purchases, and the cleaners and packagers continued to replenish the displays.
By far the most common fish we saw were farmed Atlantic salmon, followed by merluza (hake).
We found some cold-smoked salmon, and bought a couple of 125-gram packages for 1000 Pesos each, which works-out to about $16 per kilo. The next morning for breakfast we enjoyed some superb lox on fresh baguette slices with cream cheese, capers and basil leaves. We'll have to buy lots more of this before we head south.
While we were at the Angelmo market, we walked along the half kilometre stretch of shops leading to it from central Puerto Montt. Most of the shops offer a boring selection of factory-made souvenir kitsch, identical to that in the shop next to it, and to the one beside that.
However; we did find some very nice soft reed baskets, and we bought a pile of them. Because they breathe well, are rather pliable and have a securable lid, they will be perfect bins for stowing potatoes, carrots, onions and other root-cellar items in our two well-below-waterline lockers beneath the forward cabin sole. We also bought some to serve as ready-use containers to further sort our frequently-used clothing.
On Tuesday when we were trying to work-out the logistics of buying 12 litres of bottom paint and some thinners, we met our neighbour across the lane. Roger is a retired banker with Coutts in the Strand, and he had just arrived back at his boat, El Vagabond. He and his wife have been wintering up in Los Rios Region, farm-sitting while friends travel. He had driven down to paint the bottom a week in advance of their moving from farm to boat. Within half an hour we were driving with him to buy bottom paint. Edi and I had brought our shopping bags and wheelie so we could be dropped-off at Supermercado Lider for another shopping spree on Roger's way back to the boats with his paint and ours.
We arrived at the paint store just as it was bolted shut for the 1300 to 1500 lunch break. With the paint store closed, we reorganized; Roger dropped us off at Lider and went off on other errands. He would pick us up again shortly before the paint store re-opened. Ideal; we now had a ride back with all of our groceries, and we had an hour and forty minutes for a whirlwind shopping spree. When roger returned to the supermarket we had something over fifty kilograms of loot. Our fridges and freezers are now beginning to fill again, as is the pantry.
On Thursday we made another bus trip to Mall Central and walked up the hill to Supermercado Jumbo. We returned with four over-stuffed bags, the two cooler bags filled with nine one-kilo vacu-packs of pork loin and eight huge turkey thighs for the freezer, plus two huge wax-covered blocks of a local semi-mature cheese called Chanquito, five blocks of butter, five of cream cheese and on and on. It is a long process to stock-up for four months, especially by bus.
We are steadily crossing entries off our list of things to do before we continue southward. While Edi organized below, I busied myself with such things as unpacking, reassembling and re-inflating the dinghy, checking and overhauling the running rigging and continuing to rewire some of the poorly done electrical connections from our Vancouver fit-out. Watching our activities with timid interest were several resident southern lapwings, which seemed comfortably inquisitive up to about two metres distance.
On Saturday afternoon, the 5th of November one of David's workers began applying the first coat of antifouling paint to Sequitur's bottom. We are slowly getting closer to going into the water and we are pleased to see our pre-departure to-do list shrinking.