Sequitur

This week we began to focus seriously on our return to Sequitur in Peru. The last of the parts for the Fischer-Panda generator arrived on Monday, so on Tuesday morning I took the sky train and bus across to the Lynwood Marina on the north shore and picked them up. On Wednesday afternoon the replacement splines for the Lewmar Mamba autopilot arrived, and we were down to only one more shipment to arrive. The dog for the transom locker door was stuck in transit, so Sarah had them send another by overnight courier to hedge our bets.

With almost everything assembled, we began packing on Wednesday morning. Our checked baggage allowance in first class is three pieces each, not over 32 kilograms per piece. This should be much more than we require, but the trick is to distribute the weight and the volume, the delicate and the dense, the perishable and the robust into our three large cases.

On Thursday afternoon I picked-up the last bits from Granville Island, and realized that the autopilot drive splines were more complex than I had imagined. Lewmar doesn't sell the separate pieces, and they instead disassembled a burned-out drive motor and sent me the end plate with its gears and female splines, and for the male splines, they sent a used angle drive. There was no charge for the parts, only for the shipping. The additional weight and bulk meant we needed a fourth case, so I walked up the street and bought one, and by 1830 we had finished packing. We had three bags weighing between 69 and 70 pounds on our bathroom scale and one at 62 pounds. Hopefully our scale is accurate and the three heavy ones make it under the 32 kilograms limit on the check-in scale at the airport.

We had invited Amy and Bram over for dinner on our last evening in Vancouver, and they were due to arrive at 1900. We quickly cleaned-up ourselves and the loft, and as I was putting away the vacuum cleaner and Edi was finishing the last of the tidying, the entry phone rang. We enjoyed a pleasant and relaxing evening with the expectant parents.

Our flight to Toronto was leaving at 0700 on Friday morning, and for our safe arrival with all eight pieces of our luggage onboard Sequitur in La Punta, we were depending on a long sequence of events to come-off near-flawlessly. The alarm clock worked, and got us out of bed at 0400. We shut-down the loft and were out the front door shortly after 0430.


The luggage train we had imagined worked well, and we had no difficulty getting all eight pieces, weighing somewhat over 160 kilograms (350 pounds) down the elevator and onto the street. It pulled easily, Edi with three pieces and me with five. We paused for a breather about half-way along the two-block walk to the sky train station.

We easily made our way down the two elevators to the station platform, arriving seven minutes before the first train to the airport. There was no problem getting all eight pieces onto the train and off again at the airport, and we easily made our way to the executive class check-in, where we were served by Lori, an old friend of Edi's from her Canadian Airlines days.

The check-in scales proved our bathroom scales correct and the bags were weighed as 31.9, 31.9, 31.6 and 28.2 kilograms. Because of the amount of machinery parts and other metal in the luggage, we had decided it best to have it security pre-screened to prevent it being rejected. Baggage pre-screening went easily, as did security, and we were able to spend a bit of time in the Maple Leaf Lounge relaxing with coffee and muffins.

Our flight arrived on time in Toronto and we easily made our way along to the international area and relaxed with some pasta and wine in the Maple Leaf Lounge. We went down to the gate at boarding time, and after a few minutes, it was announced that the aircraft was unserviceable, and that a replacement would have to be brought over from the domestic side. We went back up to the lounge for the fifty-five minute delay. The flight boarded and departed with no further complications.


One of the few shortcomings of the new executive class configuration is that we are isolated from each other. Among the plusses is the full lie-down bed, and both Edi and I got four hours of solid sleep between meals, assisted by a few glasses of Champagne and Zinfandel.

The pilot made-up some time enroute, but we still arrived half an hour late at 2330. Being in the first row, we were among the first off the plane, and with only one ahead of us in line at Immigration there was no delay. Once we mentioned we were returning to our boat in La Punta, we were granted a six-month visa.

We arrived at the designated conveyor in the baggage hall as the last pieces from an Atlanta flight were being picked-up. Shortly our flight's baggage started out, and we were delighted to see one of our bags trundling along near the front of the pack. The priority tag works even here in Lima! But then, maybe it doesn't; we watched and waited for our other three checked pieces as the rest of the baggage rolled by for almost half an hour. Finally, when the crowd had thinned to only those with priority baggage, the last container was unloaded. The good news is that all of our baggage had arrived intact.


The bad news is that we were now even later. To ensure that we have a secure ride to La Punta, Gonzalo had organized a taxi to be at the airport to meet us, and he sent us a copy of the sign the driver will be holding. He would be out there waiting now, but we still had to clear through Customs.

We breezed through Customs and out into the arrivals waiting area and immediately saw the sign, prominent among the dozens being displayed. Gonzalo was with the driver and he motioned us outside to a meeting area, where we finally met this man who has been so very helpful to us. We loaded our bags into the taxi, which was a new and spotless van, and with Gonzalo leading the way in his car, we drove to La Punta.

It was 0115 when we arrived at the Yacht Club, and there were three tripulantes with carts waiting for us. They had been arranged by Gonzalo, and they and Gonzalo helped us off-load the baggage from the taxi and trundle it down the wharf to the waiting launch. Sequitur looked good as we approached, much cleaner now than when we had left her in June. Gonzalo and the tripulantes helped unload the baggage into the cockpit, and we thanked them and bade them good night.


We unlocked Sequitur and went below to see how well she had fared during our absence. I switched on the lights and took a look at the instruments to check on the battery state. It showed 100%, with the house bank at 14.32 volts; our system had done well. I turned on one of the fridges and Edi and I stuffed a duvet into a clean cover and we went to bed, where we were rocked gently to sleep. Home again.