We moved aboard Agility exactly 5 weeks to the day from our arrival in Chile. Oh happy day!
Due to ongoing work we chose to bring only the items we’ve been traveling with and galley essentials (two forks, knives, spoons, plates…..you get the picture). However, 24 hours later, it appears that we can go ahead and start the real moving in process. It will be interesting to see how much we can load onto Agility while attempting to keep the load light. I believe there will be a decent sized give away pile created.
We have been out on the water twice. Once a very brief motoring around the river to test the engines and today out to the Pacific to do a little sailing and check out some other systems. All has proceeded well.
Our new target date for sailing through the fjords of Patagonia is 3/19. We will only spend about a week south, head back to Valdivia, change or repair things as needed and leave 4/1 to head west.
There is a lot of work to do to enable us to sail for 3 months in an area that doesn’t have a ton of provisioning options. A positive of spending extra time here is that we know where to find things. In addition, it is harvest time here so there is access to an incredible array of fresh fruits and vegetables. I need to do some experimenting to see what we can freeze, pickle, or dry. I read about someone drying fruit in the rigging and another person storing melons in the chain locker, but Tim doesn’t seem excited about those possibilities.
It’s almost 8 a.m. when the workers arrive on the dock and wait for the door to open so I should prepare – make more coffee and get out of my pjs. They are great guys, polite, and work hard long hours so I try to at least make it as easy as possible for them. We will take them all out to dinner prior to our final departure. When we did that several years ago, I was determined to do my best to communicate (a tiny bit) in Spanish. I practiced some questions and phrases, but the man I was sitting next to didn’t respond at all. Finally his friends laughed and managed to communicate to me that he was deaf. They all got a charge out of it. It was probably strategic placement on their part.