Just crossing the 35 degree south mark on the way to Valdivia. As we leaving Quintero there was enough wind to use the sails and it was a downwind sail along the coast heading south again. Was about to launch the spinnaker when an ominous clouds started to appear ahead of us, thus we stayed with working sails and as soon as we reached the clouds the wind dropped to 3 knots. Bummer, on comes an engine and we motor through the night replenishing the the water tanks with fresh water.
The night air was so thick we could barely see 1/2 a mile, radar more than once proved its worth. The big tankers were sounding their fog horns and of course reporting their positions on AIS so they were easy to spot. The fishing boats on the other hand were a hard to spot. With radar we simply set them as a “target” and keep anything suspect a safe distance of a mile or two away. The radar proximity alarm warned of all ‘suspect spots’ that got within 3 miles of us. A quiet night besides the fog horns, the swell also seemed calm.
Today was a very grey day, the drizzal continued and the sun only poked out for just long enough to dry off the nightly moisture. Then started to drizzal again. Still no wind, slow boating under one motor as we really don’t have a deadline to arrive. After 2 months in the northern desert of Chile this moisture from the sky is a strange phenomenon.
Made a pretty tasty pizza for dinner, also helped heat up the salon for a little while. It is ‘summer’ here until this coming Saturday. For us its down right cold, not cold enough to leave the beers outside to chill but after being used to shorts and t-shirts, temperatures in the mid 60F in the morning merit long sleeves and pants (or foul weather gear) 🙂 We have used the heaters to warm up the boat, but seems that 75F is too warm, we must be spoiled.
Thought about stopping for a quick swim as the water is glassy calm. Checking the water temperature, 17.3C (63F) degrees quickly removed that idea off list.
260 miles to go to mouth of the Valdivia river.
Happy Friday.
At 2/22/2019 @ 12:42 AM Our position: 35°37.35’S, 073°04.78’W Traveling 4.9 heading 205T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-35.62250,-73.07967