Before any journey there is a laundry list of things to do.  We are preparing for our biggest passage to date from Chile to French Polynesia.  What does that entail?  Buying staples for 3-4 months, purchasing boat parts, oil, propane, and fuel.  And of course preparations include a few boat projects.

We will be heading to southern Chile before beginning our passage. First we will go to Caldera, then Coquimbo, then Valapariso, then Valdivia.  So what type of preparations and boat projects have we been doing?

BOAT PROJECTS:

• PHOTOS: We needed another set of passport photos for our carte de sejours which are part of our French Polynesia long stay visa application process.
• WEE FEE: topped up our sim card plan so we could activate another month as we journey to Southern Chile.
• FUEL PUMP: We were on the hunt for oil and a fuel pump. Off to find an auto part store. They have entire one street dedicated to auto parts where you can find just about everything. Of course, it was an 8 mile walking day for us. Score, one 5 gl of oil and a pump for fuel filter.
• FUEL PUMP TESTING: We used a baja fuel filter while we were in Galapagos which was not efficient. We had a fuel pump on board but it died and needed to be resurrected. We got the pump, found the connectors, and bought the hose. Matt tested it by moving fuel from one jerry can to another and voila it worked perfectly!
• FUEL: Getting fuel was no easy feat. We had two 5-gallon jerry cans and bought two more. We walked the .5 mile to the gas station with a cart and our cans in tow. Filled them up and loaded 3 on the cart which I dragged. Matt hand carried one and we walked the .5 mile back. Gesh, this will take forever! At 20 gallons per trip we would have to make 8-9 trips! After 2 trips, a local cruiser saw us struggling. He loaned us 4 of jerry cans and drove us to and from the gas station 3 times! Lucky for us, the extra help allowed us to fill both tanks 85% full. That’s good enough for us as we will have to fill up further south anyway.

Provisioning:

We had emptied out the boat finally. We stocked up so well in Panama and Costa Rica that we did not have to buy staples or frozen meats for the past 9+ months. Of course 6 of those months we lived in an apartment while the boat was being repaired, but the food stayed frozen and tasty.

We hit up Jumbo and Unimarc Supermercardos, to of our favorite stores with the largest variety of foods. Of course, peanut butter, popcorn, ginger cookies and butter crackers are still eluding us, but we may find them in Santiago.

What does provisioning look like for 2 people for 3-4 months?  Don’t you love the box of veggies and fruits?  So easy to store!

We purchased mostly staple items on this run. As the stores here have great variety and are well stocked. Prices are a little higher than we anticipated, but what can you do?

The next day we hit the fresh fruit and veggie mart to stock up on 2 weeks of yumminess. This was a fantastic fresh market, with so much ripe and semi-ripe foods. They had these huge barrels of olives, peppers, juiced items and nuts.

Of course, we will have to do another fresh fruit and veggie run before we leave Valdivia.  We will also need bread and eggs to go with the fresh goods.  Always fun to explore grocery stores in new cities though!

Other Interesting Photos: