Lat S 42 18°/ long W 073 15,9°

New Year's Eve. We said thanks and goodbye to Marina Oxxean, sailed south to a
fishing village located on an island called Isla Mechuque. A large salmon farm
met us outside the bay, we passed and anchored inside the bay. We will
celebrate the New Year with crab bought in Puerto Montt. It has been raining most
all day, and we now hope that it will clear up in the new year.
Happy New Year everyone.

Team Anastasia

This is Team Anastasia. Red-alpaca scarves are purchased on the market. From now on it will be difficult to upload pictures on the blog. We must make text posts as vivid as possible, since we will sail in a stunning nature. Patagonia.

Tomorrow we sail south

We have received our permission to sail in the Patagonian channels, however, only for the first leg. In Melinka we must once again visit the Armada office for a renewed zarpe. I had asked for the entire journey but we only got the first part, I do not know if it is always so, or if it was due to our limited Spanish.

Fishing boats in Porto Montt

Today I took a walk and took pictures of some fishing boats, there are lots in Marina Oxxean, where we are, and there are many more around. I don't know why they aren't out fishing, but there's a lot of maintenance work and service going on.

We have also seen modern Norwegian fishing boats sold to Chile, home port Valparaiso.

Between-days

Our departure to the southern wilderness approaches. We dart around in our little rental car shopping for supplies. We have bought charts, are filling up the freezer and stores. Tomorrow we will submit the application to sail in their waters (zarpe). It should take about one day to get it back. We have begun to look a bit on the weather reports. A general recharge, it will be such fun to get out again, Porto Montt is a bit monotonous.

A new model

Have been thinking that it's more difficult to summarize "once a week" than to do quick & dirty Google translations more continuously, just polishing off the most silly translation fails, not striving for spotlessness. Discovered that it's very easy to export a whole blog and import the copy.

DONE!!

So far only the most recent posts are published here, plus the English summaries. Planning to run the backlog through Google translate and publish it by and by.

Second day Christmas

Thanks for all the Christmas greetings.
Yesterday was spent on an excursion to the magnificent waterfalls and walks. You can see pictures in the slideshow. Today, has been a day for maintenance. Borrowed a sewing machine from another "long sailer", the floor of the Internet-house became a sail loft. Wear and tear for the last leg which was 4300 NM is the same as 10 years with normal holiday sailing.

Christmas eve

The quiet Christmas Eve celebration met a sad end: we were had news that Th's dad passed away at home in Sweden. He taught us what is worth knowing about sailing, and he followed our journey with great interest every day.
The picture of Per Erik & Thomas was taken in the 1960s aboard family's s / y Arietta.

Erik & Samuels resa

For you to get an idea of what we did before we signed on Anastasia, we'd like to give you a brief account of the journey from our two weeks in Chile.

After the rerouting of flights and shipments of both us and our luggage (went through Oslo ...) we came out from the terminal in Santiago. The amount of taxi and bus services was overwhelming and we had to wade through a throng of pestering men. Of course, we took a bus but immediately got cheated for some pesos change.

Santiago was for us a wildly bustling city, mostly because we might not have been to any wilder cities to compare with. We walked everywhere, which meant we could see much, but after a few days we began to think about leaving for Valparaiso.


The day before we left, we had planned to walk up to Cerro San Cristobal. This is a hill from where you look all over Santiago, with a huge Jesus statue on top. A cable track went up, but many chose to take the long way by foot, car or bicycle.

In spite of all the hundreds of tourists, we managed to get into a gap with three "crackpots". The oldest forced Erik to stop against the side of the road, waved a knife, cut off the camera; the three of them came and went within five seconds. Somewhat shocked we went ahead and looked up two Carabineros (police) who could help us, in fumbling English / Spanish on our part. They took us scouting in a police car, but we found none of the offenders. They drove us to the station, a fly-infested boring place with four questioning-booths, where we had to write our report.

We took the bus to Valparaiso, the port city two hours from Santiago. The city is located in a fairly large bay with Vina del Mar, the town which is to Chile what Marstrand is to the west coast of Sweden, situated only a bay north. Valparaiso mainly consists of buildings that climb the steep slopes surrounding the bay, which causes a lot of steep and winding streets and alleys. During the hot sun, we got to experience this when we did not find our Hostel for several hours.

The days in Valparaiso were spent mostly at a walk to Vina del Mar, in markets and looking for a new camera. A night out with a new-found friend, Jonny from Brighton, we got opportunities talking with beer-loving Poles and Chilean sailors - as well as time to play the accordion with some Chilean kids.

Our return ticket to Santiago was used pretty quickly. Our next idea was to take a bus ride south, arranged by a backpacker hostel, which we thought would give us great value for our pesos. But it was full, so our "free night" in Santiago turned into a planning evening. We chose to go down to Temuco, 9h by bus, to have this as a starting point to various national parks in the Chilean lake district.

When we checked out from our hostel, we acquired a traveling companion. It was Antón, a perhaps 60-65 years-old Swiss man who traveled around the world to look for a good place to retire. He had been out for six months and had just landed after a 12hr flight. He was going to check in, but when he found out that we were headed south he changed his mind with the phrase "My clothes are too warm for this climate anyway." Antón asked everybody about everything and every few minutes he stopped people on the street to ask how far it was to the station, where you could get the best chow and so on. And he did not hesitate if it was necessary to run a bit here and there - a real powder-old man (krutgubbe, LoL!! nice Google fail. The dictionary sez "tough old boy")



In Temuco, we visited a regional market and checked out souvenirs, but then went on to Pucon, a town nearby known for its backpacker life. There was a good selection of inns and activities. A short lady convinced us to check out her newly constructed "Hospedaje" nearby, and since it was both good and cheap, we stayed there four nights.


Pucon is magnificently situated with Vulcan Villa Rica only a few kilometers away, constantly seen in the corner of your eye. The city was pretty touristic but still charming. We spent one day on a ride to Lago Calburga and one day to hike in the national park Quinquehue.



The next long bus ride took us to Puerto Varas, a small town near Puerto Montt. The bus we rode in was actually to Puerto Montt, it dropped us on the highway near Puerto Varas. But fortunately the bus system in Chile works so that you only wave in the bus you want to get on, wherever you are, so we could jump on another bus into town. Puerto Varas was beautiful and we spent two nights here. The second day we took a bumpy minibus up to Lagos los Saltos and the National Park Vicente Perez Rosales.



A short trip to Puerto Montt and waiting for a sign of Anastasia began. We spent a total of three nights in Puerto Montt, constantly renewing our stays at various hostels. We took a day trip to Chiloe in order to see "Palafitos" - houses on stilts. These turned out to be nothing more exciting than houses on stilts.


Finally, the 19th, we were able to wander down to Marina Oxxean and meet AK & TH. As you know, several more days at Puerto Montt awaited, but now we had a boat and two captains who could manage our time. We have also had time to update our map, "Samuel and Erik" to the right.




Guest bloggers Erik&Samuel

Christmas on Anastasia

Christmas preparation on board is more about generators, kick rods and electrical systems than about gifts and decorations. No gifts (other than a fresh toothbrush each) are distributed and the interior lacks the traditional red and green stuff.

Quite nice actually.

A little bit of Christmas, we have tried to arrange on board. In a few hours Jansson's will go in the oven and roast pork (instead of ham) will be the main course. Herring from the U.S. IKEA, red cabbage, meatballs and a walnut bread have also found their way to the galley.

AK has mixed Chilean tetrapac wine with spiced syrup for a little mulled wine which we share with some kind souls at the marina. This is served with gingerbread (of course, from IKEA) and chocolate chip cookies (baked by us).


Merry christmas
wish
Guest Bloggers Erik & Samuel

New neighbours

While we wash, shop, change the oil on the machines and cook red cabbage, we have some new friends. Usually seen on top of the buoy off the marina, sometimes slipping into the water to swim a few laps. We launched the boat and went closer to take photos - when we approached the man looked up with a look that said something like: Here you see the most beautiful woman in the world, now don't you get closer. He had an impressive body, not to be defied.

Birthday in Puerto Montt

We were celebrating a birthday yesterday. Booked a table at the best fish restaurant recommended. We ordered a dish with "the best of the best": different fish seafood mussels. You can see how beautiful it was before we started eating. We cleaned the dish, all very satisfied.

Arrival at Puerto Montt

Inward clearance on Monday. Had tips from other sailors in the marina: The people from the Ministry of Health will take all fresh food, including meat in the freezer. Hmm, not good. Early Monday morning I went up to the laundry with my IKEA bags. At the top was the laundry, underneath miscellaneous goodies I did not want to get rid of. Then I let them then clean out old food from the freezer, refrigerator, and cupboards, useful to have someone else throw it. Four different authorities were on board that day and everyone had their role. Pass Police, Ministry of Health, Armada, and customs.
Now we are officially in the country.

Another 22 days - and finally Puerto Montt

As can be seen from the map, the winds have been very uneven this leg of Anastasia's journey - contrary to the strong favourable winds that were reasonably expected, winds have often been weak, with a memorable night of becalmed, black, mirrorlike ocean reported on December 14th.
All in all 32 days at sea, often very trying for the patience.

The support team at home in Sweden has had a dark and weary December (lots of work) - sorry fo not keeping up better with the English summaries. Our role has been to wait eagerly for the blog report each day, and mark the position off on the map. Since the posts from French Polynesia usually arrived on the Net after SOLB (Swedish Old Lady Bedtime), it has been very noticeable that Anastasia has drawn nearer and nearer across the time zones.

We have also kept a lookout for reports from Erik and Samuel on Facebook and on their Googlemap - they've been waiting in Puerto Montt for a couple of days, and seem to have had no further mishaps after losing Erik's camera to a robber in Santiago del Chile on one of the first days.

Now we are in Puerto Montti, Chile

20 dec Sunday Day 32

After a long approach that began last night we are finally moored at the dock.
The approach, which had to take place at the right tide gave us a solid start
ride, then we ran the engine all night. It was about 55 NM.
Such a long journey we have made, both by boat and with ourselves. We had
both believed that this stage would be completely different. Had expected a lot of wind the whole time, perhaps several days in a row with 200 NM distance, steady wind from a
constant direction. The whole thing has been the opposite, weak winds, shifting
all the time. Becalmed periods. This has been trying for our patience, we have
simply had to get to know another side of ourselves, patience. I
can say that it has not succeeded every day.
Overall, however, we have had some fantastic days and experiences,
dolphins, elections, albatrosssen who joined us many days.
Many books, we have plowed, and good food we have eaten every day.
Yippeeee this feels good!

Lat S 41 44°/ long W 074 20°

19 Dec Saturday Day 31
Land in sight, we called this morning, unfortunately the wind died Tuesday evening at
sunset, so at night we harrowed on in under 5 knots, which
was not enough to make the tide we went for yesterday. But we see land,
there is always something. We have sent off an email to those who wait ashore that they
must book their hostel for a night. I will not deny
that we are frustrated, for we are, very.

Lat S 40 37°/ long W 077 41°

18 Dec Friday Day 30
Now we are on the finish, as it looks now with course and speed, we
will make it to the low tide tomorrow. Which means that we can be moored
in the afternoon. There is a narrow place (Canal Chacao), which we first
must pass and which must be at the right time. Tide
prevents the passage at certain times. After that, we are inside the
archipelago. The island is called Isla Chiloe. We are looking forward to
feeling solid ground under our feet.

Lat S 40 00°/ long W 080 34°

17 Dec Thursday Day 29
Four weeks ago we set out from Papeete. That's a long time at
sea, have not been so long at sea since I sailed with Broström
at the time the Suez Canal still was closed. Then it took about 30 days from Europe
to the Far East. The crew was 30 then, now we are two.
It cannot be denied that we yearn for a full night's sleep.
Now we are starting the countdown. The way it looks now, arrival will be
on Saturday, we are planning to catch a tide in the morning.

Lat S 39 16°/ long W 084 24°

16 Dec Wednesday Day 28
Why are you awake at night, some people ask, there are no
other boats anyway?
It is a legitimate question, why we keep watches at night. In the waters we
are sailing now, there is not much traffic to consider, I think we have
seen a light one night a week ago. But it is rather the
sailing itself keeping us awake. I can take as an example last night when after
a day with strong wind and close-reefed sails, we suddenly do not have any wind at all
and it also shifts direction. Then it's good that someone is there
trimming the sails, adjusting the autopilot. Now we are in a position where we do not
want to miss a single knot, we yearn for arrival. We
have about 500 NM to go.

Lat S 38 23°/ long W 087 42°

15 Dec Tuesday Day 27
Tonight was a very starry night, the stars dipped right down
to the horizon, and there was an unusually high number of shooting stars. It is said that
you may wish for something at a shooting star, you must not talk about what
your wish, so I will not.
But now we have at least a good wind this morning ...


(According to a comment from Cousin Anders the shooting stars belong to the meteor swarm Geminides. The Earth crosses their path every year at about Lucia)

Lat s 38 17°/ long W 090 30°

14 Dec Monday Day 26
Tonight we have been becalmed on a mirror-calm sea. Sky and
horizon was a black universe. We have a completely improbable situation
where weather forecasts and GRIB files talk about the N-NW winds, and
reality is completely different. Patience tested, remaining fuel
gauged. Nature sets us on trial and at some point the wind will come,
we hope.

Lat S 37 38°/ long W 091 01°

December 13 Sunday Day 25 GMT -4
No Lucia with coffee and saffron buns for us. On the other hand, we had a visit by Mr. Albatross. Majestic, giant, handsome, hovering
soaring large and powerful almost entirely without wing movements. You are totally
charmed just stand enjoying his air show. At one of
his turns around us, he is so close that you see his face (is it called
face on birds?) I marvel at his clumsy beak.
Last day distance is low, partly due to the fact that we reset our clock
again (23) and partly on a poor wind that forced us to tack.

Lat S 37 34°/ long W 093 08°

December 12 Saturday Day 24
Night work. As if the problems with the latten in the sail weren't enough, the
rope which stretches the sail aft snapped off in the night. We had to take in sail
until there is weather for repairs. The first reef usually does not do much to
speed.
The countdown has started, today we are below 1000 NM (983) to go, so good
it will be getting into port, sleeping the whole night, going for a walk,
feeling solid ground under our feet. Best of all will be signing
on the new crew, mi hijo y su amigo, who are already in
country, though not in P. Montti. We have been in contact by email so that they are kept
updated with the date of arrival.
As you can see, I listened through my Spanish lessons on the iPod
trying to translate some thoughts into Spanish.

Lat S 36 40°/ long W 096 10°

December 11 Friday Day 23
The excitement rises and hey we're making speed! We're in full
sailing gear, splash in the side and salt spray on the specs. During the night, we have
significantly reduced the sail area and we still make more than 8 knots. We are
going to pass a cold front and in the morning when we saw the wind turning from
NW - SW, we decided to gybe, to get a more favorable course.
After breakfast, we sat outside and checked the course and speed. Then
I saw that one of the throughgoing battens in the mainsail was on the
way out of its pocket. Exciting minutes out on the deck, getting the sail down
without shaking so that the batten would not make one last dive into the ocean.
That sort of batten is not easy to find in Puerto Montti. With Th at one end
of the sail and me at the other we pulled for all we were worth, I stretched
out my entire length + a bit to get a last minute grip on batten
and sail. The mainsail gets to rest for a while and we run before the wind for the inner
staysail.

Lat S 35 36°/ long W 99 16°

December 10 Thursday Day 22
Three weeks at sea, one week left? Yes it depends on the wind. The 24 hours that went have been okay again with good speed and wind direction. We have now
sailed 3195 NM and have 1301 to go to Puerto Montti.
(San Diego - Marquesas was 2800 NM)
I read the pilot book how to make the inwards clearance, it's the "Armada" in
charge of formalities there. Armada I understand is the country's sea-going
military. We must also seek permission (zarpe) to sail in
their channels and archipelagos. It is an advantage to have all the papers ready
upon arrival. Once there, you must report daily where you are
and where you are going. There cannot be many to keep track of, or
I think they would give up the system. I'm glad we do not have this
in Sweden, imagine a summer day, keeping track of all amateurs sailing. Puuh

Lat S 35 02°/ long W 102 00°

December 9 Wednesday Day 21 GMT -5
Anna Day - Congratulations to all of you who have namesday

At the stern we have two large stores, one on the port side and one on
starboard side. "Lasarett" they are called, an old term for stores
aft sails on sailing ships. They house spare pull tabs, fenders, life-belts,
etc. There is also Otto Autopilot. He has worked for us throughout the autumn
but a few days ago started to whine and scream at the slightest
course correction. We discovered that the expansion tank with his
hydraulic oil sat lower down in the boat than the controller. We were had to give him
a little first aid by hanging the bottle higher, so that
self-pressure fills up the oil. It now looks like we have a
dropping-bottle hanging above the hospital. Otto is very satisfied.

Lat S34 58°/ long W 104 36°

December 8 Tuesday Day 20
Time is a measure. Some say time is money. Some believe time is flying
and some think time stands still. We now have soon been out for three
weeks and there'll be one more. How long is four weeks really?
It can be a vacation month.
It may be the time from Advent to Christmas.
In everyday life there is always so much to do, getting to the bank,
having time to shop, getting here and getting there, it is obvious that
a lot happens in one day, and even more in a month.

We think time goes very fast onboard, it is probably because
not much happens, the days are all the same and our focus is on
making the distance.
What we want to get done in a day here, we have time for.
So time goes fast, all the time, whether you have a lot time, or very little,
are at home or at sea. Now it got complicated, and what would I
really say?

Lat S 34 28°/ long W 107 15°

December 7 Monday Day 19
When the wind is so modest that we run the motor, it is time to take the opportunity to
mend sails. We have two sails on a roll. Jib sail and inner staysail. Both have so called "sacrifice cloth" which is made of different material than the sail - it's the
piece which is exposed when the sail is rolled up. The sun takes a mean toll,
especially of the threads where the clothis sewn on. Seams are bursting,
flutterin in tatters. I made an effort with tape, needle and thread in
Papeete, and today we go again. I have been at it a few hours now,
taping sewing and patching. It reminds me of the endless job of
darning, patching and mending Y 's favourite rag doll that just had to
survive childhood. Every night when she had done her day's duty and Y was asleep, I went
down and got the rag doll to repair a broken cheek or nose. Gullefin
survived.

Lat S 33 41°/ long W 110 03°

December 6 Sunday, Day 18
STORM turned into CALM, we do not understand the meteorologists here in the Pacific.
Had visitors after dinner yesterday, the storm is conspicuous by its absence, but
we had another good visit: a whole flock of dolphins jumping
around the boat. Do you remember when we last saw a flock of dolphins? That was
One morning in September outside the U.S. west coast, south of Santa Barbara.
The dolphins yesterday said that they looked after us throughout the Pacific
and finally, they had sighted us again. We exchanged polite phrases and
watched their antics. They swam behind us for a long time and sometimes ahead of us,
we observed a speed of 7 knots and they still had no problem to hang on. As long as there's
life there is hope.

Lat S 32 35°/ long W 112 52°

December 5 Saturday Day 17, average speed 6.6 knots
Storm Warning, I read the weather report from Playa Ancha Radio. The area
is a couple of days to the east of our course, so much can happen before we get
there. But the weather is changeable, we have worked all night with our
sails because the wind was so variable, not in direction but in
strength. We have rolled out smaller sail, rolled in larger sail, taken in a
reef in the mainsail, taken two reefs in the mainsail, then the wind has subsided and
the procedure had to be done in the other direction. Is this a sign of a storm? We may
well see.

Lat S 32 30°/ long W 116 02°

December 4 Friday Day 16, average speed 6.75 knots
I spent the night watch reading in our pilotbok of Chile, all the way
from Puerto Montti to Tierra el Fuego, it is about 1000 NM. There are
thousands of berths in the fiords. There is a place 310' south of P
Montti called Laguna San Rafael, where are you in a lagoon at a
glacier and there are dolphins, penguins and sea lions. Sounds completely
fantastic. Further names Strait of Magellan, Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego,
Cape Horn, names that have always attracted me ever since I read Joshua Slocum
Sailing Alone Around the World. He had problems with the indigenous population during his voyage around Tierra del Fuego; when he anchored for the
night he laid out thumbtacks on the deck so that no one would come on board.
Times have changed, thumbtacks no longer needed, but the magnificence of nature
remains.

Lat S 33 04°/ long W 119 10°

December 3 Thursday Day 15

Today it's 14 days since we left Tahiti. I have made a small
summary:
The temperature has dropped from + 27 to +17.
We have sailed 2171 NM.
We have seen 14 unique sunrises and sunsets.
We have seen ONE fishing boat.
We have seen birds every day.
We have drunk 28 cups of coffee each.
We have been hard on the port tack 99% of the time.
We have due to this grown longer left legs.
We have seen a large flying fish in the eye.

Lat S33 21°/ long W 121 27°

December 2 Wednesday Day 14, daily average speed 6.25 knots
Wake up! at 0300 is it's dusky outside as a bleak November day in
Gothenburg. My watch always begins in the middle of the night, it is always a bit
tough to leave the berth then, but it is quite amazing when the moon is up
how much light it gives. Tonight we also saw the lights from a passing fishing vessel
at the horizon. When I got up had Th mounted up our big oil lamp
which we bought in the U.S.. He had hung it above the saloon table. The
coziness factor was raised further. It's impossible to compare with the
thousands of watts you are doing away with every day in Gothenburg now in December, but
out here it was a great event. In a few days now, the climate
has changed from tropical to, yes plain dingy coldish weather simply.

Lat S 31 33°/ long W 123 30°

December 1, Tuesday Day 13 GMT -8 , daily average speed 6.8 knots
Yesterday was the day of hopes, today is the day of goals. We set deliberately and
unconsciously different targets; sailed one third of the route, sailed half
o.s.v. When we sailed to French Polynesia we ticked off the latitudes.
On this stretch we tick off longitudes. Now we have
been looking forward a couple of days to crossing the W120 degrees, whhich means
crossing the border to Chile SRR (search and rescue region) and their
economic zone. This means that we will benefit from the Chilean weather reports
I have already been taking home these for a few days and think they are
good and easy to read. They state just where low and high pressure centers are.
In addition, father-in-law will be able to plot us on the chart again
since his chart of Chile begins at W120 degrees.
In a few days, we will also have sailed half the distance.