ready,set, STOP

John and Eliana

One week ago we were all ready to start our trip except for two appointments. The first was the going-away party to which we'd invited all the friends we have made amongst the 'locals' here and the other 'cruisers'.

Gean and Zoe

Luis

Jill and Nick

Nick, Franco and Kath

On Sunday (January 21st) we gathered in the Sala de Club de Yates (meeting space) for which we paid a very reasonable fee. It was difficult to estimate how many people would actually come to the event. After inviting 42 people we bought provisions for 35 but decided to use part of our 3 months of supplies recently purchased in advance of our trip back to Canada. After the event. we would simply replace the wine and cheese we'd used. After leaving a few treats for the staff who were cleaning the room, we still had ample wine and cheese left for our trip and didn't need to replace anything.

We were fortunate to have live music - and this kept many people anchored in the room from 4pm until after 10.

The 'Local' Guitarist:We met guitarist/singer Eliana Valenzuela through friend Marc Cypres. He's now a Chilean after moving here with his wife in his Belgian-registered ketch. He's very friendly to us even though he's been going through a painful re-adjustment period after many years of togetherness, raising a daughter and travelling the world. We were invited to meet his daughter Sarah and her friends several months ago. Included in the group was Eliana. She had been over before our trip to Patagonia to helping explore the music of Violetta Parra. She teaches Spanish to some underprivileged children in Valdivia as her 'day job' and is possessed of a beautiful voice.

Marc Karin Kirsten and Vincente

Kath and Sue

The 'Cruising' Guitarist: John and Sue Bucher are here on their yacht Valkyrie and it turns out that he has maintained a lifelong love of playing classical guitar music having learning to play during his childhood on Chiloe Island. Sue - sharing a former career as an educator - has inspired me to return to an interest in crocheting.
John retired as a flight test engineer for Boeing so he and Larry have 'talking points' to keep them busy about airplanes they have either flown (or even - in John's case - test-flown). When he discovered that Eli was going to play he retrieved his guitar from his boat ... the result was an evening of shared music and a very happy group of people.

Some of both our long-standing or new friends you've met before in this blog. Karen, Kirsten and son Vincente arrived to help along with a family of  'cruisers' from British-registered 'Mollymawk' - a large steel craft undergoing welding and painting repairs. These are being carried out by the indefatigable crew of Zoe, new husband Gean, and Zoe's parents Nick and Jill.  Our friends on the Welsh yacht 'Caramor' - Franco and Kath who were here

Larry and M.A.(with sore tooth no.12) listening to music

when we arrived in Valdivia this time.

Our second pre-departure adventure was NOT successful. This involved  my ongoing battle with Tooth no.12. An August dental appointment had not revealed any problems before we left for 4 months to dive and re-visit Patagonia. The pain started only after we were in Patagonia with few advanced dental resources. A visit to the dentist in Puerto Natales yielded a short-term solution  -a week-long course of antibiotics which temporarily halted the more abject form of the pain. However, on the 6 weeks-long trip back up to Valdivia the pain gradually re-asserted itself. So now, having expected to be on our way around the 12th of January, we won't be able to leave until after my next (and hopefully final) dental appointment on Tuesday the 30th.

So start watching for more progress on Thursday February 1st.

El Valdiviano

El Valdiviano steam train

It was our plan to be on our way north toward French Polynesia by now.  Of course, wishes often don't work out as planned.  Mary Anne's visit to the dentist to fix a long simmering problem required a return visit in two weeks.  There were now two extra weeks in Valdivia and two less weeks in the Marquesas.  What to do?   ... lots, it turns out!

Writing about the ocean conference arranged by the university will have to wait until after it takes place.  Nonetheless, the steam train excursion is fair game having happened yesterday on a cloudless sunshiny blue-sky day.

These days in Chile, public transport between cities is by fast comfortable buses and on faster jets. Nonetheless, not so long ago, there were passenger train services, now limited to the larger urban areas.  One of the rail companies has resurrected an early 1900s vintage steam locomotive and some 1930s coaches and linked them into a summer weekend tourist attraction.

The Calle Calle River

Belching great clouds of black coal smoke, we lurched along the very scenic river for a few hours stopping briefly at a couple of barely pronounceable villages.  At just over twenty kilometers an hour, the countryside drifted rather than flew by.  The cattle in the fields were more frightened by this apparition from the past while we were soothed by our personal movie soundtrack provided by a group of singers strolling through the carriages. Guitar and accordion strains filled the coach as we rumbled along, tree branches scraping along the windows.

Eventually we arrived for the signature two hour stop in Antilhue where we were entertained with great food and a troupe of young dancers who, after displaying their skills, ran out into the large audience to dance with some of our fellow train travelers. I have to admit that to avoid being drawn into this I skipped out after the lunch to have a close look at our train and its engine.

Go ahead. Pronounce "Huellelhue"!

Music aboard

At this point the locomotive had been uncoupled and moved around a long loop to be re-positioned at the other end of the train for our return.  I learned: That the engine had been built in Valparaiso in 1913 to British plans; that the coaches were from Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. The 686 horsepower engine was capable (we never experienced this) of a breathtaking 60 km/hour while consuming 20 kilos of coal and 150 liters of water per kilometer.

Altogether, the day was just another reminder that delays and detours are more to be embraced and enjoyed rather than to be lamented.

We missed them

Now that we've completed 20 dives this time around, and over 50 dives in our combined trips to Patagonian Chile, there are some spectacular underwater animals that we had hoped to see once again and - this time - for whatever reason - we missed seeing them. So at least we can post their photos and list where we last saw them so that perhaps divers will make sure to check them out in future.

Soon we'll leave Chile, but my task for the months offshore is to systematize those 50 dives in an Excel database which could be of help to others who are also fascinated by Patagonia's varied underwater environment. The task will be lengthy - in part because of my inability to be totally secure in some of my identifications (in some cases no I.D.s seemed to exist) and in part because our ability to vary the sites we dived was constricted. Of course, we were also only able to survey a minute percentage of the area and only at a particular time of year. However, it will be fascinating to try to learn enough about the science to find out what sorts of things we COULD comment on in an intelligent way.

So here are some of our 'missed friends':

nudibranch: tritonia odhneri Puerto Profundo,  

sponge: unknown Caleta Ideal

small octopus enteroctopus megalocyathus Caleta Ideal

Seals

nudibranch: thececara darwini Isla Smith, Jechica 

fish: leptonotus blainvilleanus Bahia Tom, I Smith

Jewel Anemones cornyactis sp Jechica, Isla Amita

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Back in Valdivia

We have now found our way back to the Yacht Club Valdivia where we are making our final preparations for a return to Western Canada via the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia.

We had an excellent sail north in the open ocean from Canal Chacao to Bahia Corral, the entrance to the river on which the city of Valdivia is situated.  We had known for a number of days that a particular choice of departure day would grace us with fair winds.

Construction ship and new central pier

As we left the sheltered waters behind Chiloe Island to transit canal Chacao, the narrow stretch of water that separates the island from the mainland, we were greeted with a very impressive sight!

The fact of Chiloe being an island allowed the colonial Spanish to maintain a presence there while the indigenous Mapuche on the mainland had held back colonization on the mainland at a line far to the north.  Today, this isolation tempered by a stream of ferries and a few flights, serves only to hamper transport and economic opportunity.  The Chilean government decided a number of years ago that there should be a bridge  across canal Chacao to Chiloe but balked at the cost.

Construction finally commenced between our southbound trip to Puerto Natales and our return north. The building efforts were in full view as we sailed passed.  The central bridge pier is being placed on Roca Remolinos in the middle of the channel - whirlpool rock named for the fierce tidal currents that swirl around it.  A very large construction ship had elevated itself above this shoal on four large cylindrical steel supports planted firmly on the seafloor.  Beside it were the many new pilings it had placed to support the middle of the bridge.  The ship and pilings, though stationary, appeared to be moving along at a good speed with water swirling about and a wake trailing away to the west.  This illusion was created by a six knot current as the falling tide raced west toward the ocean.

North shore pier construction

Further construction work at the edges of the channel was creating the shoreside supports at each end of the bridge.

Now, a few days later, we are catching up on old friends here in Valdivia, replacing some failed blocks in the mains'l traveler and stays'l sheet rigging and preparing the shopping lists for the food we will consume during our three month return trip to Canada.  Our new alternator will arrive next week having finally cleared its customs hurdles in Santiago and will need to be installed on the engine.

Some Things New!

WHATZIT???  photo: 2007

We arrived in Corral yesterday after a perfect trip sailing through the midnight hour in bright moonlight. Later today we'll make our way to our 'usual' spot at the dock in Valdivia where we'll be stopped for a few weeks before leaving for our trip across the Pacific - final destination: Victoria, Canada.
In sorting through the photos Larry took in 2007-9 and our current photos from 2017 in Patagonia, I discovered a possible link to a creature he photographed at Caleta Valverde in 2007. What do you think? Could it be?

Could it be?? fissurellidea patagonicas snail

snail: buchanania onchidioides

In any event, we discovered that this creature has a range that includes Puerto Profundo at the far southern end of our dive trips taken in 2017. Another snail inhabitant at Puerto Profundo was the buchanania onchidiodes.  Here are some photos of new to us and surprisingly beautiful animals - the archidoris fontani nudibranch at Isla Amita and the  the sea star porania antarctica wearing bright new colours at Pozo Delfin divesite.

porania antarctica colour variant

 archidoris fontani nudibranch