The Adventures of the Vessel Condesa

Clark May 17th, 2007

After being in this area for a week and being surprised at every turn how much is looks like Southern California, I have some answers as to why.

It is the same latitude and about the same climate, of course. And the coastline is about the same. Ugly apartment blocks are sprouting up like weeds, much like they did in California, and we can argue that architectural styles are globalizing just like everything else. And if we’re going to bang the globalization drum, of course there are strip malls and Pizza Huts.

But there is another globalization that has been going on for much longer, an insidious green globalization, and I realized that this is more responsible than anything for this region’s similarity in appearance to Southern California, and New South Wales, and…

There are palm trees everywhere, and they were imported from guess where? (see photo above) The ubiquitous iceplant (origin unknown) , like we see along all of Southern California’s freeways, is used all over Chile as ground cover. The lantana is also everywhere, but it actually comes from South America and has invaded the rest of the world. In Australia and New Zealand it is the number one plant pest, along with our prickly pear cactus from North America.

But Australia certainly has faught back, because the lowly gum tree (eucalyptus) is the world champion importehttp://condesa.org/files/page/d plant. the gum tree in all its varieties is responsible more than any other plant for why everyplace in the world looks more and more like everyplace else in the world. chile is covered with them, as is california, as is europe, africa, india…everywhere. The world biomass of gum tree must be astounding.

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Clark May 15th, 2007

From the photo above, apparently the Chileans are used to this stuff.

The tsunami that hit Seno Aysen is finally making big news in Chile, not as a natural disaster, but as a political one. Fifteen people died, so the opposition is using it to attack Michelle Bachelet, the moderate socialist president who has been in office for about a year. They’re saying that she had adequate warning, because there were tremors for weeks before the big quake, but that she did nothing. Exactly what she should have done isn’t being discussed. Should she have evacuated all of southern Chile?

The general opinion about her, from both detractors and supporters, is that she’s been sort of a milktoast president so far…nothing too bad, but nothing too good. She’s only had a year in office so far, so she’ll be able to stir something up. I was thinking she was the first woman president in Latin America. She’s actually the seventh, but she is the first proper democratically elected woman in a stable democracy in the region, so all the machos can just suck it up.

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Clark May 14th, 2007

Condesa is still in Concón, Southern California’s southern hemisphere doppelgänger. They have an unfortunate practice of closing everything on the weekends here, so I’ve been a bit cut off. I’m going to move the boat another ten miles to the north tomorrow, to a place called Quinteros. The Yacht Club here in Concón has been very generous in giving me a week’s free stay, but on day 8 it starts costing $25 per day, a little steep. There isn’t really anyplace to anchor out, as it is all exposed coastline. Still haven’t gone into Valparaiso proper, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and supposedly very scenic and bohemian. Photos and more interesting commentary coming…

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admin May 12th, 2007

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Clark May 10th, 2007

Well, I hoped that my thoughts about ship/yacht accidents would gel into some kind of epiphany and they didn’t. And I had the perfect photo to post, and it somehow got garbled. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out, you know? So here is a pretty picture of Condesa moored near the Romanche Glacier in Tierra del Fuego.

The gist of what I was thinking about accidents with ships is this: The really big, fast ships are relatively new on the scene…let’s call it the last forty years. Sailboats have been around forever, and don’t go much faster than they ever have. A parallel might be drawn between pedestrians, who have always been around, and cars when they came on the scene. Cars certainly took over. We live in a world of streets and freeways, but it is still the car’s responsibility to look out for the pedestrians whenever they cross paths. The fragility of the pedestrian vs. the killing power of the car is acknowledged, accepted, and avoided wherever possible.

In the case of the big ships, they are the newcomers on the scene with the speed, bulk, and killing power, but because of their size they are unmaneuverable, restricted by their draft and inability to stop, and can’t see very well ahead of them, so everyone better watch out! Unacceptable! I would argue that because of their size, and thus potential danger to all of us yachtsmen and fishermen, who outnumber them around the globe by a factor of thousands, it is their responsibility to tread softly. “I’m big so get out of my way” is not an acceptable answer. “I’m big so I need to be careful” is more like it.

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Clark May 9th, 2007

A friend of a friend was just run down by a ship in the Atlantic. It just happened two days ago and legal issues are pending, so I won’t mention them by name. It sounds about like my accident: Miraculously there were no deaths or injuries, but their boat was seriously damaged, their ambitious cruising plans have come to a screeching halt, and I’m sure they’re still shaking.

Last August the yacht Ouzo was run down by the ferry Pride of Bilbao near the Isle of Wight (http://www.maib.gov.uk/publications/investigation_reports/2007/ouzo.cfm). All three crewmembers, three guys in their 30’s, were killed. The ferry saw the boat, but didn’t stop, even though they didn’t make radio contact. They just saw a light in their wake, assumed this meant Ouzo was OK, and went on their way. The light they saw was sinking fast.

On my recent 480 mile passage from Valdivia I saw about ten big ships, which passed between a half mile and six miles from me. When I spotted them I called them on the radio and got three results:

1. No answer. Either they were not monitoring the VHF radio, or they heard me and just didn’t respond.

2. Responded immediately and had their act 100% together. My ploy would usually be to ask them how I showed up on radar. Several of them answered this way: “Oh yes, you’ve got a strong return. We’ve been watching you for about the last 45 minutes. Looks like you’re doing about six knots heading due north.” Kudos to the true professionals!

3. “Huh?”

The first is perhaps the most frightening. Monitoring channel 16 on the VHF radio is the responsibility of every boat on the seas. If another vessel is in trouble, or about to get run down, this is how they might alert someone. I’m sure some of these vessels heard me, but just have a policy of not answering small vessels.

The second result needs no explanation. This is what we expect from professional mariners.

In the third case the vessels didn’t see me on radar, didn’t care, and God knows what they’re doing up there on the bridge.

To be continued tomorrow with full analysis…

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Clark May 8th, 2007

That was about as smooth as a passage gets. It was as though Neptune pointed his trident at me and said, “Go north, Clark! I shall grant you fair wind and seas!”

It was dead flat calm leaving Valdivia, just long enough to run the engine a few hours to charge the batteries, then it went dead just my last hour before making landfall, again perfect timing to charge the batteries. For the three days in between there was a perfect south wind that even shifted ever so slightly at times so I didn’t have to jibe at various turns in the coastline. Still, the sleeping at ten minute intervals leaves me feeling a little wonky.

I anchored last night in a bay just south of Valparaiso, figuring I didn’t want to enter the biggest port in Chile in the dark. I woke up this morning to see palm trees and cactus. It looked just like California. By the time I got to the yacht club it was downright hot, shorts weather. When I left Valdivia it was still definitely the frozen South, and now I’m putting on sunscreen. I guess it would be the same as leaving Crescent City on a rainy October day and sailing to San Diego to find the Indian summer in full swing. Anyway, I’m shocked and amazed.

The yacht club is plush…and free for seven days. They actually dropped guys in navy whites onboard Condesa at the entrance to help me put out fenders and dock. Don’t get that kind of service in California.

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Clark May 7th, 2007

Halfway to Valparaiso
35º59′ South, 73º11′ West

We’ll need to increase Mr. Beek’s dosage, and place him under round-the-clock observation.

It’s amazing how little time alone it takes for the voices to come back. It’s just my inner monologue, but I guess it breaks the monotony by taking on different personas. Most of my new friends in Valdivia were French speakers, so my inner monologue spoke with a French accent for the first day. Now it’s Mr. Rogers, from the children’s show ‘Mr. Rogers’s Neighborhood.’ I loved it so much as a child, and it’s amazing how much I can remember having not watched it for thirty years, at least that I’ll admit.

It’s the shoes.

Mr. Rogers has his outdoor shoes and his indoor shoes, and he changes them in the foyer at the start and end of every episode, while singing. I too have my outdoor and indoor shoes and I’m constantly changing them: I wear sea boots on deck, and so I don’t track water into the boat, I change into my fuzzy slippers when I come in the companionway, but I don’t do much singing. With this repeated changing of shoes Mr. Rogers took his opportunity to possess my inner monologue: “Hello Neighbor.” At least he’s a nice guy. Don’t have to worry too much about his activities, or do we? Is he still alive? Can somebody tell me if he’s still alive? It’s OK as long as we stay in the living room and feed the fish, but we better not go to the Land of Make Believe. Must not go to the Land of Make Believe.

Still making great time, and should be in Valparaiso tomorrow evening, I hope squeaking in before sunset. I hope readers understand this is a one-way conversation until then.

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Clark May 5th, 2007

Webmaster note: Clark is underway again and is updating via Sailmail. Here’s the latest…

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Leaving Valdivia
37º30′ South, 73º49′ West

Nobody ever likes you as much as when you’re leaving. I was only there nine days, but in nine days you can get to know people pretty well with the dinner parties, movie nights, piano concerts, and boat talk with the locals. Lives intersecting, then parting.

Last night as I was leaving, time stopped for about twenty minutes. I needed fuel, which involved moving the boat to a different pier and driving up a tanker truck. The weather had made a marked change, and everyone was taking note. Valdivia is usually socked in overcast, but the evening brought clear skies and cold. The cold made a mist rise off the river at sunset, and it looked like a Monet painting. Rows of poplars faded into the mist, and the river steamed and meandered into obscurity. In the middle of refueling operations everyone just stopped what they were doing, gazed at the sunset over the river, and got all sentimental. I mean a toothless tank truck driver got all weepy and started reciting Pablo Neruda. The view really was striking.

Continue Reading »

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Clark May 4th, 2007

The above photo represents two types of half-assed repair, and hopefully two wrongs make a right. First we’ve got a tack weld, which doesn’t really stick to cast iron. In the welding process they screwed up the threads on the fitting too. Second, a generous helping of JB-Weld, an epoxy product that can stick grease to water. The JB-Weld should seal the threads, so that the whole unit will stand up to 160PSI. I’m waiting for the gasket sealant to dry before I try starting the engine.

In the interim the Armada is breaking several international maritime laws by doing safety checks on foreign yachts before they let them leave port, otherwise known as stimulating the local economy by forcing foreigners to buy overpriced fire extinguishers from their brother-in-law the fire extinguisher salesman. It really makes sense to do these safety checks here, now that most of us have checked in and out of Chile several times and been in the country for months.

With any luck I will be leaving Valdivia tonight or in the morning.

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