Chilean Officials
When we arrived at Hanga Roa (the town on Easter Island), we called 'Pascua Radio' and reported in. They told us to expect officials to come out to the boat at 3pm.

It was a nice group, very courteous and very professional. The agricultural inspector confiscated my remaining onions and garlic from the hanging basket in the galley. On another boat they confiscated their Panamanian honey. Chile is very protective of their agriculture, and each of these items is a possible threat to their industry.

Once cleared in, we went ashore to meet up with Mike and Sue from s/v Infini. They gave us the 'nickel tour' of town, and we went promptly to the internet cafe. I only had 250 emails waiting for me!!

We celebrated our arrival at Easter Island on Infini with a bottle of champagne.



It turned into an all-anchorage party when the boat next door rowed by.

Andy and Reanna sailed in their smallish sailboat from Chile via Juan Fernandez (an island partway between mainland Chile and Easter Island). They were there when the tsunami hit, and barely got away with their boat intact. It happened at night and apparently the wave went very high into the town. They said there were people, houses, and cows floating by screaming in the dark. They picked up everyone they could, and then donated their dinghy and small outboard motor so the people could get back to their island. Andy did not want to take his boat in closer for fear of getting caught in the next wave. Wow, what a story!

We are happy that our Galapagos tsunami story is much less exciting.

Labels: Easter Island, On Passage, Tsunami

We were planning to leave Monday for Easter Island. And in fact we have friends who are already enroute.

At the internet cafe at 1pm local time today, we searched for information, but only found the President of Chile's warning/fears about EI getting hit. Have not heard anything more since the.

We are wondering whether to get underway on Monday as planned.

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Labels: Easter Island, Tsunami

Labels: Galapagos, Tsunami

Whoo, thanks to Debi Ball who emailed me this morning about the earthquake in Chile and the possible tsunami. She didn't give any details, but it helped to know what was happening when all the water started draining out of the basin we are anchored in.

It was crazy for a half hour, and is still a little strange here 2 hours later.

The water receded about 5' in 5 minutes, and then came back in in another 5 minutes. And the cycle repeated itself a few times over the next hour. It was really strange seeing the rocks grow out of the water, and the current was really really strong, about 6-8 knots, in an out, with some eddies thrown in. We were actually scared to death. As we saw the water receding, we were also getting worried that we might end up on the bottom at some point. Fortunately we started out in about 15 feet of water, so even with a 5' drop we still had plenty of water under our keel.

We got the engine going and ready to get underway, but the current was so crazy it would have been suicidal to get underway in those conditions. We also had a boat coming in from offshore, and they hung around outside watching for any big waves.

On the morning radio net, we heard that the port captains in the other Galapagos ports had rousted all the boats in the early morning hours and made them go to sea. They were all milling around outside in deep water this morning. The same in Panama and the boats along the Central American coast that we talked to every day on the radio.

We keep watch on VHF 69 (a nice quiet frequency) to be able to talk to our friends, but didn't have Ch16 on. So we are not sure if our Port Captain tried to tell us to leave. There are no other bigger boats in the harbor here this morning, but that's not unusual for a Saturday morning (they are all in Santa Cruz normally on Saturday changing passengers). The two fishing boats tied to the big yellow mooring ball are still there, however.

Anyway, we are safe. Hopefully there are no more earthquakes in Chile (or anywhere else nearby).

(2 Hours later... we are still seeing the water in the 'basin' sloshing about. But still no problems. The town at Puerto Villamil was evacuated to the hills, so when we went ashore to send some emails, we found nobody there! But the townspeople are coming back now, so I guess we're out of the woods).

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Labels: Galapagos, Tsunami

We have spent a good bit of time over the last few weeks trying to make our boat as leak-proof as possible. The leaks have only been a minor annoyance so far, but we will soon be 24x7 at sea, in unpredictable conditions. It's bad enough having a little fresh water (rain) leaking in, but sea water would be unpleasant.

As everyone who owns a sailboat knows, some of those leaks are pretty hard to track down and fix. But ours are not too bad--known spots easy to get at.

First, we (finally) sealed up the mast where it goes through the top of the cabin. Dave taped up the bottom of the hole around the mast (there's an opening about an inch all around the mast), and mixed up some Walmart brand rubber goo (the same stuff that's in brand name product 'Spar Tite'). He poured that into the area and let it set up. Then we finished off the top inch or so of this plug with silicone seal. Once everything had harded up, we tested it by pouring water over it. Not a drop. Then I made a new sunbrella cover for it--keeps out the big water and also keeps the silicone out of the sun.



The other leaky spot has been our big windows. Dave re-did these completely in the past, and cured most of the leaks. But we still have a couple of drips when it rains really hard. So we have taken them all off, cleaned things up, and used silicone (to try) to make a better seal around the bolts and around the whole window. We have poured water over the windows, and so far they are leak free.

Labels: Maintenance, Tsunami