Saturday, March 20, 2010

Easter Island, part 2

Easter Island , Pacific Ocean

After running around like chickens with our heads cut off yesterday reprovisioning, getting the last diesel,and checking out a to try for a late afternoon departure rather than leaving on Sat (today) because of some weather routing we had received we decided to bail anyway and weather(no pun intended) this passing front here. They say that the most dangerous thing one can have on a boat is a schedule and tho' this would not have been a dangerous time to leave it would have likely been very uncomfortable for 36-48 hrs. and then we would have had to motorsail for the next 3-4 days. At this point fuel will be very hard to replace so 5-6 days of engine time seemed very silly when we could just honker down here and wait it out. Hopefully it will not get too nasty here tho' we are likely to be stuck on the boat as the dinghy ride in can be ridiculously hairy when it is windy and the waves are crashing. We have had a few wet and wild trips in and I am beholden to being driven in by one of the guys as I would never try it on my own. Two of the ladies on neighboring boats went in yesterday and got flipped over on their way back out...they do not drive like Gram so were not quite aggressive enough to get over the big swells with enough speed. They are fine but I think it was pretty scary. The Chilean Armada came right out and helped them and took the engine to be flushed out and retuned so at least they did not lose their engine...just a bunch of the food they had bought and sunglassses... The Armada here is quite impressive... they are very protective, friendly and definitely on top of their game. We have been quite impressed.

We may have to move to another harbor tomorrow morning if the winds get as strong as predicted but at this point we are comfortable so will see what the morning brings. There is a low south of us causing these winds and waves but it will likely pass on or by Mon. Hope once it does we will be able to go back to town and send out the pics that we never had the chance to download on Fri. There are some great ones that will really show everyone why we have been so entranced by this place. It is indeed very beautiful and so unpolluted and untouched by the human forces of industry, etc. We most likely will leave middle to end of next week once we get more favorable winds and from there our most likely next stop will be the beginning of French Polynesia. Time to start those French lessons and prepare to pay exhorbitant prices for everything...reason for being so stocked up now. We are like our own private bomb shelter of the 60's with food to last 5 months. It's stored everywhere in this boat and only with a detailed list can we find what we are looking for. Imagine at home your food stores in every room, in most every c loset, and even under your floor boards...that's us!!!

Well, time to make dinner...we want to eat early so we can watch a couple of episodes of "24"... to which we are totally addicted. Action packed, at times too violent but a real cliff hanger evey episode as we watch Jack Bauer, secret agent for terrorist control do his thing. Hard to imagine that I have gotten so into this...guess Bill and Gram's testasterone must be wearing off on me. For all those in Maine, enjoy these beautiful days ...hope that winter is over for real. We seem to have missed a kind of easy one...oh well. More to follow...

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