Villervallarna mot Söderhavet.

Efter ett dygns resa from Arlanda kom vi till Santiago de Chile. Efter incheckning på Hotel Tulip tog vi oss snabbt ut i Santiago för sightseeing. Det var nice spring/summer weather och vi hamnade till slut i Darvin-parken för Pepsi och pirog-lunch. Eftersom det var Saturday var folk lediga och ute. Vi vandrade runt mycket och saw a lot.Vi hyrde en bil och av dygnsshiftningen blev vi snabbt tired.

Sunday morning up early for breakfast and then we took off for southern Chile. Vi skulle ta oss 70 mil till Conception via fruktodlings-, lantbruks- och skogsdistrikt. Vid Talca styrde vi west och fick se Stilla Havet, brusande och darkblue, vid Constitution where 70000 personer bodde och arbetade in the pulp and paper mill. Somliga personer bodde synnerligen spartanskt i skrynkliga pappers/wood-hyddor.

Nu var det Sunday afternoon och the farmers were free out on their horsebacks, massor av horses. Dom hade underbara panchos i alla fina kulörer. Byarna looked like small Mexican villages som vi var vana vid from movies. Alla var inte lediga utan some var ute och worked in the fields vith their oxes.

Klockan 1900 kom vi fram till Conception och vi tog oss ut till the suberban Talcahuano, vid marinbasen Base Naval skulle our yacht finnas. Vi lyckades prata oss forbi Police Militair med help of a written document from the owner of the ship. Base Naval var en egen militairstad som beboddes av marinpersonal. Därr fanns varv, affärer, banker mm.

Far out fanns en marina we asked for our ship and people said: Si, Cigale III, is there finale, ultimo vid yttersta rampen at the end of an old warship. Vi var framme vid vad som skulle bli our home under our "semester".

Later in the evening we found our Captain, his wife and daughter 30 km south of the Base Naval in Coronel in the middle of a forest where they lived in a wounderful house far from the high tempo we met earlier in Santiago.

Monday 12 October we started our work on Cigale III to make her ready for the Pacific. It was a lot to do and we worked the whole day. The Captains wife came down to the ship with lunch and after a short break we continued our work. In the evening we had a nice dinner at a fishrestaurant in Talcahuano, we got big " fish-beefs"» of Corovina with wonderful palta and tomatoe sallad. Shortly after 2100 we were very tired and fell asleep onboard ship.

Tuesday 13 October we continued our work with still a lot to do. Andreas worked in the rigg and after a while he jumped as Tarzan and got a lot of job done.

At 1430 the Captains wife fetched us for late lunch. On a very nice new built restaurant we got Loco. A sort of snail which vere hammered for getting the muscle better for eating. This was done by a man in the backyard of the restaurant. We finished our "lunch" at five o’clock after icecream and coffe!

After another couple of hours with hard work we had a couple of beers onboard Cigale, after the first shower in three days we fell in sleep.

Wednesday 14. We got friends in the harbour when in the morning an Chilean ship came into the port from an awful couple of days at sea. They left Santiago three days earlier and with an southern cold wind into their faces the had a tough sailing. When also water came into the ship the journey went all wet. Onboard were also two dogs and a female monkey who became a good friend with Andreas.

Today we have got two GPS-systems ready, the autopilot is ready, windex ok, the radar is working, the Webasto heater now get us warmer, we have the Chilean flag as a destination flag up in the mast, yes we are registrated in Stockholm, Sweden. Late tonight we also got the antenna to the Inmarsat satelite system so now after the mounting, we can send this message to You our friends at home. After lunch onboard we also decided to have dinner onboard. Andreas our cook, made a good pasta with mushrooms at 2200.

We still need a couple of days for preparation, as filling up the food store, make all papers ready for the custom. During our passage outside Chile coast we need to report to the coastguard every night so the can keep an eye on us. It is good for us to know that we can get fast access to help if something happens.

Best Regards from Talcahuano.