People and Conversations

There are now three of the boats in Ala Wai that were at Hilo during our stay. Pachuca arrived first and soon after it was Dieter with his boat Florin. This week we saw the arrival of Richard and Dorris aboard their small ketch Fire Water. Richard was working on the replacement of his ham radio. Dieter had replaced his batteries and done work on his autopilot. I've had my rigging and other problems. Cruising is definitely a high maintenance activity.

Dieter visited me yesterday and we discussed the sailing book that Jeff had generously given to me, “Two Against Cape Horn” by Hal Roth. It is an extremely well illustrated book of Hal and Margaret's trail-blazing sail in their boat Whisper down the Chilean inland passage and round the Horn. Dieter, who has rounded the Horn twice himself, has met both Hal and Margaret.

Dieter was extremely helpful in helping me sort out the basic plan for rounding the Horn.

Hal Roth was of the opinion that winter is the best time to Round the Horn. I consulted “Ocean Passages” and saw quite clearly that for a West-East rounding summer is preferable because of the prevailing westerly winds. A winter crossing could be justified for an East-West rounding because of the frequency of easterly winds. Dieter agreed that a summer rounding is preferable by far: it is much warmer (He seems to hate cold weather as much as Arnold and I do.) and the days are longer.

Roth sailed from the Galapagos to Lima (Callao) in two long tacks. Dieter and I agreed that it makes little sense to squander the westerly position of the Galapagos by sailing to Lima, where you then have to deal with the adverse winds and strong Peru (Humboldt) current. If the objective is to round the Horn then it makes sense to sail from the Galapagos further south to, say, Valparaiso or Valdivia in Chile.

I told Dieter that Puerto Montt was as much as I wanted to see of the inland passage of Chile's archipelago. I noted that Roth went from one crisis to another. Then his boat dragged anchor, was badly holed, and he and is crew were shipwrecked for days. The only reason the boat was salvaged was the unbelievable generosity of the Chilean navy. Dieter pointed out that the weather and more importantly winds at the upper part of the passage are pretty good. It's further south where one is likely to encounter the erratic and extreme weather and winds (notably the williwaws). He also pointed out that in Roth's time there were was no GPS, pilot charts were unreliable, and the anchoring techniques of tying the stern of the boat to trees had not been developed.

At this point my plan (subject to likely change as I learn more) is to sail south from Puerto Montt to the vicinity of Puerto Barroso at the top of Golfo de Penas, at about latitude 47S. From there we would wait for a favorable wind (the prevailing wind is from the west) and break out to get 150 or 200 nm from the coast, lest we risk being battered against a lee shore by a gale. (Dieter lost two good friends along that coast. They were approaching from the Tuomotu's when a gale struck. Dieter knows that they discussed whether to keep sailing and run for shelter behind an island or stay out at sea. They decided to stay out at sea. That is all that Dieter knows because they were never seen or heard from again.)

I mentioned our refrigerator problem to Dieter and said that Arnold and I were not that fussed about refrigeration. Dieter says that he does not use refrigeration when sailing alone. To him it is no big deal. He gets used to drinks at room temperature and carries suitable food. He uses the refrigerator when his wife is with him and they are in port.

As he was leaving the boat I mentioned our rail spray dodgers and how I was thinking of not putting them back on. On the predominately starboard tack to Hawaii the weather dodger took a beating so we removed both dodgers. I had started to think that if the rail dodger is to be removed in rough weather to protect it and minimize windage then why use it at all. Dieter replied that he never uses rail dodgers. He had them on one boat and removed them. He reckons that most people use them for privacy. As for spray, once in a while they might protect you from a little splash, but that does not justify the windage and the damage that they are going to get in serious seas.

I like talking with Dieter. He is a quiet and unassuming man. I respect him as an experienced and accomplished sailor and happily his views resonate with mine and frequently validate my directions in thinking.