Sept. 19 -2006
Dear all,
I finally arrive at the Yacht Club Peruano at 7pm on Sept. 14th.
By 10pm I was sleeping. However, had to get up at 10pm when the "authorities"
with my "agent" showed up at the boat. Half a sleep, I help them to
the cockpit and found out that my "agent" was not the agent that I
had hired to do the paperwork entry into the country. This new agent said that
my agent had contracted him to do the work. I did not see any problem with that
until he said he wanted double what I had agreed to pay the other agent. Well,
I told him that I would pay what I had agreed to and nothing more. They guy
got real upset and told the "authorities" that he was not going to
do the entry... so, a few minutes later I was alone again in the cockpit, still
half sleep, wandering if what happen had been real of if it had been a dream...
I went back to sleep...
The yacht club is very nice and the people running it a lot nicer than the facilities.
The operations manager, Jaime Ackerman and I went to the different authorities
the following day and got all the paperwork done with out an agent. The only
one we could not do that day was immigration because they were out of the office
but the following day, we went there again and got it done. So, I am all checked
in for a total cost of under 50 dollars - the agent wanted 300 -
This community of La Punta is very nice. Clean,
nice houses, pretty water front paseo with different shops and restaurants,
bakeries and medical offices. I hurt a toe on my way in and went to the doctor
- no nurse but doctor - to have it checked. The doctor spent about 15 or 20
minutes with me and gave me a prescription. The total cost of the doctor: 5
soles. The medicine, 25.80 soles. There are 3.20 soles in one dollar. The cost
of the doctor is subsidize by the municipality. Regular visits cost 10 soles.
The three different restaurants I have used so far were excellent in food quality,
quantity and price! A very nice lunch with soup, meat with salad and rice and
desert is 7 soles - about 2 dollars. I had a buffet for 16 soles (about 6 bucks)
that I am sure would have cost about 20 dollars in the Galapagos (which was
a cheap place to eat).
This trip has been pretty hard because the winds were head-winds and very inconsistent generating strange wave patterns that shook the boat so hard that both spreader lights - which were held by 2 3/8 bolts came off and were just hanging by the wires. The weather fax antenna also came off its mount and the wind indicator on the masthead would just go around its mount indicating nothing... Two of the bolts holding the boom also came off - one actually broke off leaving half of it inside the threaded part so I had to drill it out carefully so the threaded part was not damaged. Besides those things, nothing else broke. I think this was the hardest sail I have done so far because of the currents, wind waves and the distance traveled. The short, at times square, waves, were like the kind that you get in lakes after a blow for m a thunderstorm... but here in the ocean! But, I did get a few nice rides with the boat doing 7 to 8 knots and not real rough conditions. The straight line distance was about 1000 nm but I traveled about 1600nm because had to do a lot of tacking.... The current was strong at times and the combination of current, headwind, waves and distance was what made trip so hard.
If any of you wish more details of the trip, write back I I will be happy to answer.
I plan to be here a few months. Have plans to visit many archeological places and even venture into Bolivia.
Will keep you posted.
Hugs.
Felipe