This post will add to some of the processes we've described earlier regarding the building of the Atlantic 47 series of catamarans and will bring you along on some of our local adventures and events in the Valdivia area. We continue to be entranced by the beauty of the local area and by the people who are so friendly and welcoming to us. We haven't been on anymore overnight anchorages since our last post, mostly because of the weather, but we have been out to sail a couple of times to test some modifications to the mast foil controls. Even though we've been here since the 15th of March living on the same boat in the same marina, it's still really pleasant because it's so peaceful and it looks different each day as the weather changes. Here are a couple of shots from Escape as it looked yesterday morning.
There's also always some activity going on, whether it's from the wildlife in the area, such as cormorants diving to catch a fish or sitting on local trees to dry out their plumage, or the local fishermen such as in the photos below. In the first picture, the guy motoring across the river had just been fishing off to the right. He spread out a big net with small floats on it and then flailed the water with a big rope with a knot on the end to scare the fish towards the net. Then he pulled the two open ends together and hauled in the net. From where I was watching, it didn't look like he caught anything, but I've seen others in the same area come back to the docks with quite a few fish. The other boat in the background in the first picture and in the second picture seemed to be his partner because I could hear them talking back and forth as they moved to a better spot. We observed the fishing boat was going straight across the river to the small island on the other side so we decided to lower the dinghy and follow him to see where he went. I posted a movie of the dinghy ride at http://youtu.be/VJ6qQLXORKc. The water is so smooth that in the first part of the movie, it doesn't look like we're moving, but we are. Anyway, on the other side of the small island in the movie, there is a cluster of houses and the smoke you see above the island is smoke coming from the chimney of one of those houses.
 |
On the 20th of May, we heard a banging on the hull of the boat and it was Alex, who heads up Alwoplast Corporation here in Valdivia, and he had Navy Admiral (two star) Felipe Garcia-Huidobro and a Captain with him and wanted to come aboard to look at Escape. Of course we invited them on and gave them a tour and an explanation of the unique features of this catamaran. The admiral is responsible for all of the maintenance of the Chilean fleet and the Captain is the local Governor. The Governor had been on our boat before when he came aboard with Admiral Schwartzberg a couple weeks ago. At the end of the tour, the Governor turned to Alex and said, "You should bring these two gentlemen with you to the Naval Glory Days Parade". I'm not sure if Alex was planning on going to the parade or not because he's really jumping through hoops trying to get the second in the Atlantic 47 series ready to go. Anyway, Alex assured the admiral that it was a great idea and told us to meet him in his office at 11 AM the next day so we did.
The next day at 11 AM we all hopped in Alex's Mercedes (the couple from Bomika, the boat behind us, Jay and I, and Alex) and sped off to Valdivia. Alex took a few back roads and explained that there would be no parking downtown because of the parade so we were going to park on the other side of the river, take one of the solar taxis (river boats built by Alwoplast that are propelled by solar power) across the river and land right at the reviewing stand where we would have reserved seats. We parked at the museum we had gone to when Elaine was here and walked down the stairs where the river taxis were and the men who ran the operation welcomed Alex like a long lost brother. We hopped on one of the taxis and headed across the river. Here's a couple pictures of the solar powered river taxi. In the first picture, you can see that it can hold 10 to 15 people and you can see the solar panels on the roof. It was totally foggy and drizzling so we weren't getting much solar power, but the boats are plugged in when not on a mission. On board the boat are Charlie and Lisa from the boat Bomika, Alex, and Jay. The second shot is out the window toward the Fish Market across the river. The reviewing stand is just to the right of the Fish Market.
For the Naval Glory Day Celebration, the Navy had tied one of their boats and an old submarine to the dock right behind the reviewing stand. Here are a couple of pictures of the old submarine as we got off of the solar taxi to walk up the stairs to the reviewing stand. I also posted a movie on You Tube of the river taxi ride at http://youtu.be/xQP-O3OWobI and you can see the Navy ship and the old submarine in that movie as well.
Once we got up the stairs, Alex went under the rope to keep the crowds at bay and found our seats in the covered stands. It was nice that it was covered because it was drizzling all during the parade. From my West Point and Army days, I could relate to the poor troops who were standing out in the rain thinking what a bunch of toads we were standing under the tent looking at them getting drenched. Here are a few still shots of the festivities. The first is of me and Alex in the reviewing stands and the next couple are of Admiral Garcia-Huidobro reviewing the troops. In Chile, it's OK if the Admiral's wife joins him in reviewing the troops and she appeared to be thoroughly enjoying herself.
I also posted a video of a portion of the ceremony on You Tube at http://youtu.be/w8AJwI4AOw0 for those of you who like such things. I took a few more stills of some of the major events as best I could understand them throughout the ceremony. This first picture was of a couple of dignitaries who went forward to be recognized by the Admiral. I'm not sure what they did to warrant such recognition or what their jobs were, but their uniforms and helmets were sufficiently different and unique that I thought it was worthy of taking a picture. The second picture below is of the color guard. Notice the amazing metal necklace worn by the national flag bearer. I asked Alex what the significance of that was, but he didn't know either. It was impressive though. The third picture is of a real hero. He jumped in the water and saved eight people from drowning so he definitely deserved an award from the Admiral.
At the end of the ceremony, the troops went through a few drills including fixing their bayonets, presenting arms, and singing the national anthem. Overall, I thought they did a great job and although, in the picture of me and Alex in one of the pictures above it looks like no one came, by the end of the parade, the place was crowded and the stands were full of people. There were probably two or three thousand people along the streets and in the stands, and given that the weather was so bad, I think it showed a great deal of patriotism. After the troops marched off, this dance group came out in the street and danced some of their native dances. I posted a video of the dance on You Tube at http://youtu.be/Rju8aCZ6PUQ. Notice in the movie that the local stray dogs are intermingling with the dancers and at least one of them is barking at them as if to say, "you are in my spot and would you kindly move on."
Back at the marina, work continued on the Atlantic 47 fleet of boats being built. Our boat, Escape, is the first in the series. Number 2, named Pounce, was launched a few days ago and we moved out to an end slip so she could be close to the hangers so the crews had better access to her. Here's a picture of Pounce and Escape sitting side by side with another motor catamaran named Molly that was also built by Alwoplast. The owner of Pounce arrived in town yesterday along with two other seasoned sailors who will be his crew on the way back to Hampton, VA. Two of their wives came too, but they plan to fly back while the men sail straight from Valdivia to Panama, through the canal and up to Hampton in an effort to beat the hurricane season. They all came aboard Escape yesterday and we showed them some of the improvements we've made on our boat over the past couple of months and that they now are beneficiaries of since our boat is a prototype for the rest of the fleet. I posted a couple of movies of Pounce as she was getting launched into the water and of her getting her masts put on. You can see these at http://youtu.be/k9DHejP6sA0 and http://youtu.be/WsOfDEgPLTY on You Tube. We invited them to sail with us while they wait for their boat to get finished and they all agreed that they would like to do it in order to get as much experience as they can with the rig before they set out.
Finally, we were also visited by Ken Koellings a few days ago. He is the owner of boat #4 in the Atlantic 47 line. Ken came on board and looked at all the improvements we have made as well. His boat is being built right now. In the first picture, you see one half of one of the hulls in the mold where they laid it out and that I showed you in previous posts. You can see that the hull is already starting to separate from the mold. So what they do is hold it in place with clamps, then raise the two sides up as in picture two below and bolt the two halves of the mold together. They put glue in between the two halves and then they fiberglass the two halves together and add the reinforcing carbon fiber where necessary. In the third picture you see the aft end of the mold and the two halves as they appear right now. The slot between the two halves is propped open with bolts along the bottom of the hull and that part is fiberglassed together and reinforced. The end product is then taken out of the mold, another hull is made and then joined together with the bridgedeck, and aligned to within 1 mm.
Best Regards,
Chan
No comments:
Post a Comment