Pos: here
Loc: Constitucion
Acc: Navy Constitucion
Dist: 0 km

Oh – I forgot to mention yesterday I really got some fruit last night! The navy mail order service has worked – thanks a lot! A few oranges, pears and some fruit I already tried once but which I don’t know the name of – they taste like melons. Although I was able to visit a supermarket myself today, but I was not planning to stay one day.

I was working on my kayak today, replaced the fin and a toggle, northing special. You can paddle without fin, and even steer a bit, but it reacts slow with the pivoting stern piece only moving and slides sideways on the waves with no skeg hold. But conditions were easy yesterday, so it was no problem.

I have a nice tiny apartment in the brand new Navy house, the one which is reserved for the officers only. Thanks! “Hotel Navy” is the best…after a small dinner yesterday I also got invited for today’s special lunch to celebrate a new Navy member, but it was mussels…sorry, I can’t eat them…thanks anyway.

The Navy house is brand new, as it is located right at the river, where the older one was simply washed away by the Tsunami waves two years ago. It is quite horrifying to walk a bit through the town and to see still many, many broken down houses, or the concrete platforms only where the mostly wooden houses were built on, or to see now simply the empty spaces with some unorganized stuff left behind. On a few very broken down huts I saw a sign “for sale”…probably some very sad histories are behind those signs. This village had (only) 20 deaths to count, others had even many more. About four big waves, the biggest 12 meter high, came washed in via the big vulnerable opening of the river. I would not want to be there…

I was talking a bit to the local kayak club and watched them training K1 and C1. The kids seemed to be very motivated to perform well in the equipment they had available. Life is going on!

I will start tomorrow as usual around 8.30 am, and hope I dare to land about only 30 km up the coast in a bend of the long open beach where I hope to find a bit less surf. If I don’t dare to land, I will have to paddle through the night again and will keep on going to Pichilemu, skipping the next possible landing after 40 km to Lliico, which would be my second stop. Pichilemu is known as the best surf beach in Chile…I could land on Punta Lobos just before, or make it in with the help of a fishing boat again. we will see…neither the surf landings and – launchings nor a possible night paddle is something I’m looking forward to.