Allan and Lynne in Minsk, Belarus

The Tale of the Toilet Kit

Le conte du kit de toilette (The Tale of the Toilet Kit) – When we left Buenos Airs, we also left our toilet kit behind. This is not just any toilet kit, it’s an Orvis Kit. For those of you who don’t know the brand, it’s an upscale fresh water fish rod store with upscale accessories. I have had this kit for years, but never used it since it was too elaborate and fancy for business travel.
Well the first hotel we stay at, we leave it behind, but all is not lost. My friend, Christian, from Western Union Buenos Airs comes to the rescues and sends it to Pairs where we hope to pick it up during our stay. After 5 days in DHL space, the kit travels to Paris and back Buenos Airs. It appears the content description was not good enough for the French to get through customs. In the kit is Lynne’s extra bottle of contact eye solution. We will try again and this time the word medicine is used to describe the bottle.

The bottle gets to Paris in days, but held up while DHL writes my friend, Gregory, from the Western Union Paris asking more details on the contents and a copy of my passport. Being a seasoned traveler, I have copy of the passport in pdf format. So I write back explaining that it is not medicine and send the passport all by email. Isn’t technology great? I have been tracking this shipment all the time while in Portugal hoping it will arrive, the one day we are back in Pairs on our way to Belarus. That was a mistake because I see that DHL has now sent the kit to India and give up hope of ever seeing it.

The night before we leave Lisbon for Paris, I see the kit is now back in Paris and ready for shipment. We check into our airport hotel and then head into Pairs. I lost the bet, Gregory come s out of the elevator with a big smile and the kit. We end the kit story with a nice lunch at Le New Balal near the Western Union office where use to eat once a week. This restaurant has the best Indian/Pakistan food with chicken and lamb that melts in your mouth.

Paris - November 6-12, 2007

Paris: It feels just like we’ve never left Paris. Our hotel is situated on Boulevard Saint Jacques near the Sorbonne on the left bank. From the 17th floor, the view of the autumn sky above overcast with silver-grey, white clouds blends into the architectural landscape of European stone-white buildings. It has not changed in five days which is typical for November here. Most of our time has been spent re-visiting, eating and shopping in our old haunts.

We took one of Allan’s marathon walks from our hotel in the 13th Arrondisement to Place des Voges in the 4th Arrondisement. Tourist mulled around the statue of Louis the 13th while families watched their children in the playground. On the way to the Marais, we ordered Salade Nichoise and Croque Monsieur in a café located in a courtyard behind the Sorbonne. A female student, long brown hair pulled back in a bun, read her essay in French while translating it into English to her friend. After our entrée, Allan ordered, “Espresso and Decaf.” I could feel my heart beating as we approached Satellite, a unique jewelry shop, on Rue de Turenne. The bell in the shop tinkled as we walked in. “I remember you,” the saleslady exclaimed in English. “How long has it been?” she asked, “one, two or three years?” I wanted a pair of auburn earrings which were not in stock. I’ll pick them up on Saturday.

We also traveled on the metro to the Arc de Triomphe. Allan arranged a 12:30 lunch date with Gregory Benoit, a former co-worker at Western Union. We ordered our favorite Chinese dish, Canard, a roasted succulent duck, Cantonese Rice, Nems and Mystere, vanilla ice-cream covered with hazelnuts and a sweet ‘surprise’ in the center. From Rue Cappuccinos, we walked to the Museum Louvres where we visited the Richelieu galleries and saw the Napoleon III Apartments and Reubens’ paintings.
We spent a day out of Paris by driving to Verdun and touring the World War I Monuments.

Paris Armistice Day Parade - President Nicolas Sarkozy waving to Allan and Lynne

We got a little wet one day walking around

Our Canal Beagle Sailing Adventure

Our sailing adventure is now behind us. Even though we had some complications with the Chilean Navy and our Skipper, all and all, we (Allan – The author of this Blog) had a great time. Lynne took the sailing as transportation and therefore the 5-8 hours per day of looking at the Canal Beagle was both monotonous and at times terrifying. -The Skipper cooked good meals and sleeping on the sloop in the coves was very comfortable.

Leaving Port Ushuaia, Argentina, we sailed east with the wind out of the west to Port Williams, Chile for customs and Navel clearance to sail in Chilean waters. It was a five hour sail in choppy waters and cold biting wind. For the most part, the air temperature stayed around 45 degrees and the water temperature was 36 degrees. Port Williams (pop. 1500) is the last southern settlement before Antarctica and is the Chilean Navy’s headquarters for the Canal Beagle and Islands. After singing papers that we were part of the crew (another résumé item), the Skipper was told that unlike previous years, we would not be permitted to depart and go trekking at the glaciers and would need permission each night to stop in coves. This change would cause us to shorten our sailing trip. We stayed the night in Port Williams moored along an old three mastered sailing ship.

The next day after a walk around Port Williams, we set sail for Port Navarino which is on the opposite side the Canal Beagle from Ushuaia. Port Navarino has only one building for the Chilean Navel and no facility for Customs and Navel clearance. That is reason we needed to sail to Port Williams while Port Navarino is an hour sail from Port Ushuaia. Heading west into the wind we sailed for five hours in choppy waters and in a light overcast day. This was the smoothest sailing day of our trip. We got permission to depart, so the Skipper inflated the Zodiac Craft. Ours was a one paddle craft unlike Jacques Cousteau motorized Zodiac Craft. We spend a couple of hour s walking around avoiding the cow pods and heading back to the sloop for dinner and a good night’s sleep.

Early next morning we set sail for the glaciers. This would be our second longest day of sailing. Again heading west into the wind we experience choppy waters and long periods on diesel power. This was our best day for weather with only 50 percent cloud coverage and high in the 40’s. At night fall, we reached the Romanche glacier which sits back in a deep fjord. After attempting to anchor in one cove with rough waters, we sailed for another that was much smoother and settle in for dinner and sleep.

We awoke to snow falling. There was about an inch of snow on the sloop and a thin layer of ice covered the water around us. The temperature was 36 degrees. As we sailed on diesel power pushing small chucks of broken of glacier aside, our Skipper made a miniature snow man to set it on the stern. Leaving the fjord into the Canal Beagle heading east with the wind behind us, we stared our longest and roughest day of sail. At times the winds were up to 36 miles/hour and three feet swells. The maximum list of the sloop reached 30 degrees. We reach Port Navarino at dusk and get permission to clear Customs so we could sail back into Argentine waters and avoid going back to Port Williams. Again in our Zodiac Craft we went ashore and turned in our passports thinking we would get them back the next morning. Our Skipper had promised us fresh King Crabs for dinner. He negotiates our meat supply with some fisherman for King Crabs for us and one for his wife back in Ushuaia. Back aboard with fresh King Crabs in the boiling pot our Skipper notices the Custom Officer from Port Williams has arrived to stamp our passports. It is about 9PM now. Our Skipper jumps into the Zodiac paddles ashore and in 20 minutes he is back with our passport pulling up the anchor. We are leaving for Port Ushuaia to our amazement. With sails up and putting aside the cooking King Crabs our Skipper heads cross current and wind for an hour sail in rolling seas in darken waters. Lynne and I look at each other stupefied as to what is going on. But we put the pieces together; his wife is going to have fresh King Crab tonight at our expense. Tired and hungry we arrive in Port Ushuaia where our Skipper shells the King Crabs for us while he gets ready to go ashore to spend the next two nights with his wife. Now knowing he has made his own plans to stay over with his wife, I told him we have no place to stay and will stay on the sloop. Next morning he is back to make arrangements for a hotel for the night. Also he lets us know he is cutting the trip short by one day since it is his birthday on the last day of our planned trip.

Showered and well rested, we start the last two days of our sailing adventure. We sail east from Ushuaia for seven hours past Port Williams to Martillo Island to see the penguins. After an half an hour of looking and taking pictures, we sail west for a short distance to Mackinlay Cove in Gable Island. At Mackinlay there is a dock and one building to house three the Argentine Army solders. After a very interesting two hour trek on the island, we settle in for dinner and sleep.
Our last sailing day, we head west to Ushuaia. With strong winds at times, we have both sails up cutting through very choppy waters with constant cold rain in our faces.

Here are the facts:

The Sloop Austral left from the Alfasyn Yacht club on the morning of 22 October 2007 for the adventure.

Day 1: (24 October 2007) Puerto Ushuaia to Puerto Williams
Day 2: (25 October 2007) Puerto Williams to Puerto Navarino
Day 3: (26 October 2007) Puerto Navarino to glacier Holland, Italia, Alemania, Romanche y Seno Pía
Day 4: (27 October 2007) Glacier Romanche to Puerto Navarino and Puerto Ushuaia
Day 5: (29 October 2007) Puerto Ushuaia to Martillo Island and Puerto Mackinlay Gable Island
Day 6: (30 October 2007) Puerto Mackinlay Gable Island to Puerto Ushuaia

Total Sailing: 256.4 Nautical Miles (295 Miles) 53 Hours 17 Minutes 38 Seconds, Average Knots/Hour 4.8 (5.52 Miles/Hour)