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Volume 4 Holiday 2005 Edition

Letter from the crew...    2005! Where did it go? We had every intention of heading West this year, but here we are...still in South America ...but at least way south in South America. It was a well thought out decision. We still had lots of boat work to be done and the window for venturing across the legendary South Pacific was shortening. Besides, we hadn't seen all of this continent yet and the Pacific would wait for us.

David gets a hug from an anaconda.

Satisfied Snake         Poses No Threat      While visiting the Amazon River, we took a riverboat ferry to the small town of Padre Cocha. There we found a young guide to lead us through the jungle to visit a local indigenous village and their pet anaconda. After assuring himself that the 15' reptile did not appear to be hungry, David hoisted her up on his shoulders for a photo. She was heavy and not particularly energetic. Good signs!      Marcie was offered the same opportunity, but upon reflection decided that having a snake wrapped around her neck was not high on her list of fun things. She did, however, touch the snake...a first!

This, our 4th annual newsletter, allows us to share with you some of the highlights of 2005 from our perspective. We have always documented our voyages extensively with a "Passages" photo journal and long letters home. In our 6th year aboard (and you thought we wouldn't last a year!), each place still holds its own allure.     We're happy, relatively healthy, definitely older and only a little worse for the wear.    We love hearing from everyone so please...keep in touch: nine of cups1@yahoo.com

Turnabout's Fair Play     We've all seen those movies where a cow falls into the Amazon and five minutes later only a skelton remains, the flesh picked clean by piranhas. Huh! Our guide assured us that piranha only go after blood and red meat.      We were fishing for piranha on the Amazon one hot, sultry morning when David landed one of the big suckers (it weighed in at close to 5 ounces and was nearly 6 inches long). David disproved the guide's assurances when the "catch of the day" took a bite out of his finger. The guide commented that this was very irregular behavior since David wasn't bleeding at the time.      We returned to the lodge in time for lunch and were served this badly behaved piranha as our appetizer at which time David returned the favor...quite tasty!

Photo of Marcie & David above taken by Roberto, expert canoe paddler, in August 2005 in the barrio Belen, Iquitos, Peru in a canoe paddling on the Amazon River.

Sunrise on the Amazon was breathtaking

Leaving South America?

Nope...we're still here! We just can't seem to leave the place. Instead of heading West as previously discussed, we headed south this year to high latitudes and cold weather. The adventurous call of glaciers to view, endless canals and fjords to explore and the timeless allure of exotic places called Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn still beckon.     Will we make it there? Will we "round the Horn", you ask? Who knows? It's the plan du jour, but weather, sea conditions and current frames of mind will determine where, if and when we'll go.          Wherever we go, whatever we see, we'll be sure to share it with you on our website and in next year's newsletter.      Year to date nautical miles:     2,611      Total nautical miles to date:   24,083      Total countries visited:              26

Cups Changes Her Colors; Pronounced Fit After Refit

After many, many months of hard work, Nine of Cups was pronounced "fit for the sea".  She has nearly all new electronics, including a new autopilot, one fuel tank has been replaced and another fuel bladder added. She has new rigging, new canvas including a cockpit enclosure, much of the wiring has been replaced and new alarm systems have been added. Hoses have been changed, sheets and lines replaced and she even changed her colors...she's now all Captain's Navy Blue including new UV on the sails, new bimini, dodger and various covers. The crew managed the refit work themselves and breathed a sigh of relief when it was finally complete so they could return to the pleasures of sailing.

Cups at Puerto Lucia's dock, LaLibertad, Ecuador

David spent lots of time up the mast, re-rigging, replacing lights, rewiring and adding spreader boots.

Sea Lion Spies in Chile

New Old Friends

We saw the little black fishing buoys bobbing up and down beside the boat and paid no attention...until one of them "barked" at us, then dove gracefully below the surface. Sea lions...lots of them, frolic and thrive in the cold South Pacific waters. The guttural yaps are not "hellos", but rather "who are you and where the hell are you going?" sounds. I always answer "We're the Nine of Cups heading south" and invariably "Been there" is their sharp retort as they dive back down finished with Q's and A's.

Pisco in Pisco Pisco, a distilled white brandy, is the national drink of Peru and we were the guests of the Picasso family for lunch and a winery tour at their vineyard and bodega, Vista Allegre in Ica, Peru where MANY pisco sours were consumed on a lovely, warm afternoon. Peruvians will tell you that only Peru makes "real" pisco. We haven't had the nerve to tell the Chileans yet.

Sometimes, people just "click" when they meet and so it was with the family de Ravago. We met Magdala and Gonzalo in Lima on our first trip to Peru last year. We revisted them in Callao this year and shared family picnics, elegant meals, tours, outings and even Magdalita's 10th birthday party. Gonzalo was solely instrumental in extracting us from Peru's bureacratic handling of foreign yachts. Some people you just meet...others become friends forever!

4th Camelid Spotted

Pastimes...Do we ever get bored? Rarely. Among other things, the crew reads a lot...as many as 2-3 books each per week. Take away television, radio and internet and reading becomes the only viable alternative to work when you're at sea (well, almost the only one!!). When visiting the States, we raid thrift shops for paperbacks to read and later exchange with other cruisers.

Lazy Crew Apologizes Publicly We do apologize for the long time between website updates. We do all updates via land-based internet kiosks. Slow connections, inconvenience and a particularly lazy crew are the culprits. Nostra culpa! We'll try harder in 2006.

There are four members of the camelid family indigenous to South America. We had already seen the domesticated llama and alpaca and even the wild vicuna in the mountains of Ecuador, but we had yet to spot the elusive guanaco until we visited the altiplano region in Chile in Parque Lauca near Arica.

Quito Very Grimm

Drying Out in the Atacama Desert

Legendary Pink Dolphin Surfaces in Amazon

Yes, they really are pink and they really do exist in the fresh waters of the Amazon. We spotted several of them, but alas got no photos...the one above is borrowed from the internet. According to local legend, the pink dolphin could change into a handsome man and seduce young woman thus accounting for a number of unexplained pregnancies in the villages.

Touted to be the "driest place on earth", we visited the little oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama and trekked in the dunes of the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. With some areas of the desert having registered no rain in the last 400 years, it is indeed pretty darned dry, contributing to that "prune look" we continually strive for.

Our friends, Doug and Fay Grimm, visited us in Quito, Ecuador in March 2005 for 10 days of sightseeing, fun and wonderful camaraderie. We're lobbying for their return to visit us in Chile in 2006.

Paracas in Paracas! We asked the significance of the name of the town we were anchored off...Paracas. Ah, that's the Spanish word for big sandstorms. Good that we asked because it's nice to put a label on it when it happens. Two days of 40 knot winds blowing fine sand into every crack, crevice, nook and cranny of the boat resulting in a one inch layer of sand on the decks and subsquently mud pies when we tried to clean it up. True grit!

Cutting the Rug...Bora Style

Getting High in the Andes

Chile is so skinny that it takes no time at all to get from the shore to the mountains. We traveled from Arica to the altiplano region of Lauca National Park. We saw lots of animals: alpaca, vicuna, guanaco, coots, ducks and vizcachas (like chinchilla). The scenery was stupendous as we viewed the snow-covered peaks of Argentina in the distance. Fantastico!

Hello, Kitty!

Yes, Jelly is still aboard and at age age 5, she's as feisty and spoiled as ever. She's maintained her Rubinesque figure, her naps only interrupted by trips to her food bowl and litter box. Being in colder climates has netted her a fine, full fur coat and she now spends lots of time cuddled up to the crew. Her yearly highlights included biting a Customs Official on the leg, hissing and spitting at our friends' 2-year old (which caused him to hiss and spit in return) and hiding moths and butterflies under Marcie's carpets. Life is good!

During our visit to the Amazon, we took a trip up river to a small village of the Bora people. A hospitable group, they immediately gave us feather headdresses and bead necklaces to wear as we joined in a traditional "anaconda dance"...we would have called it "snap the whip". As you can see, we were a bit overdressed.

Paying It Forward; Paying It Back

While in Ecuador at Puerto Lucia Yacht Club, we made lots of friends with the staff and local people. Marcie decided she'd like to teach English if anyone was interested. Wow, what a response! More than 20 people signed up for the class. The Yacht Club made a classroom available and the 6-week class in Conversational English was a great success. Subsequent cruisers have continued the classes. One way of repaying these fine people for their warmth and hospitality.

Where in the world is NOC? On our Home page, click on "Where are we?". Type in our call sign: AA1ZL for a map with our up-to-date location.

Floating City of Belen

Considered to be the "Venice of the Amazon", the balsa huts found in the barrio of Belen in Iquitos, rise and fall with the Amazon River.

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