March 7, 2006
Activities in Chiloe island
Sailing North to Valdivia there was Annemarie, Sabine, Salina and Dario on Pachamama. The weather was not so good. The wind was shifting to the North and often there was no wind. We often have had to wait for better sailing conditions and so we have had enough time to concentrate on our activities on land:
On the way we found another environmental friendly solution: In Tictoc Manuel showed us his zero-energy-consuming pump.
In Quinched on the island of Chiloe William Banister offered us a free buoy in his Marina, where his sun Jan runs an eco-tourism company.
Together with his wife Valeska we organized our TOPtoTOP activities:
There was a clean up on the beach on a windy day with a great result and Annemarie showed them what is organic and what we can recycled. ...and like always there was our presentation and the TOPtoTOP drawing contest with great solutions for the environment.
Another stop was in Quemchi. Our anchor was not working very well, so thanks to the Armada de Chile. They offered us a free buoy. Together with Victor and Carlos we organized our activities and a presentation in the town hall.
We arrived safely in Valdivia and just right for the noche Valdiviana with fireworks, boat parade and fire falls.
Sad was only, that Annemarie has to leave to organize her daughters wedding, - but we hope she has a wonderful party! We are looking forward to see her back on Pachamama in Polynesia ... we are already missing her company and her big working experience with children.
Also Salina and Sabine made some important steps: Salina got her first shoes and Sabine got 30:
- The kitchen team preparing birthday dinner
- Birthday barbeque: the meat was a present from the farmer-family Meynet
- Birthday breakfast and our babysitters Pilar and Jose.
At the moment we are preparing for the next events with children on Robinson Crusoe Island. If somebody is interested on the 2-month crossing to Polynesia – please email.
... and finally: Please take part in the largest climate change experiment ever!
March 30, 2006
Departure from Chile
During our stay in Chile there were more than 5000 young people participating our presentations, work shops and clean ups. Now we are ready to leave for our next destination: Remote islands in the Pacific. These islanders fight against the hazard of sea level raising, - another cause of global warming.
young Chilenian participaiting
What happened since:
After our activities in Patagonia we came back to Valdivia to prepare for the long crossing to remote schools in Polynesia: Salina was coordinating our work or flirting with locals, Sabine made a sun protection and our neighbor Juergen and I were solving an electrical problem. By the way: Our neighbors Ingrid and Juergen on SY Josi have a very efficient and environmental friendly solution on their boat: a prop shaft generator, which delivers electricity during sailing as soon as the prop is turning.
farmer family Guebler
Just now we do the last minute preparations. We need food for at least 3 months. The family and farmers Guebler from Freire, where we have done a presentation in October 2005, came with organic food directly from their farm.
Thanks to Frederico and our new crew Elise and Jonathan, we are able to share the work. Elise and Jonathan joined us already from Panama to Ecuador. They are from France and will join us now for the crossing and will help us with their perfect French in schools in French Polynesia.
Pachamama with new "power arc" and the new SPADE anchor
Pachamama got a very useful equipment: 2 solar panels from Megasol. Thanks to the Swiss embassy we got the panels in time. Alwoplast and Navtec made a very solid arc for us, where we were able to place the Megasol panels and the Superwind generators. Today we have done a test: There was enough electricity to run all systems optimized by WAECO and Raymarine products, incl. the low energy water maker from Katadyn.
The crossing towards Polynesia starts tomorrow. In about 4 days we will get to Robinson Crouse Island to visit the school and hopefully find the missing treasure :-). - Thanks to the islanders Otto Jost Schnyder who will coordinate our activities.
Then we need about 6 weeks to cross the Pacific to the Gambier Island, the fist islands in French Polynesia. Until October we will visit remote schools in the Southern Pacific between Tahiti and Australia. During the hurricane season in the Southern hemisphere, which starts end of October until end of April, we think to do our activities in Australia and climb Mt. Kosciusko, the highest TOP on our 4th continent. We will use the hurricane season also to work and earn some money, - and may to do some fundraising in Europe so that we are able to continue our expedition after the hurricans...
Here the Chilenian article in the Diario Austral from the 28th of March 2006 about our departure and our example what can be done with renewable energies on a sailboat.