I took 2 weeks off from the boat in Chile and went home to England to see my parents we did lots of Christmassy activities and put up a fake Christmas tree.

Next stop was New Jersey to see my brothers family for Thanksgiving where we cut down a real Christmas tree from a farm and went to see the Christmas Spectacular at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. It is cold in New Jersey so they are making use of the synthetic down jackets I got them in Nepal last year.

Then back to the UK for work on the 82 footer that is being rebuilt at Oyster in Southampton, early Christmas with the Whytes and Perrins and work on my 30 footer Santana that I own with my brother.

During my time away we (my brother’s family and myself) decided to adopt a dog from Puerto Montt who had been hit by a truck in the Marina just before I left. So I have been in full investigation mode and organizing Pincoya’s paperwork and transport.

The trip back from UK was a nightmare and involved a few hours in a hotel room in Madrid (if you could call it a hotel!) and a few hours in a hotel room in Santiago. It should have taken 24 hours and instead it took 48 hours. Zac was at the airport waiting to board the flight I got off of and told me where the car was. I got back to the boat mid morning and just started working as I was in that mode. When I finally got to sleep on Monday night I had slept around 9 hours since waking up Friday morning in Cowes Isle of Wight!

I left the boat at 5pm on Friday night and drove to Lago San Todas just up the road from Ensenada. It was raining and getting dark when I arrived on the shore of the lake and luckily there was a single boatman looking for his last fare to the other side of the river. I had called ahead to a farmhouse that was listed in Lonely Planet (though without a phone number but Google solved that) and in very bad Spanish I asked if there was a room available. The room was rustic (chipboard walls) but there was a lovely fire going and the old lady using mime put dinner in front of me. There were piglets running around in the yard along with the usual cats, dogs, roosters, chickens etc.

 Saturday morning I woke up to a beautiful view of the lake surrounded by mountains and went to the CONAF to log in a walk which took me 4 hours through the forest and then alongside the lake.

I called the rafting company to see if they had room for one. Quickly jumping in my car I managed to join in with a group of 5 guys from Santiago. It was interesting trying to respond to Spanish commands from the guide. Had a great time and even went down a rapid outside the raft when they said we could jump in if we wanted!

Back in Puerto Montt by 6pm and in time to watch a soccer game at the stadium across from the boat. Quite a fun filled Saturday off and Sunday is a work day but as the weather was not nice I didn’t mind so much!