SailingAMALIE

One night after a twilight race at the deck of Greenwich Flying Squadron, I happened to sit next to the commodore, John. I never knew he was a romantic but I guess there’s no way of knowing until you actually share your stories. But I am getting ahead of myself. We were talking about cruising and favourite places in the world.

‘What is the most exotic cruising adventure you have had?’ John asked me.

            ‘Probably the archipelagos in the south of Chile.’

‘How did you end up there of all places, aren’t you from Denmark?’

‘Well, I met a Chilean sailor and he invited me sailing on his boat, so I went to Chile and never came back.’

‘Now that sounds like an interesting story.’ John pushed his glasses further up his nose and settled into a comfortable position. ‘So tell me, where did you two meet?’

‘In Sardinia thirty years ago today. How time flies. My sister and I were delivering a 45 ft homemade cruising boat from Malaga in Spain to Sicily in Italy with some friends. The wind was not right so we ran out of time and ended up in a little fishing port on the southern tip of Sardinia waiting for the next crew. Try to imagine two scared young women tied up to a fishing wharf in a gale with rotten ropes and no fenders.’

‘And along came the Chilean sailor?’ John said and poured some more red wine in our glasses. It was twilight racing night after all.

‘Well, yes. A boat which looked in a much better state than ours had tied up in front of us with an elderly couple and two younger men on board. They spoke Spanish and I happened to speak a bit of Spanish myself so I asked them if they could lend us some extra ropes. The two young men helped us secure the lines and invited us for homemade pizza on their boat whilst the storm blew over our heads. I don’t know if it was the adrenaline from the storm or if it was purely the great pizzas but it was a night I will never forget.’

‘I think it sounds like there was a storm in your heart already, if you ask me,’ John said and grinned.

‘At one point the captain said jokingly “I’m getting a divorce and my son Alejandro here is single, why don’t you two come sailing with us?” My sister and I laughed because Alejandro’s father was obviously not getting divorced but despite the good humour, we only needed to look at each other once to agree that we had had enough of the unpredictable, stormy Mediterranean weather (it was a El Nino year). We were flying back to Denmark, no more sailing for us but a couple of weeks later a postcard arrived from Barcelona, Alejandro had shipped the boat off to Chile and would like to invite me to come sailing in Chile. So I thought well, why not?’

John scratched his beard.

‘What? Had you even kissed?’

‘No way. We barely knew each other but I figured I could just stay a couple of days and then see the rest of Chile on my own if it didn’t work out. I mean if he was married. But it turned out he wasn’t married and he was actually very nice.’

‘I knew it,’ said John. ‘It was meant to be.’

‘The boat landed in Valparaiso and then sailed 400 nm south to Puerto Montt, and from there we explored the southern archipelagos, the channels of Chiloe and the deep fjords of the mainland with a backdrop of snow peaked volcanos and 9 m tides. A boat is an ideal place to get to know each other. Alex had no idea if I could sail so one day in a light breeze, he let go of the dinghy without warning to see if I could get it back. (I did get it back.) On the other hand, I had no idea, if I could trust him as a skipper. I did, even after the afternoon we took the dinghy to explore a small island, with no life jackets, no telephone, no extra fuel, only the vast Pacific Ocean. The island turned out to be much bigger than expected and we made it back with just the fumes of petrol otherwise this whole story might have ended right there.’

‘But it didn’t. It most certainly started there in the south of Chile. How romantic,’ John said and rested his head in his hand.

‘You’re right and here we are thirty years later and still sailing together. I often think that you can visit the most exotic places in the world but it’s the people you’re with and the people you meet that makes it into a real adventure.’

‘That’s exactly right. Cheers to sailing.’