THE OCEAN, A BOAT AND A WOMAN Story of a dream come true A memoir Luis Coppelli M.D. THE OCEAN, A BOAT AND A WOMAN The meaning of life is to make our dreams come true Author Luis Coppelli M.D. email: [email protected] To my dear wife, who made possible the realization of my dream Design: Isabel Vásquez Andriola ISBN English edition: 978-1-7370643-0-5 Digital Edition Language: English and Spanish First Spanish language edition: September 20, 2020 Web page: www.scheherazade.cl Copyright: Luis Coppelli M.D. Visit our web page to access an interactive map and many more pictures and purchase the book INDEX Acknowledgments ...............................................................................13 Yacht Scheherazade’s schematic of the rigging .............................17 Yacht Scheherazade specifications ...................................................19 Prolog ................................................................................................. XX Chapter one: The dream.....................................................................21 Chapter two: The boat........................................................................21 Chapter three: The woman................................................................21 Chapter four: México..........................................................................21 Chapter five: Catalina and dad.........................................................21 Chapter six: Two years in México.....................................................21 Chapter seven: The Pacific crossing..................................................21 Chapter eight: Nuku Hiva and the Marquesas..............................21 Chapter nine: The Tuamotus..............................................................21 Chapter ten: Tahití...............................................................................21 Chapter eleven: The other Societies..................................................21 Chapter twelve: Bora Bora............................................................... 21 7 Chapter thirteen: Rarotonga and Niue........................................... 21 Chapter twenty-eight: The Atlantic crossing; anatomy of a passage....................................................................................................21 Chapter fourteen: Fiji.........................................................................21 Chapter twenty-nine: The Rio to Buenos Aires passage. Summer Chapter fifteen: Fiji to New Zealand passage.................................21 of 2008-2009..........................................................................................21 Chapter sixteen: New Zealand...........................................................21 Chapter thirty: Argentina, the dream becomes a nightmare.......21 Chapter seventeen: The Tasman Sea................................................21 EPÍLGO.................................................................................................21 Chapter eighteen: Australia................................................................21 Chapter nineteen: The top of Australia and the Torres Strait.....21 Chapter twenty: The Arafura Sea and Darwin..............................21 Chapter twenty-one: Darwin, change of plans...............................21 Chapter twenty-three: The Sea of Timor and Ashmore Reef. The gate to the Indian Ocean.............................................................21 Chapter twenty-three: Scheherazade’s sojourn in mid-ocean. Christmas Island and Cocos Keeling................................................21 Chapter twenty-fou: On the high seas again, the way to Mauritius...............................................................................................21 Chapter twenty-five: South Africa....................................................21 Chapter twenty-six: The bottom of Africa; the rounding of the Cape of Storms.....................................................................................21 Chapter twenty-seven: Preparations for the mighty Atlantic......21 8 9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS his book is the result of an obsession with the ocean and boats that I have had since childhood. An obsession that grew over T the years, and fortunately, despite the many obstacles that life presents, thanks to the help from many people that I had the luck to meet, the dream, as I call it, became a reality. First and foremost, I must thank my wife Ramona (Mona), to whom this book is dedicated. Her love and commitment made it all possible, always by my side, supporting me and my crazy ideas, with her uncanny common sense, especially in those weak moments, notwithstanding being seasick every single time that she stepped on the boat. She went along for over ten years, in the cramped accommodations of the ship, not only as my first mate but also as a companion, mother, and daughter’s teacher. I owe Catalina (Cata or Catita), our daughter, my apologies for having taken her, for long years, away from her friends and the joys of being a regular kid and for having placed her in that cramped boat with adults with no space to run and play. I also want to thank my other kids. First of all, Francesca, our oldest daughter that I have no doubt, would have shared with us much more of our life at sea should she not have been involved with medical school, residency, and finally as a doctor (where she has excelled, and always has made me proud), and later with her own family. Rodrigo, my older son and sail mate, with whom we shared fabulous sailing moments thru some of the most isolated and treacherous waters in the world. And of course, Louis, who with his wit and lighthearted demeanor, made some of the long passages a breeze. I cannot forget my best friend, partner, and master surgeon Alfonso Muñoz who took care of my patients and carried my surgical practice better than I could have, while I leisurely enjoyed sailing the oceans of the world. Without his help, it would have been much more difficult, if not impossible, to realize this dream. I also want to thank our employers 1 1 at the time, Banner Health, for allowing us to live our dream while at the same time maintaining our Jobs with full pay and insurances. A heartfelt thanks to Isabel Vasquez Andriola and Jose Miguel Olmos; they helped me with the book design, the maps, and the web page attached to the book. Last but not least, I give thanks to the hundreds of people that helped us along the way and everywhere we stopped. One of this book’s conclusions is that the world is full of good people and that the misery and evil we hear and see in the daily news is not what we are as human beings. Luis Coppelli Visita el sitio web www.scheherazade.cl para interactuar con nuestros viajes y ver las fotos en colores. Mona and I at the beginning of our life together 12 1 3 SCHEHERAZADE’S LAYOUT AND SCHEMATIC OF ESPECIFICACIONES DE HANS CHRISTIAN 38 MARK II THE RIGGING BUILDER HANS CHRISTIAN TACHTS, INC. DESIGNER HARDWOOD S. IVES CONSTRUCTION ENGINEER LEO LANDSTEINER LENCH OVERALL 46´ 0´´ LENCH ON DECK 37´ 9´ LENCH WATERLINE 33´ 0´ BEAM 12´ 6´´ CRAFT 6´ 0´´ DISPLACEMENT 27, 500 BALLAST 10, 300 CAST IRON ENCAPSULATED FREEBOARD: FWD 6´ 1´´ AMIDSHIPS 3´ 4 1/2´´ AFT 4´ 10´´ WATERLINE BEAM 11´ 2´´ BRIDGE CLEARANCE SAIL AREA: MAIN 346 STAYSAIL 158 JIB 288 LAPPER 633 I 52´ TO STEP J 22´ E 15´ 4 TANKCAGE: FUEL OIL 145 US CAL. WATER 170 HOLDING 25 SHEETS AND HALYARDS 1/2” YACHTBRAID, 7.500 TEST DESIGN DATA /IN. INMERSION (NOMINAL) 1400 HULL SPEED (THEORETICAL) 7.69 KT SPEED/LENGTH RATIO (HULL SPEED) 1.34 PRISTATIC COEFFICIENT .531 LONGITUDINAL CENTER OF BUOTANCY 6.37 STATION CENTER OF LATERAL PLANE 7.15 STATION BLOCK COEFFICIENT (KEEL INCL.) .184 DISPLACEMENT/LENGHT 342 BEAM/LENGTH .336 SAIL AREA/DISPLACEMENT 16.27 LEAD CE-CLP /100% TRI.) 25.45 I BALLAST/DISPLACEMENT 37.2 8.2% RUDDER AREA PROPULSION 125-155 CU. IN. DIESEL, 3:1 REDUCTION DISPLACEMENT/HP 893-595 (CONTINUOUS) KEEL NACA FOIL (MODIFIED) RUDDER 10% BALANCED Hans Christian Yaches International, Ltda. BUILDERS OF THE HANS CHRISTIAN 33, 38 T, 36 MO, 30 PH, 43 T2, 44PH, &48 6201 BAYSHORE WALK LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA 90803 TELEX: 691600 TCI LSA HCY 1 5 PROLOGUE was in a daze; Mona had woken me up after an hour of deep sleep. It was 2 AM; I had gone down below two hours earlier, I leaving her in the cockpit to keep an eye on an ominous line of enormous cargo ships that were sailing not a mile off our port side. The vessels looked like a string of pearls, following the tight shipping lanes leading toward the busy Los Angeles Harbor. We were motor sailing on the way to Catalina Island out of San Diego, and it was our first overnight passage together. Louis, my seven-year-old son, was sound asleep in his bunk. There had been a steady swell from the northwest, which, thus far, had made the trip uncomfortable. There was no wind, and the moon - always that reassuring beacon during a night passage - had disappeared under the western horizon. I found out later that Mona had been seasick from the time we had rounded Point Loma after leaving behind San Diego Bay’s tranquil waters. She hadn’t said a word; she had helped me with the watch, had put Louis to sleep, had even pretended to enjoy the pasta dinner that I prepared partly to impress her with my culinary skills. I didn’t realize that she had gotten rid of that dinner by emptying her stomach several times over the lifelines. As I climbed up the companionway, she pointed towards the vessels in the distance and said nervously, “I think we are getting too