Sailing Patagonia

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Hi All.

I apologize for the bad quality of the photos, the internet in these parts is a little left to be desired

After leaving Valdivia a month ago we have arrived to Ushaiua, Argentina the worlds southern most city at 54 deg south. We received our approval from the Australian Antarctic Division a few weeks ago and now all we have to do is restock the boat before heading down to Cape Horn and waiting for the right weather opportunity to make the 4 day sail across the drake Passage.

Our time in Valdivia was spent organising the boat. We repaired some small external problems, fitted a new toilet. Tried to fix the water desalinator which had malfunctioned on mat on his way to Easter Island, stocked the boat with food and spent several days trying to find all the equipment we still needed for us and the boat. With my limited Spanish, no car and no Idea where to find things like boat engine parts, boat toilets and fisherman's wet weather gear, it was a long and rewarding procedure indeed and we were all very happy after days of walking and bussing around to finally have everything we needed. Luckily most shop keepers, pedestrians and one very helpful taxi driver all went out of their way to help us and got to go to many parts of towns you wouldn't otherwise go to as a tourist.

After getting everything sorted on the boat, our last task was to get all our food. As the boat has no fridge, our fresh produce was limited to carrots, onion, garlic, tomatoes, bell peppers and a hell of a lot of potatoes. The remainder of our food supply was made up of pasta, beans, and a lot of cans of stuff and dried foods. We also brought several kilos of bread and cooked fresh loaves of bread each day we could, that would always be smothered in generous helpings of peanut butter and butter. The 6 kilograms of butter which we purchased and consumed until we were licking the paper foil turned out to be one of the most important food sources on the boat as it provided the energy and fat to keep warm and kept us excited to be eating fresh hot bread. Especially when we all ran out of chocolate and was craving some fatty tastiness.

After leaving Valdivia we headed down to the end of the river and anchored for the night. The next day we left and had a good 3 day sail offshore down to Canal Chacao. Entering the Chacao Canal was a rather difficult task as we arrived when the tide was heading out which meant we spent 4 hours sailing as fast as we could against a current that saw us in the end sailing, and motoring forwards but in actual fact we were either not moving at all or going backwards. After the tide had turned we were finally let through and after another 4 hours we anchored for the night.

The next day after getting some much needed sleep, we sailed until afternoon before anchoring off a fish farm further down the channel. The fish farms had become a familiar sight and were everywhere. Sadly their presence showed, with their resulting toxic pollution spreading out and around the bays and channels. Combined with all the fishing boats left at high tide to rot in Chile's southern towns and villages it also shows the saddening decline of fish stocks here and in the rest of the whole world. In fact our efforts in catching our own fish, which was most days left us with one meal of Barra Kuta for the whole trip.

After anchoring that night, we were met by a guy who had come over on his dinghy from another boat anchored in the area and asked us to come over for a beer. He was an interesting old guy from Helsinki called monei. Monei had left Helsinki nearly thirty years ago crewing on another Yacht before falling in love in France with a young french woman who was repairing a boat to go solo sailing. After teaming up they headed for Chile and never returned home. Sadly Monei's wife had died in the past year or so and he was spending his life in a somewhat broken state, living pretty much solitary while he worked fixing up a couple of boats for a bit of cash.

After leaving Monie to go back to doing what monie did, we returned and left for the last town luntil we reached Puerta Williams, in southern Patagonia. We spent the next two days in a small city called Castro on Isla Chiloe, a rather large Island separated from the mainland by the channel. We Spent the day here walking drums of diesel from town to the boat to fill it up and brought a few more supplies before heading into Patagonia.

After leaving Castro we had one more day sail to the end of the channel where we anchored again before sailing off shore down to the straits of Megellan. After leaving Castro in good weather, we were all a bit relaxed when a small front came in and resulted in the loosing of a few items left untied on deck including the Oar for our Tender. We anchored for the the night outside a National park and that afternoon Steve and I set about constructing another Oar. After fabricating half a new Oar lock out of a few bits of scrap metal on the boat we headed to shore to see what else we could find. We arrived and came across a small path leading through the Forrest so decided to follow it. after following it for about 20 minutes, we were amazed to find it lead to a fish farm camp with 5 or so buildings to house the workers. After finding the Foreman I set to work with broken Spanish and lots of hand signals, trying to imitate the word for Oar and we ended up leaving with a few bits of pipe needed to complete our Oar lock. We then cut down a few trees and by the end of the day we had a new Oar made from an old gas pipe, a piece of rusty flat bar, a tree courtesy of the national park and some wood and screws. Steve and I camped ashore that night for some much needed free space before boarding the next morning and setting off down the coast of Chile.

We spent the next 5 days sailing down to the Straits of Megellan. The sailing conditions for this far south were as good as you could ever expect. Still whats considered good sailing here isn't what most people would ever sail in, provided they had a choice, however all went well. We each took 3 hr shifts and spent our breaks trying to sleep which is hard. You're lucky to get 3-4 hrs sleep each day and tend to spend all your free time trying your best to get as much sleep as you can.

After 5 days we entered the Straits of Magellan, which was very rough at the entry, however once we were in, we anchored at our first Anchorage in the Fjords of Patagonia. The Anchorage was Truly spectacular. we entered into a small bay covered in small trees around a shore line that was surrounded by Sheer cliffs and mountains sticking straight up out of the sea. Beside the boat was a 200 Meter waterfall and when it rained which was always, the cliffs would form dozens of smaller waterfalls which all fell down to the Sea. We spent the next 4 days here recovering from the last crossing and waiting out some bad weather fronts coming through. For the 4 days it rained and blew pretty much non stop. After anchoring, we woke up the next morning having dragged anchor, nearly washed up ashore due to the wind that night. Luckily we were up in time and I then set about in the dinghy, running ropes ashore and we tied the boat off to the trees. A procedure we became all to familiar with by the end of the trip. For the next 3 days there were wind gusts up to 60 Knots making leaving the boat to get on land impossible however we were very glad to be tied up, safe and sheltered from the seas.



The rest of our time sailing was spent heading through the Fjord's and channels, going from the Straits of Magellan to the end of the Beagle Canal, where we spent the night in Puerta Williams before crossing the channel and into Ushuaia, Argentina. After leaving our first anchorage in Patagonia in good weather, we headed back into the Straights of Magellan before taking a small Channel which took us south to the Beagle Canal. The day started off in sunshine and pretty much wind free however in the afternoon the weather really showed us how quickly things here can change. At the time It was my shift sailing the boat and as I sat there contemplating whether I should increase the sails as there was hardly any wind, I felt it start to increase. About 10 minutes later I could see the sea start to smoke on the horizon Which means that the wind is around 50 to 60 knots and is picking the water up and into the air. about 10 minutes after that we were in the bad weather and were taking the sails down. Then within the next 10 minutes we had all the sails down and were bare polling the boat at nearly twice the speed its meant to go just from the wind hitting the hull and rigging. It was an interesting situation while navigating around rocks and reefs however mat took over and we had a quick trip to our next anchorage where we again spent the next few days waiting out bad weather.
Our second anchorage was Another truly spectacular place and and Steve and I managed to go camping again for a night, giving us all some space and a chance to have a walk around.

From here we spent our last week sailing by day and anchoring by night through the Beagle Canal. we managed to camp in a few more places and the weather stayed good for the remainder of the trip although it still rained a lot and was pretty damned cold to the point parts of the boat would ice up. Traveling through the Beagle canal and the Fjords from the Straits of Magellan would have to be one of the most amazing places I've ever seen. The landscape looks truly prehistoric, there's snow capped mountain after mountain, huge cliff faces, waterfalls and glaciers that all fall straight into the sea. During one day alone we passed 5 glaciers and we had the chance to take the boat right up to the bottom of one where we parked and watched chunks of ice the size of cars break off and fall into the sea. the sound was incredible, you could here the ice groaning and cracking as it made its way to the water and when parts broke off the sound of the ice smashing apart as it fell down the glacier was as loud as a shot gun going off.

We spent our last anchorage just a few miles down from one of these Glaciers. After so many days in rain the heavens finally cleared and we had an amazing afternoon with a bon fire on the beach, having a few cold drinks provided from the bits of ice bergs that were scattered along the shore from the glacier. The next day we motored down to Puerta Williams where we checked out of Chile.
The next day we headed for Ushuaia, Argentina. It is the southern most city in the world and is another pretty amazing place that has an amazing back drop of rugged mountain peaks covered in snow.

We've been here for a week now and sadly there's been some events back at home that means Steve has had do abandon the rest of the trip down to Antarctica. This left Matthew and I sitting here trying to sort out how we were going to complete the rest of the trip, as just the 2 of us heading down would be extremely hard and seriously dangerous. Unfortunately Steve was the second person to pull out as originally we had planned for there to be 4 of us. We contemplated trying to get some more crew, however the chances of getting someone who could sail would be slim, and getting someone who could sail and be willing to go on a 30ft boat with us to Antarctica would be even slimmer. At one stage we were considering putting the trip on hold until we had something sorted when luckily the boat next to us which is another Australian Yacht with a father and son on board, offered us 2 crewing positions on their boat as they wanted more people. We've since accepted their offer and leave to go down on the 5th of Jan. Sadly it is the best of a really bad situation, with Steve having to leave and our goal of taking Polo Flat, mat's boat down there is now out of the picture until next year. Mat is now going to leave the boat here for winter. However as the trip to get to Antarctica at all this year was in doubt just a few days ago, we're very lucky to have such good fortune.

We're now leaving for Antarctica on the 5th of Jan, so until then, Mat and I are going to sail down to Cape Horn and spend Christmas, then we hope to go hiking in some mountains near Puerta Williams.

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