Williwaws, Whirlpools, and the Strait of Magellan

Tuesday, March 23
Position: Caleta Macias, 54,41S 71,32W

Beautiful sunrise this am at Caleta Emilita. We started early with the intention of going about 12nm. The weather was way too good to stop, so we kept at it, aiming for an anchorage across Bahia Desolada (meaning roughly something like 'Bay of Sorrow', I think). This was one of our "hairier" spots. We nailed it, with a good (strong enough, but not too strong) breeze coming through from the NW. Sails up and yours truly at the helm, we sailed across the Bay in no time at all. This spot is one of the few exposed areas we will encounter on our trip which is the reason it is a tricky area; the swells from the Southern Ocean can roll through very high. Although the swells today were pretty mellow, you can definitely see and feel the change once in the Bay. I have to say though, I was very happy to be in the driver's seat at that moment.

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Wednesday, March 25
Position: Caleta Cluedo, 54,16S 71,46W

Another big day to make it through Brecknock and Canal Cockburn (yeah yeah, have your giggle and get over it). Canal Cockburn is a very difficult spot in bad weather – in fact Sherm and Matt had swell as high as the boat last time through. Our swell was as it was yesterday, very mellow, and we had no trouble spotting rocks and making it through in good time. We will hopefully punch up to the Magellan tomorrow.

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Thursday, March 26
Position: Bahia Fortescue, 53,41S 71,59W

Into Magellan Strait we went today, via Canal Acwalisnan. We started the morning off later than usual in order to catch an outgoing tide in the very narrow parts of the Canal (Paso O'Ryan). This pass can gain streams of up to 8 knots, and we wanted that speed with us, rather than against us. We hit it perfectly and were shot through the rapids. It was super cool (also kind of frightening!) in such a narrow pass (maybe a bit less than 50m wide) with whirlpools running fast around us. Luckily, the narrowest part was short! Once we entered the wider Magellan Strait, we were able to put our sails up and actually turn the engine off entirely. As it should be. We got into our first Magellan anchorage around sunset.

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Friday, March 27
Position: Bahia Borja, 53,31S 72,29W

Our first real Magellan run (well, my first and Matthew's first going this direction) today. The day started out calm and the tidal streams were with us, so we made good tracks up. Things changed as we came into Paso Tortuso, where stronger tidal streams are more frequent. The wind picked up as well, and was on the nose as it funneled through the Strait. It wasn't dangerous or very strong, but the gusts and the current certainly slowed our last 5nm down. We eventually made it into an anchorage that unfortunately has strong williwaws so we spent a good hour putting lines to shore to avoid too much swing on the anchor. This task involves Matthew going to shore in the dingy, tying strong lines to trees and me pulling the boat around on those lines. In theory, it isn't difficult, but imagine that kind of coordination in the middle of 40-50knt williwaw gusts and rain. Good thing Matthew has some practice doing this!

We got to shore today as well which felt awesome after a few days on the boat. This is a famous anchorage that has historically been used by sailors coming through the Magellan and there is a group of trees with boards of boats that have passed through. The boat boards are newer now, but this tradition was in place as long ago as when Joshua Slocum came through here in the late 1800's. I've been reading his "Sailing Alone Around the World", particularly the parts about this area. I can only imagine what route may have been before the luxuries of GPS and daily wind reports...

Tomorrow, we plan to use the last day of decent weather to get into a good, tight anchorage to wait out a big low headed for us (perhaps the remnants of the cyclone that recently hit Vanuatu).

Rainbows, Dolphins, and Ice

(Sunday, March 22)

We waited for weather for a few days at Caleta Borracho and left at first light this morning to try and make it up to Seno Pia, a famous glacial area. Our friend Osvaldo on Polar Wind (a local charter-sail) happened to be taking clients up to Seno Pia today as well, so we followed him up. By "follow", I mean that we left Borracho at the same time and both ended up at Seno Pia this evening; Polar Wind is much larger and faster than little Polo Flat. In any event, Osvaldo has been sailing around here for mnay years and invited us to tie off of them in a very cool anchorage by the glacier and near to a big waterfall. It is gorgeous.

Today was a long day with less than perfect wind/weather, but we had to make head-way in order to catch good weather through some upcoming tricky spots. In spite of the constant cold sprays of salt water, and annoying head wind, we had an empty channel, surrounded by mountains, rainbows, glaciers, waterfalls, and even dolphins and sea lions on our bow as we dodged icebergs coming into anchor.

Tomorrow, Monday, we will go check out a major glacier nearby and then head on. For now, though, some much needed sleep after a rough day.

Position: 54,46S 69,40W

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(Monday, March 23)

Woke up early, said goodbye to Polar Wind, and went up to the glacier. The weather was clear and calm, though quite a few more bergs floating about. We had our morning coffee in front of the ice, listening to it crash and bang. Being that close to a glacier was pretty surreal. My brain just could not process it - sensory overload! Icy blue colors, massive size, fragile tracks carved through it...truly unlike anything I have ever seen before.
After our glacial meditation :), we continued back out into the channel. With no wind and no waves (quite a different day than yesterday!), we got to Caleta Emilita in good time. It's a beautiful anchorage – very protected with views of the snowy mountains in the distance. Off again early tomorrow morning.

Position: 54,53S 70,23W

Puerto Borracho

Good day on the water, 40 nm covered! In a pretty little bay and enjoying a glass of vino tinto and chicken curry. Off to make ground towards some glaciers tomorrow. We'll update every few days from here out.

Position: 54,56S 68,40W

Later, Mates

So, we will leave tomorrow morning! All paid up, fresh veg and meat loaded into the bilge cooler, and Armada approved. Our good friend Denis (the local/Swiss man who watched the boat last year) also gave us some homemade rhubarb jam, green onion, and fresh parsley. Yay!

Not much else to say - some final photos of an abandoned military site we found hiking, Francisco (the manager of the Micalvi) and I, and some wild calafate berries (google it) I picked today that I will make jam out of tomorrow at anchor. We are off now to enjoy a dinner out (for once!) and a few “goodbye” pisco sours at the Micalvi bar.  :)

We will update from here sans photos (too large for the sat phone), but rest assured photos will abound as soon as we get somewhere with internet. We won't actually see the blog for a while, as we will be updating via email, but please feel free to comment anyway. And don't hesitate to contact us on the boat email: poloflat@spsmail.net. We'd love to hear from you all!  Just keep in mind that we can't download any attachments, forwards, photos, videos, website links, signature lines, etc. so keep emails to the boat plain and simple text.

Lots of love!

bunker

amo

Francisco!!

calafate

Vamanos

Well, our time in Puerto Williams is ending soon. We hope to be on our way by mid-next week. I hope that my next post is some brief thing with only coordinates! In spite of our delay, we've had a really good time here and over the last week or two. We've made tons of new friends: Margie and Chris off of “Storm Bay”, a lovely couple from Hobart Tasmania who have been sailing for nearly 20 years (!) all over the world; Magnus, Rupert and Amelia, three crazy English folks who are the current crew of Pelagic Australis (google it - a famous boat that is maybe about 80ft long and was built to winter over in Antarctica); Jacques and Fritz of “Moana”, a german boat with a french helmsman and a Polynesian name (Fritz has even been to Rapa Iti in his years of sailing!); Francisco, the manager of the Micalvi; and of course our good ol' mate Jordan from “Commitment”. We've probably had too much fun with all these wonderful people, but we've managed to still get the boat really ready (there are so many drums of diesel, cans of veggies, and kilos of dried beans aboard!), do a few good hikes around, learn a bit of Spanish, and I've managed to do some work as well. In my “professional” opinion, we have done quite well :)

A few highlights: jumping in the 6 degree water to help test Jordan's immersion safety suits, a bit of walk-about down lonely roads and empty forests, spaghetti bolognese and pizza night aboard Commitment with the crew of Pelagic, Thomas, and Chris and Margie (not pictured – too much red wine!), and a day of super crazy wind (80 knt gusts - see video below) that was so wild, people here claimed they had never seen that much wind before (lucky we were safely tied in the protected harbor!).

Needless to say, we will miss it and all of the characters. But, as Tom Petty once said: time to move on, time to get going...

p.s. A few of you have said that you've had trouble posting comments. Comments previously had to come to me for approval first, so they did not instantly appear. I have changed this setting, so please comment to your heart's content! Unless your comment is making fun of my Tom Petty reference ;)

In the suits!

getting in the water, feeling like gumby!