My last entry ended in Caleta Contreras, in Bahia Yendegaia. As promised we made our early start up at 03:30am and motored up a smooth Beagle channel, quite a change from the day before! We motored along the north shore and managed to spot a couple of guanacos lurking in the bushes near the shore.

As we approached Isla Diablo just a mile short of our destination we heard strange roars coming from the island, was it the devil? No it turned out to be a huge colony of sea lions around 50 or 60 of them. We were able to motor right up to their ledge and approach to within about 20 metres without them being disturbed by out presence. There were three or four large bulls along with immature bulls, females and pups. We spend an hour or so there watching their antics and taking photos before motoring the last mile to Caletta Olla and mooring stern to the beach. Lyr had baked fresh bread on the trip up from Yendegaia so after a snack on fresh bread rolls we went ashore for a short hike. As it was raining I had promised everybody a short hike to view the glacier, just a couple of kms.

As we hiked up the ridge line to view the glacier a lone condor came to check us out. The weather improved during the hike so we extended it to a scramble down from the view point to the terminal moraine and then hiked along a guanaco track that ran along the lateral moraine beside the lake up to the glacier. Three of the gang decided to take a rest and enjoy the view just a few hundred metres short of the glacier but the rest of us carried on to the glacier. We found a lone beaver swimming up the lake looking for fresh trees to munch on but I think that all he found was ice! We took a few photos and hiked back to join the resting few and then back to the boat. Once back at the beach one of the guys pulled out a little gadget that measures distance covered and announced that we had covered 18km.. I don't believe that but everybody else chosen to believe the electronics.

We all arrived back at the boat tired, very tired, with all the old men complaining about their sore knees, feet, backs, spines, etc.. Good food and wine seemed to fix most ailments, well at least I think the food was good, I cooked the steaks so perhaps it wasn't good.

The next day we chugged up the channel in flat waters taking in the views of the glaciers on the north side of the channel, shortly before arriving at Seno Pia we were surprised to come across a lot of whales, there were a couple of Orcas and dozens of Minke whales. We stopped for a little while with the engine off but they didn't want to come closer than a couple of hundred meters, possibly because another boat came charging through at eight knots busy with their sight seeing. We crossed the bar into Seno Pia and motored up the western arm to where the glaciers calve and stopped for lunch. It was raining cats and dogs but that didn't stop people enjoying the view. Jim went for a swim in the brash ice and not to be outdone Lyr followed suit. We moored for the night in Caletta Beaulieu with a beautiful view of the Darwin range to the east.

This morning we had a fairly leisurely start to the day and motored out into the Beagle right into a the middle of the Minke whales. Today the seemed much more curious so we stopped and half a dozen whales came over and checked us out. We must have been stopped for about two hours with whales swimming all around and under the boat. A great and unusual day in the Beagle channel.

After the high of the whales we had a nice cruise down through the channels at the western end of Isla Gordon and around to Caletta Coloane (known to many of us as Caletta WOW!) where we are currently moored. Tomorrow we plan a long day back to Puerto Williams to pick up our Zarpe for Cape Horn.