I've just realised that it's been ages since I updated the blog; sorry about that!

Our last trip ended rather undramatically. We sailed from caletta Coloane back to Puerto Williams and picked up our Zarpe for Cape Horn, and headed out to Puerto Toro. Despite waiting a couple of days at Toro and having a look out into Bahia Nassau the weather was a bit too fiesty to go sight seeing at Cape Horn so we gave up and returned to Puerto Williams where we were wind-bound for a further day as the navy had closed the port. We returned to Ushuaia on the 2nd Feb.

In Ushuaia Charly and I restocked the boat, searching the shops and wholesalers in Ushuaia for the best products and best value for money, and prepared for our new guests who arrived on the 10th. Things are getting really expensive in Ushuaia as Argentina struggles with inflation. Charly went off to place the order for cheese and hams etc. at the 'fiambre' that we use and when he came back we checked the prices to find that two small hams had cost 711 pesos, that's well over 100 pounds - needless to say those two items were cancelled from the order!

We didn't give our guests time to settle in on the 10th but immediately cleared out and headed for Puerto Williams as I could see a promising weather window for rounding the Horn coming up on the Sunday. Thanks to the Prefecture not turning up to carry out our pre- departure safety inspection we arrived too late in Puerto Williams to clear into Chile that evening. You can only clear into Chile, in Puerto Williams, at 10am, 3pm, and 6pm. That meant that we had to wait until 10am then next morning to clear in and then apply for our Zarpe for Cape Horn.

We eventually got away at midday six hours after I had wanted to leave but were still hoping to make the long passage to the Wollaston Islands by midnight, for a brief rest on anchor, before rounding Cape Horn the following morning. However we had unforecast headwinds almost all the way to Puerto Toro and had made slow progress. With a front approaching, the barometer and cloud base dropping fast I decided to take shelter in Puerto Toro, which is a nicely sheltered fishing village with a good dock. There we found another yacht, which had left ahead of us, also sheltering.

The weather on Sunday proved too strong to continue onwards so we went for a small hike and had a lazy day. During the night 'Polar Wind' had arrived from Cape Horn saying that they had a windy and rainy trip back from the horn and that it wouldn't have been much fun for us heading south against the breeze - good thing we stopped when we did.

We are laying alongside the dock in Puerto Toro with two other yachts outside of us. Last night we had some excitment when the sternline holding the boat outside of us parted (the wind was onshore with a small swell causing the boats to worry at their mooring lines). The two boats outside of us swung with the wind and ended up with their sterns on the beach and the anchor of the middle boat chipping away at the paintwork on the bow of Pelagic. We got everything under control quite quickly; not bad given that about 12 nationalites and at least four main languages were in use! It must have been quite funny to watch about 17 people dashing around in their underwear shouting instructions in a myriad of languages. One boat was moored back alongside Pelagic and the other went out to anchor in the bay. We were lucky as no serious damage was done to any of the boats or crew.

Today Monday is also breezey with 50 knots currently blowing at the horn as a strong depression moves through the Drake Passage. The forecast is looking better for the next couple of days so I think we'll be back on passage towards the Wollaston Islands tomorrow morning. The crew are all away for a walk right now and I am doing a few chores, preparing lunch and running the engine to charge the batteries.

Cheers Chris