It has been a frustrating time to get to our current location. It has been cold with very poor visibility, lots of rain and strong winds; although they have been predominantly from the north which makes it mostly a downwind run for us. We want to see everything and it is very frustrating knowing that just beyond the fog and rain is some of the most beautiful scenery on earth!! Oh well may be we will see it on the way back north. One of the biggest frustrations has been receiving weather forecasts. Our main source for weather has been from a company called �"Buoyweather�". We are able to email forecast requests for what they call �"virtual buoys�"; basically it is a place or coordinate specific multi-day forecast that is updated daily via email for as many days as we request. Unfortunately that system has not been operating for over a week. We do have other ways of getting weather and in addition to our buoyweather forecasts we download Grib files. Grib files are computer generated models that are shown as a forecast map. We email a request for a specific area and then we receive a daily file. Currently we are monitoring 41S to 55 S and 66W to 100W; this allows us to see the low and high pressure systems heading our way. The image shows wind speed, wind direction, barometric pressure; and if we ask for it, it will show surface temperature, wave height, and wave direction. We look at the Grib for multiple days to follow the movements of the pressure systems and watch our own barometer to see if the pressure change agrees with all the forecast info we are receiving. The one thing that seems to be very consistent is that a lot of different pressure systems go sailing (no pun) through this area very quickly. (Hmm�...let's see�.... maybe it is because we are in the roaring 40's with a bunch of snow capped mountains to speed up the already windy area.) So, a little over a week after we left Puerto Montt the buoyweather reports, that we rely on, decided to stop coming for no good reason. That put Reina into a tailspin. (Definition of tailspin is a very unhappy wife that has a hard time leaving a comfortable anchorage when she is not confident in the forecast.) This all started on Thursday, October 1st, and with our limited ability to send and receive email we did not get much customer support help by Friday and then it rolled into the weekend. In the meantime Dwyer, our single hander friend on s/v Rascal, who does not have a high frequency radio gets his weather reports on a small hand held satellite based device called a Delorme which he can send and receive short text only emails. He has his brother, at home in the states, sending him forecasts for his location every day. Since the Rascal was only about 50 miles ahead of us we asked his brother to copy us on the forecasts he was sending to Dwyer. This, at least, gave us something. It also forced us to learn more about using the Grib files and making our own forecasts. Up to now we have not paid much attention to the �"big picture�" gribs, because of our lack of understanding of what we were looking at. Well we learned very quickly (or at least convinced ourselves that we have) how to better understand what is coming our way. We are now obsessed with the barometer. We put a very fancy and accurate digital barometer on the boat for this trip. We can see trends and changes very quickly and it tracks them for 5 days. Bottom line is all things happen for a reason and God wanted us to learn how to become weather forecasters so there you go!!! Since our last post, on October 2nd, we have been trying to keep our pace up and move when we can. That represents about 40 to 50 miles a day. If you look at a map you will see that we have a long way to go to get to the bottom so we feel some pressure (get it) to keep moving. I will admit that this area is very difficult sailing; much more difficult than our 4000 mile passage to get to Chile. Now we really have to work hard because we are constantly making sail changes. It is not unusual to get 40 degree wind shifts and very accelerated gusts for no apparent reason. This is the result of all the funneling that goes on when you are in a very narrow passage with 12,000 foot mountains looking down at you. Our current feeling is that you take your wind forecast and then double the wind strength to allow for gusts and try and set the boat up for those conditions. So if the forecast is for 10 to 15 knots I have to allow for winds to be over 30 knots. The frustrating thing is that in 10 to 15 knots I would normally put up all the sails I have in order to keep Karma moving well. So now I am sailing slower than I want because I have to plan on some big winds. The other frustrating thing is that with the wind shifting so much and because we are sailing downwind (for now) I have to constantly move the spinnaker pole around in order to set the headsail (the one at the front of the boat) on the proper side of the boat for the wind. This maneuver takes me about 15 minutes alone. We also need to jibe the boat to move the mainsail over to the other side of the boat. This maneuver does not take very long but is very violent if not done properly, especially in 30 knots. It takes a lot of time and energy; did I mention that while all this was taking place it is usually raining and the temperature has been in the upper 40's!!!! Reina and I are pretty good at handling the boat and the sails and are very careful and cautious; we don't want to break something out here in �"the last frontier�". I will say this that after sailing down here we will be ready to tackle anything. Well I can hear all of you now saying, �"Why the hell would anyone want to do that?�". I can tell you without a doubt that it is all worth it, and here is why: We woke on Wednesday the 7th and took a look at the barometer, which was still rising; it had been for the last 24 hours and that concurred with the forecast info we had. A strong high pressure system was going to hang out for at least 3 days and bring us clear skies, sun, and light winds. We hadn't had that in a very long time. On this morning we were making a short 20 mile run into Laguna San Rafael. Laguna San Rafael is one of South America's top attractions. It is a glacier that is unique because it is the closest glacier to the equator in the world and it flows all the way down to sea level. We are arriving early in Chile's spring time which means that we will likely have the place all to ourselves. The run this day had to be properly planned because there are a lot of strong currents (over 5 knots) in some of the narrow entrances to the laguna. The part I liked best is that according to our guide book, you should try to enter the Laguna on a rising tide (current behind us) in order to avoid small pieces of icebergs (bergy bits) from blocking the pass, cool. Reina and I were very excited to see our first glacier. As we were navigating up the river that leads to the laguna we could see through the binoculars what looked liked pieces of ice in the distance. When we approached the end of the narrow pass we were presented a scene that was so surreal it is hard to put into words. Our narrow pass was tree lined and did not allow us to see anything that was coming. It opened up to a lagoon that is over 6 miles across. Floating in the distance were these huge blue floating statues of ice in ominous shapes, some the size of a two story house. We then looked to our left and saw what can only be described as the most, over the top, picture I have ever seen. Inside of this closed lagoon, ringed with snow capped mountains and with floating blue ice everywhere is the glacier. The scale of the glacier is so large that it makes the surrounding mountains look small. It looked huge and we are still over 6 miles away. To top it all off the sun was out and the sky was blue. In the distance we could just make out the mast of Rascal. Dwyer and his guest Jess got here a few days before us. As we pulled up to the safest place to anchor in the laguna, away from the icebergs that are everywhere, we dropped the anchor and opened a cold one and took it all in. We were like a couple of kids on Christmas morning, we could not wait to get the dingy down and do some exploring. We took off in the ding to find a bergy bit. We found a nice blue one plopped it into our glasses and poured some scotch over it and toasted Reina's dad. We then took the dinghy farther into the floating ice pack to find a larger berg. We picked a good one and threw the dinghy line around a piece that was sticking up and just sat back in silence (actually not really, there was the cracking of the ice echoing through the lagoon) and took in the surreal scene with our prehistoric ice and our chilled scotch. Believe me when I say, �"it has all been was worth it�".