Our route from Puerto Natales to Puerto Williams:



A closer look at some of our stops.





The numbered flags on the charts correspond to the numbers in parentheses.

With some excitement and trepidation (on my part) we left Puerto Natales (1) to continue our journey south. It was high time we finished what we started.

The season for centolla (king crab) is June through November. We had not tried any yet and what we had caught could hardly be considered "king" crab so when we pulled into our second anchorage (2) and saw that we would be sharing it with some fisherman we were very excited.



For the cost of a couple of beers we had a wonderful crab dinner aboard Karma. We would later learn that it was not exactly a fair trade but we were happy to finally have some crab.



In Canal Smyth lies the hulking remains of the ship Santa Leonore (3) who ran hard aground on Paso Shoal.



She definitely serves as a good marker for the shallow area.



At its southern end Canal Smyth meets the Strait of Magellan. This part (6) of the Strait of Magellan is open to the wind and swell of the South Pacific Ocean. This is not a place you want to be with strong weather. In addition to accelerated winds and large seas you have the effect of the current of the two channels meeting. Fortunately not too far from the entrance to the Strait of Magellan is a beautiful and very well protected anchorage, Caleta Teokita (4).



From the anchorage you can hike up to the top of the island and look out to Islotes Fairway (5) and the Faro Fairway (Fairway Lighthouse). The rainbow has got to be a good sign, right?





We were tied off in Caleta Teokita (4) for eight days waiting for "suitable" (Reina-type) weather to enter the Strait to start heading east. Finally, just when Clint was ready to snap we had an opportunity to continue on "comfortably".

We had a beautiful day and a wonderful sail with 15-20kts of wind. When we first set out the seas were a little uncomfortable with a 6-7 foot close swell on our beam, but once we turned east the seas were behind us and we had a wonderful downwind run. We even had some company.



The eight days we spent in Caleta Teokita (4) were not all idle. We passed our time hiking, kayaking, working on boat projects, and most importantly making a sign with our name on it for Bahía Borja (7). Árbol con tableros or trees bearing boards with ship names is an old tradition in Patagonia. Joshua Slocum even refers to them in his book Spray.

There are other anchorages with an árbol con tableros but this is the first one we had stopped at. It was very cool to see all the other boats that had been there some over forty years ago and some that we even had heard of or know.





We were very excited to put our sign just below that of our good friends Giamba and Vale from Angelique II.



Where the Strait of Magellan turns north to Punta Arenas and then eventually leads to the Atlantic Ocean it meets up with Canal Magdalena (8) which heads south to Canal Cockburn. There are two other canals that lead south from the Strait of Magellan which are actually short cuts. We chose Canal Magdalena because we were not in a hurry and we had heard how beautiful it is. We were not disappointed. About midway down the canal, where it turns west to meet with Canal Cockburn, stands Monte Sarmiento (9). At 7,887 feet it is one of the highest points in Tierra del Fuego.





We were strongly encouraged by a friend to spend a couple of nights in Bahía Angelito (10) in Seno Agostine. If you look closely you will see Karma safely anchored in Bahía Angelito. The picture below does not even capture the scale, it is an incredibly dramatic spot that is hard to capture in words let alone a camera. It is a very special place.



We even had the added bonus of fishermen. More crab for us!







We hiked up behind the boat and had spectacular views of Seno Agostini which runs north parallel to the Northwest Arm of the Beagle Canal with the Darwin Range as its border. These glaciers are part of the same icefield that we will see when we get to the northwest arm of Beagle Canal.







Canal Magdalena runs in a southerly direction from the Strait of Magellan for about 20nm where it then turns northwest and becomes Canal Cockburn.



At the eastern extremity of Canal Cockburn is Seno Chico (11), a very narrow 6 mile long fjord that ends with several glaciers. Unfortunately there was too much ice to go all the way to the glaciers but halfway down we tucked into Caleta Lago.



You can see the flow ice just outside the little indent we were tucked into. This was by far the most dramatic anchorages on our run south.

Canal Cockburn is approximately 40nm long. It runs northwest before heading due west and then cuts southwest to the Pacific. It can be a real challenge and we spent several nights in a couple different anchorages waiting out weather looking for a good window to enter the exposed area that would lead us to the infamous Canal Brecknock and its highly anticipated anchorage called Caleta Brecknock (12).

In all of our conversations with fellow cruisers that have travelled these waters it seemed to us that everyone mentioned "Brecknock". The area is notorious for its very strong winds and rapidly changing weather. All of the area is known for extreme conditions and Brecknock is the pinnacle. Fortunately there is a very safe anchorage to wait out the harshest of the conditions.



In addition to being very safe (do you see our 8-point tie off) it has the added bonus of being spectacularly beautiful with lots of great hikes.

Across from the boat and behind the smooth granite wall lies a hidden lake. The smooth rock made for an easy climb.



The granite hills seem to go on forever. Clint was able to climb up above me, the chicken. Do you see me in the bottom right corner of the picture below?



After almost a month of travelling the channels we finally had the company of another sailboat that joined us in Caleta Brecknock (12).



We spent a couple days hanging out with the crew of the French flaged sailboat Basic Instinct; Sauréa, Vaso, Lucy, Christina, and Captain Laurent.



We both left Caleta Brecknock the same day. The plan was not to end up, again, in the same anchorage. We were not happy with the first anchorage we picked so we wound up tied off to Basic Instinct in a much better spot, Caleta Atracadero (13).





The Captain of Basic Instinct, Laurent, and his new best friend Duke.



While in Caleta Atracadero we had a beach B-B-Q; at least we tried to, the wood was a little wet.





This was another spot where we needed to wait for good conditions to cross our last open area of water before Puerto Williams. After four days we got a wonderful window to make our way to the beginning of the entrance of The Beagle (14).