Caleta Poza de Oro
20 March 2019
Annette
It's been 5 days since we left Puerto Aguirre and we've stopped in three anchorages. On day 3 we traveled 52 miles from Isla Magdalena to Isla Manual, although not by choice. According to the forecast we should have ridden with a flood tide up the channel and have a westerly wind on our beam, instead we had our usual 1.5 knots of current against us and wind on the nose so it was a slow 35 mile slog up to our next anchorage. The Puyuhuapi canal that we were traveling up is very deep and anchorages are few and far between, so when we finally got to our destination and saw that two salmonera tenders filled the entire space we were in a quandary. It was 5pm and we could either sail 18 miles back down from where we came, or continue north bashing 13 miles into wind and current. We chose the latter. When we got to Caleta Manuel we thought fate had brought us to this magical place hidden deep inside a long narrow canal, it was way nicer then the first place. But what fate really intended for us was to work on our anchoring skills. Running 2 shore lines from the sterns to the trees in addition to a bow anchor is common in Patagonia because anchorages are often narrow and deep, and we needed to do that here. I'm supposed to drop the bow anchor and hold the boat steady while Mike rows the dingy back and forth to shore with the 2 stern lines, climbs up steep banks then ties them to trees, what could go wrong? While the wind had been calm as we entered the fiord, 18 knot gusts now came from behind, making it impossible to hold the boat steady, the dingy painter wrapped up in the port prop rendering it out of commission, and it was getting dark, but we did manage to secure ourselves and in the morning we got our reward. We nicknamed this anchorage Caleta Rorshack due to the incredible kaleidoscope of of images, created by the rocky shore and still water. We also saw a mink as we paddled along the shore under the overhanging trees.
These last 2 days up in Caleta Poza de Oro have been stress free with time to do chores, kayak into all the little nooks and rivers, nap and just stay put. We went for a 6 mile paddle this morning, letting the tide carry us up a shallow fiord past a herd of goats minded by a couple of dogs, while looking up the fiord at yet another snow capped peak. Plus Mike got to go for a swim again to free the line from the prop.
Just as this was going to press a small pod of Peales Dolphins entertained us by jumping and doing back flips in the bay just behind our boat.