Be honest. Have you ever been skiing at Whistler/Blackcome at the top of a bald mountain when the icy wind is stinging your face and you can’t see the tips of your skis and thinking “what is a smart person like me doing on the top of this freezing mountain in mid winter?” –“on skiis??” I’ll admit I have had that thought. A mixture of emotions – being on the most amazing ski hill in N. America, both loving and hating it. The relevance? Here we are – fulfilling our dreams, sailing in Patagonia. But it is summer.
In the summer here, the cold fronts from the south move north and the highs to the north move south – as I understand they pretty well meet here, pushing the isobars close together often causing a “crush zone”. Generally, this means windy, cold and rainy. So windy, in fact that you must take shelter in your anchorage, usually tied to shore (2 -4 lines) for days occasionally before proceeding into the fiords. Apparently, in the winter the two pressure zones move away from each other, creating wider isobars and more predictably good weather with less strong wind (but COLD).
When you reach an anchorage, (lately, this is always in the rain) it takes an hour or two get the dinghy down and row your lines to shore, climbing into the bush to tie your lines on trees. When you are tied snuggly in the anchorage, its time to unpeel your dripping wear gear, and start the diesel heater. Soon you are snug and warm and finally comfortable and by morning, your gear may be dry to start again.
Before the Golfo de Penas, the bush around the anchorages was impenetrable, now, closer to Puerto Natales, the fiords mostly lead to glaciers and the land is more tundra like. Small trees close to shore and boggy tundra in the foothills. Walking is great, when you are able to get off the boat. Sometimes you have to stay on the boat and make note of the anchorages where you wish to walk on the return journey. We had a great walk in the hills around caleta Bueno with lots of flowers, enormous orange bees, hummingbirds, condors and amazing views. The temperature has been around 4-7 C since Pto Eden.
The beauty , even in this weather is astounding, and the sailing has been great with mostly winds from the north/ north west. At number of anchorages we were escorted into the calmer waters by dolphins. The last couple of days there have been playful small seals jumping like dolphins behind the boat. We are seeing plenty of black necked swans, and yesterday a pink flamingo over the water and an owl over the farmland fields here in Puerto Natales.
Pto Natales is considerably east from the westerly fiords we have been navigating. We have come in to get our 90 day tourist visas renewed, fuel and provisioning for the last and most challenging 450 miles to Puerto Williams. There is a distinct divide between the western fiords and the fiord that leads east inland to Natales when you go through the narrows (Angostura Kirke, in our case). The coastal mountains which take most of the rain are left behind and you enter rolling foothills with farmland. The wind is still very strong here, but we are able to get some longed for rays of sun and the temperature is up to 15- 20 C. Pto Natales itself has no place to leave your boat anchored safely when you leave it to go to shore. Plus the dinghy crossing into town is unreliable (ie dangerous so you may not be able to return to your boat) as strong winds pick up fast. So we have come beyond town to a safe but windy anchorage to Puerto Consuelo in Estancia Eberhart. Its about 20 Km from town, so its taxi in and out or rent a car. We’ve rented a car with Motu and will get the fuel tanks filled and refilled, then taxi is actually the cheaper option. While we had the car last night, we stayed in town for pizza and did quite a bit of the heavy provisioning.
We all agree it a cool town, and would be a good place to spend some time, if we weren’t trying to get to Pto Williams. It has lots of shops, coffee shops and eateries, and a very active central square in the evening. The Unimarc supermarket was pretty low on provisions in the afternoon, but well supplied later that evening and everyone was out shopping in force. One of its main industries is tourism, being the entrance point for Torres del Penas National park. There are many hardy young adventurists around from all over the world.
Meanwhile we were having our own adventures when Dave got back from the fuel trip in the afternoon today. It soon became apparent the boat was dragging on the anchor in the wind which was gusting to 40 knots. Our anchor must not have set in the eel grass and mud bottom and when we pulled it up to reset, it was fouled with eel grass which had to be cut off it in the strong wind before we could put it down again. Have to say, my nerves were fairly raw after that, thinking what if he hadn’t made in back in time and I had to do that all by myself? Anyway, we have put a second anchor out now and the wind is still howling away.