May 2017 blog
Can there be anything like the quiet of the wilderness anchorages around Isla Gordon in the Beagle Channel? Of course there is, but I think every humbling encounter with natures solitude refreshs the soul. The awesome expansive scenery, the reds of changing autumn colour, the crunch of your steps through the frosty forest, the tricking of water and as the day warms up, thunderous breaking off of ice from the icefields. You might think we get our fair share of nature’s solitude living in a boat in this part of the world, but unless we make a point of getting away from civilization we tend to let ourselves get way too busy. Travelling on your boat requires so much organization that its hard to wind down sometimes. So wind down we did. Plenty of late breakfasts, hiking and reading. Ahhh – who needs palm trees and sunny beaches?! We met up with our friends on Merkava at a couple of anchorages and then – more walks in the mountains, berry picking and generally relaxing. Dave and Mark tried making a crab trap with an old frame they found in the woods. It caught a few that were too small to keep, but a fun experiment. We spent a month going around Isla Gordon and of course we could have spent longer, but duty was starting to call.
We wanted to get the boat set up in a spot at the Micalvi that it could stay for a few months without having to be moved, especially since Dave wanted to do a few maintenance jobs that disabled the engine and we are flying to Europe in June. Considering it was well into the autumn season when we got back we were amazed at how busy the Micalvi was. We had to move about 3 times our first day back. Thankfully though we were able to get on to the inside which is occupied by boats that wont be moving for a while. It will become shallow enough at low tide in the next few months that we will be sitting on the bottom, for sure, but its all mud so it should be ok.
Since we’ve been “home” at the Micalvi for the last 2 weeks, the cruisers have gradually been dwindling away leaving their boats here for the winter in the only protected anchorage in the Beagle Channel. There are five occupied boats left. We get together fairly often for shared meals and some good laughs. Soon, Mark and Rosie will be leaving, then we will be heading off for 6 weeks, too. The temperatures are slowly dropping – often frost in the mornings and we have had snow that came and went. Still very mild winter conditions, so far and lots of clear sunny days. Lucky for that, as I still have to do our laundry by hand and hang it up to dry. The diesel stove chunders away pretty well 24/7.
I have started teaching English to Marcelo’s kids two evenings a week. I made a board game which is working out quite well. After the class I’m not allowed to speak English and they help me with my Spanish. One of the local shopkeepers was telling me she is trying to learn English. I told her that I’m trying to learn Spanish, so we have decided to get together to help each other. I still have a hard time remembering vocabulary and how to put sentences together when I’m on the spot. Necesito mucha practica.