Beauty of the coming squall
Welcome to the second saga of sv Raynad in Chile. We are thrilled to be back on the boat, well and happy, setting out to enjoy some of the wild beauty in Patagonia! Each day we must file a report with the Chilean Armada about our position. If we are in transit, then we must file twice each day at 8 am and 8 pm. If we don’t and they cannot reach us…they will send a rescue. Good to know, but also threatening should we forget. They work hard here to try and keep everyone on the water safe and accounted for. Nonetheless, we are constantly navigating around styrofoam buoys seemingly randomly placed, even in shipping channels, that have long-line fishing gear attached! Several boats have had their propellers blown by these. Anyway, off we go to enjoy Patagonia starting with a return to Isla Chiloe.
QTH yate RAYNAD bandera Estados Unidos SEÑAL ZMA2821
Dos personas; Capitán John Totten, Tripulante Kristy Kissinger-Totten
22 novembre 2018 14:30 Chilean (117:23 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 41°46.45’S 073°05.09’W
ANCLADO Isla Puluqui, Estero Machildad
Raynad has finally left the marina and is happily bobbing in a bay about 20 miles south of Puerto Montt. It’s very pastoral and tranquil with the sounds of cows, sheep and lots of amazing birds (penguins,petrels,…) rather than traffic. It’s Thanksgiving today in the USA, so we’ll celebrate with some smoked salmon, olives, avocados, cheese, toasted bread….and a good wine, rather than turkey. It’s much easier for the cook! I’m saving the fat chicken I bought for Christmas:)
We’re anchored back at our old spot in Isle Palaque, nestled between salmonellas with an hourly ferry that passes, but otherwise absolutely tranquil. It’s a pastoral island with lots of small farms dotted between the forests. We laughed at the sound of cows vs buses! Although we had some rain earlier in the day, it has continued to clear until now the sky is nearly cloudless and promises a gorgeous day tomorrow. We’ve enjoyed the many flocks of seabirds, including groups of Black Swans with chicks:) We can linger for hours watching the various sea life. A full moon just came up over the island!Tomorrow we will go the rest of the way to yet another favorite anchorage from last year. We liked it so much then that we stayed for nearly a week!
We’ve woken up to another stunning day! It’s so beautiful. We just love being able to sit and look out the windows over the glassy water, the pastoral hillsides and watch all of the wildlife and people. We’ll travel about 45 miles today, so about an 8 hour trip depending on the winds and tidal currents.
23-24 novembre 2018 16:40 Chilean (19:40 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 42°19.31’S 073°15.30’W
ANCLADO Anihue, Isla Mechuque
Had a lovely glass calm sea starting out with gorgeous sunshine and ending with flat gray cloudy skies. Made some great speeds ave 7kts making us arrive early enough for me to bake the first batch of sourdough (disappointing results – it needs more work) and then get ready for “pasta Friday”. We’re thinking that we’ll stay here for at least two nights and enjoy taking the dingy around the various little canals and exploring the islands – lots of opportunities to walk here. The weather forecast is for sunshine tomorrow too which will be very welcome. We had a surprising evening of sunshine before it turned dark last night. The days are long here as 21st Dec will be the longest day of the year in the southern hemisphere. This morning John and I went over to the shoreline at low tide and walked all around for about 2 hrs. There are many canals and inlets that meander around the islands which can be crossed at low tide. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and quite comfortably warm.
We enjoyed watching some ducks with chicks and especially a pair of Black Necked Swans with four chicks that they carried on their backs until reaching the shallow waters…so sweet! Now it’s clouded up again and may rain a bit. The forecast is good for another nice day tomorrow. We’ll head over to Dulcuchea, a quaint town we visited last year. John can get some more fuel for our dingy motor and hopefully I’ll find some wifi!
25 novembre 2018 02:40 Chilean (17:40 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 42°22.97’S 073°38.73’W
ANCLADO Dulcahue
We’ve just arrived at Dulcahue and will go ashore. Sounds as if something “festive” is taking place ashore. Lots of loud folk music and John sees dancing through the binoculars. We shall see!?!? Off to secure some petrol for our dingy…the old stuff wasn’t good.
26 novembre 2018
We lifted anchor early to catch some of the outgoing tide through the narrow channels. Made good speed with almost no power! Good fun:) Now we’re heading into the winds with a slackening tide soon turning against us, so progress will get slower. Lovely morning, very cold though as the south winds that bring sunnier skies, also bring cold winds and of course blowing over the cold water chills it even more. I have my new winter coat on and a hat and wool socks! Our next anchorage is supposed to be really lovely. It’s a 49 mile trip, so about 7 hrs.
We missed the festival yesterday:( sadly we didn’t know about it ahead of time and by the time we got the dingy to shore around 2pm, it was over. Dulcahue is a lovely little town though and very picturesque with the colorful fishing boats and old houses crowded up the hillside.
26 novembre 2018 02:30 Chilean (17:30 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 42°51.79’S 073°35.41’W
ANCLADO Queilen – Estero Pailad
We arrived at an interesting new location near Queilen and up a river inlet about 5 miles. It’s quiet and more isolated with steeper hills to the east. There is a small village about 1-2 miles further in the waterway where we nearly anchored, but decided that the depths weren’t sufficient and this offered more shelter. We’ll stay here for tonight, possibly longer.
This estero, or salt water river, is really lovely and quiet. Just as we were landing our dinghy near a small settlement, this old man waved us over and regardless of our inability to understand him, kept chattering on in Spanish and motioning across the water. Picking up the clue, John ended up giving him a ride across the inlet. It seems that he had been visiting a grave at the cemetery to change over the flowers because he was taking the old faded ones back with him.
We then enjoyed a wonderfully long walk ashore on a dirt road along the shoreline. This waterway leads back over shallow bars to several inner lagoons. It’s quite an amazing place, very quiet and lovely. Several small homes advertised that they were markets, so we stopped at one and actually bought a head of lettuce, some potato chips and a liter of fizzy water!
We’ve really enjoyed watching the families of Black Necked Swans and ducks with their young chicks.
Made my first successful batch of sourdough bread, baked fresh this morning and will be making lentil soup for dinner, so a warm and cozy boat which is very welcome after a chilly morning and cool winds passage.
Another early start for us to catch some of the outgoing tide leaving the tranquil waterways of Estero Pailad on a 40mile trip to Quellon. We need to cross the Golfo de Coronado which can be snarly and the weather forecast looks rather mild and the tides okay for a Weds crossing. Would have been really nice to linger another day or so at Pailad hiking over the hillsides. We enjoyed a long walk last night winding around the dirt road over the island and around the inner bay. It’s always good to get off the boat and stretch our legs a bit. I’m more nervous about making this crossing in favorable conditions and Quellon is the usual departure point from Chiloe across the Golfo, hence our decision to move onwards today.
We woke to a brilliant blue sky and mirror calm waters only disturbed by the passing of ducks and Black Necked Swans with their chicks. One pair had six chicks!! Those parents were really busy. We enjoyed watching them out our windows while eating dinner. Catching the right tide was super great this morning as we reached speeds of 9.6kts (fast for this boat:) and made great progress. We were entertained by a pod of large dolphins playing around the boat. They are huge, almost like small Killer Whales and some were leaping up out of the water like they were trying to peek over the side of the boat- Super cute! Now the skies are totally overcast and the temperature has dropped making us bring out our winter coats. Seems to be the pattern every day with the clouds clearing off at about 7pm until sunset at around 10pm. Longer days down in this hemisphere now.
27 novembre 2018 13:40 Chilean (16:40 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 43°09.84’S 073°32.84’W
ANCLADO Quellon, Island Cailin, BA Huellonquen
Arrived at our next destination in only 4 hrs! After motoring around LOTS of salmoneras (fish farms) and oyster farms…we finally found a spot to set our anchor for the night. We could have gone all the way into town except we weren’t keen to spend the night surrounded by large numbers of noisy cargo ships with too much boat traffic. At least it is peaceful here. Best of all, we have a terrific view of the distant peaks of Mt Corcovado and other volcanoes. When the clouds break and give us a peak, they are spectacular with stark white jagged peaks or glaciered domes jutting into the clear blue sky. I misspelled the gulf that we’ll be crossing…it’s named after the mountain and is Golfo Corcovado.
John just finished warmed over soup and I have a hot cup of tea waiting. Life is good:)
28 noviembre 2018 07:07 (10:07 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 43°10.94’S 073°28.76’W
RUMBO: 132T RV, VELOCIDAD: 6.5 NUDOS
NAVIGANDO: Golfo Corcovado, Isla Cailin – Canal Refugio
It’s dramatically different outlook here! We are now going along the inner coastline with cliffs emerging straight out of the water! Chiloe was mostly rather low lying islands and brown tannin stained waters, whereas now the waters have the glacial green tones from the fresh water melt. Very much like parts of Alaska and very beautiful.
We’re still hoping for the blue skies to return as the clouds moved in not long after our departure this morning. No rain, almost no wind, although we did motor-sail for about 3-4 hours, now it’s just the engine and tides powering us along. Nice to have the calm waters as this crossing is notorious for really cranky conditions when the winds and tides and Southern Ocean seas collide. Looks like we’ll arrive at our anchorage around 4-5pm, perhaps earlier. There is a small town, so perhaps the phone will work. Some stormy weather is forecast tomorrow afternoon which is why we have pushed to cross over today. That means Thurs-Sat will be days to catch up with cleaning and other jobs, perhaps getting some shore trips.
28 novembre 2018 14:40 Chilean (17:40 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 43°57.46’S 073°06.46’W
ANCLADO Puerto Santo Domingo – Isla Refugia
I’ve had a wonderful long lie-in this morning. It started raining in the night and we are still surrounded by deep foggy misty clouds and lots of rain, so a good day for an entertaining book and multiple cuppas:) Forecast says it will clear up later today so we can launch the dingy and go explore. The waterfalls off the mountains should be fully loaded when we see them again. The cows are still grazing away despite being wet which helps explain the almost garden look of the landscape.
We had a stormy day yesterday with strong north winds, then it calmed enough that we got the dingy off the foredeck just before the winds shifted and really blasted from the south! That gave such a shock to the boat as we are on the north end of this lagoon that we had to up the anchor and move out into deeper water. Was a bit tense for awhile onboard as we waited to make sure that the anchor was set well and the boat holding it’s place before going to sleep. Still blustery today, but with south winds, clearer skies. Despite the swell, we’ll likely launch the dingy and go ashore. I’m getting “boat fever” from not stretching my legs ashore!! This is a beautiful spot so I’d like to explore more before heading off to the next anchorage.
30 novembre 2018 18:00 Chilean (21:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 44°08.81’S 073°06.19’W
ANCLADO Carleta Poza de Oro
No wifi, cellphone, etc…here..only us bobbing about in a lovely little bay with the cormoranst, next to a Chilean home where the guy is actually out mowing his lawn! We had a fun day first walking the long beaches on the other side of where we stayed for two nights. Then we took the dingy across the wide bay which was quite choppy with 25kt winds against tide, and then navigated about 1/2 mile up a little river to a lake. It was really magical and very nice to be out of the wind, in the sunshine and surrounded by mountains. Being from Alaska, I cannot get over the fact that we will never encounter any bear here. It’s such a perfect spot for them:) Various bird in the trees and one lone penguin that was messing around in the river -otherwise it was barren of any wildlife. Our return trip was a peaceful float with just a bit of paddle assistance and no motor -lovely. After returning to the boat, we lifted the anchor and motored our way 30 miles to where we are now. Oddly, every time we turned and thought that surely we’d have wind to sail…the wind would be on our nose! Eventually we at least caught the tidal currents and had the wind behind us so at least our speeds increased.
TGIF everyone- it’s “pasta Friday”!!
02 diciembre 2018 12:30 Chilean (15:30 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 44°15.65’S 073°07.57’W
ANCLADO Caleta Punta Porvenir
Clear water and white sand beaches that cast an emerald glow through the water! Almost tropical here in this lovely anchorage with a waterfall cascading off the cliffs, too cold for tropical showering, but super lovely on this sunny day. We’re anchored between some rocky islets.
Forecast is for the weather to change tomorrow. Our plans are to depart from here very early (6am) and make our way about 36 miles around the canal to a more protected anchorage where there is a hotel with hot pools:) We shall see. In the meantime, John is getting the little 2hp engine out for us to try on this shore trip to the beach. Not a large beach and no real areas for walking here. Just a pretty spot.
We just returned from our 2nd trip to the beach using the one rabbit/turtle transport – made me think of you! It’s a great little engine for managing beach/steep rock landings. It’s pretty magical here with the cascading, and in places roaring waterfall at the head of the beach. Once ashore it’s a bit of a fantasy land with hidden white sand beaches amongst the big rocky boulders and an inner lagoon.
We tried, but were unable to get to the foot of the waterfall because of the deepening water and big steep, slippy boulders blocking the last bit. Our second trip was to burn the garbage at a fire pit we found. Now it’s more laundry – fleeces this time – to hang out in the sunshine:) Once the tide comes back in, we may try and 3rd trip over to get closer to the waterfall. We have to lease super early tomorrow to catch the tide up the canal.
It’s pretty magical here with the cascading, and in places roaring waterfall at the head of the beach. Once ashore it’s a bit of a fantasy land with hidden white sand beaches among the big rocky boulders and an inner lagoon. We tried, but were unable to get to the foot of the waterfall because of the deepening water and big steep, slippy boulders blocking the last bit. It’s almost like being in the tropics, except no swimming or even wading in this water! I was amazed how cold the water was through my rubber boots when we were attempting to wade across the river outlet and get up to the waterfall.
03-05 diciembre 2018 15:30 Chilean (18:30 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 44°24.91’S 072°38.58’W
ANCLADO Bahia Dorita, Hotel Puyuguapi
We’re anchored just round the corner, but still within view, of a 5-star hotel in this Bahia Dorita. We were going to stay on one of the mooring balls, but they wanted 20,000 pesos per night ($33 US) and then another 20,000 pesos EACH to use the hot pools/ or 50,000 pesos each to use all of the pools – indoor & outdoor, plus get one people (minus drink). We decided to drop the mooring ball and anchor the boat which was a new experience for us because we had to drop the anchor in 30 meters of water and then back the boat up toward shore and launch John in the dingy to tie thick shore lines from our stern to the trees! Seems okay, but we’re new at this and probably could have done a better job. The weather is supposed to rain later today then add strong winds tomorrow. We’ll stay here 2 nts and splurge on the outdoor hot pools tomorrow.
The resort we are near is called the Puyuhuapi Hotel and Spa. I bet that you can find it on Google – at least adverts for it and probably even a webpage. It’s a lovely setting.
I’ve luxuriated in these wonderful hot pools for 3 hours today!! 1 1/2 this AM, then a 2 hour hike and 1 1/2 hrs more:) Total luxury…. I LOVE hot baths!! John decided not to take in the hot pools, but to spend the time working on the 15hp engine and just enjoy some time on the boat to himself. Also, he knew that I’d spend far more time soaking than he’d want.
It was really good for both of us to get off the boat and do some hiking. First we took the resort trails south and then the much longer and more challenging north trail over to a rocky beach.
Hiking, soaking, hiking some more and soaking some more – It was WONDERFUL!!
We’d planned to move on this AM but woke to a stunningly clear, sunny day with all of the mountains visible…so we did another couple of hikes for about 3 hours . No hot pools today.
Now we are heading to the next anchorage, unfortunately motoring against the winds, but really enjoying the views over the glaciated peaks, a couple with beautiful hanging ice reflecting brilliant blues in the sunshine. It’s a hot, hot day in Chile:)
05 diciembre 2018 19:00 Chilean (22:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 44°46.05’S 072°54.30’W
ANCLADO Seno Morras
We’re now anchored in a small bay called Seno Morras with a very large salmonera at the entrance – they are everywhere!! Still sunny, soup is ready, so we’ll chill for the evening and probably have an early start tomorrow.
06-08 diciembre 2018 19:00 Chilean (22:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 45°17.92’S 073°11.94’W
ANCLADO Caleta Gato
Very Small Cove of the Cat:)
We’ve had a gorgeous sunny day here in this peaceful little cove which has given us not only time to catch up on some projects around the boat, but also to talk about our onward plans. Although we’re going to write our “bucket lists” this evening….it appears that our decision at this time is to try and sail out of Chile in March/April this year and head toward Ecuador, the Galapagos, then on to San Diego
This is a lovely and very peaceful cove about 20 miles from Chacabuco. We came in via an almost obscure and very narrow entrance which opens up into a quiet estuary. Other than song birds in the trees and the occasional Cormorant, it’s just us! Last night a couple of local fishing boats came in and picked up a line from the shore where they tied up just for the night. We’ve had total sunshine and light breezes which made it a perfect day for John to continue his outboard maintenance and for me to get some laundry done and some other cleaning projects. Nothing like sunshine to invigorate! When the tide goes out a bit, we’ll take the dinghy and mess around the shoreline…a short trip. We’re loath to leave this quaint little spot and hit the dingy, noisy town and crowded or blustery anchorages. We have to spend a couple of days acquiring the 2nd year on our boat visa. We’re allowed 2 years, but must renew it for the 2nd year. We’ll have some Internet and grocery stores to freshen up our supplies. After that, we’ll head to San Rafael and the tide water glacier.
A drop in the barometric pressure and the expected shift in the weather is making this a cup of tea sort of day. We did get off the boat after coffee while there were some breaks in the clouds, a bit of sunshine, and a low tide offering us a great chance to have a beach fire (burn garbage) and wander around. I did a brisk walk 2X back and forth on the low tide sands, maybe managed 1/4 mile!? It’s just always nice to get off the boat and stretch our legs a bit:) Now that we’ve decided not to go all the way to Ushuaia, we’re working on our itinerary for the next two months cruising around Chile. It’s still tempting to go “all the way”, however, that requires also coming back, or going on to the Atlantic and hence more years. Previously, we’d planned to go down to Ushuaia (last year), then winter over there and return northward this season. I think that both of us are ready to explore a new chapter in our lives beyond the boat.
09 diceimbre 2018 11:40 (14:40 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 45°18.06’S 073°09.74’W
RUMBO: 133T RV-VELOCIDAD: 6.0 NUDOS
NAVIGANDO: Seno Aisen
09-12 diciembre 2018 15:30 Chilean (18:30 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 45°27.05’S 072°48.19’W
ANCLADO Ensenada Baja – Puerto Chacabuco
We have anchored in the shallow bay behind Puerto Chacabuco. It was an incredibly challenging entrance with depths consistently between only 1-3 meters under our keel and at one point only 0.5!! Capt. John has nerves of steel. All I could do was shout out general course directions from some waypoints we’d gotten off a cruising guide. You’d think we’d have super protection here, but the winds are now howling away, funneled down the long canal we just made a swooping 23 mile transit and now it is super blustery in here. The rigging is clattering away, as is the wind generator much to John’s delight. We’ll hope that this is the expected low passing through more quickly and that it will settle down soon. Although the wind puts a real strain on our anchor and chain, at least we don’t have the big swells that were generated when we had this happen in the F.P. atolls. We chose to take the difficult route for the increased protection afforded in the Ensenada Baja compared to the larger bay in front of town where all of the commercial boats are and the fetch delivers up quite a swell. We’ll just sit tight on the boat for tonight and make our foray into town tomorrow. We have to renew our boats visa for Chile, create a new onward journey trip plan (Zarpa) with the Armada, and top up our fresh fruits and veges. My cuppa is ready!
Baja Ensendada STORY:
We sailed our way down the Canal Aysen with 15, building to 30, knot winds behind us which was really super until we started approaching the end of the canal and the fetch had built up some pretty large and short waves. We swooped through and around the narrow passage hoping for less wind on the other side of Isla Carman, but that was not going to happen. With steep high mountains all around, many topped with glaciers and/or snow, the wind funneled down with intense ferocity! It’s stunningly beautiful here. Lots of waterfalls. But… Now we were faced with needing to navigate around behind the town of Chacabuco and into Ensenada Baja. The problem being that the entire little jaunt around the point was in waters listed on the charts (what little is actually charted) as 0 to 2 meters! Our boat draws 2.1 meters, hence the need to arrive at high tide and hope to hit the right areas/depths as we motor around. Capt. John has absolute nerves of steel, seriously. With the wind trying to blast the boat off course, he managed to mostly keep control (I was shouting out course directions from the waypoints I’d plotted on our chart). We were doing great until we got to 0.5 meters under the keel (which is measured on instruments a bit above the keel) which meant we had actually hit bottom. Being soft mud, John put on a bit more power and we
plowed our way into slightly deeper waters. Disappointingly, once around and into the Baja…we were immediately blasted with gusts of wind. Deciding that we were deep enough (5 meters), I went up and dropped the anchor. At last we seemed set and continued with our various protocols of snubber on the chain, anchor alarm, keeping watch for a bit (I went up and put out a bit more chain.) Just as I was putting the cockpit boards in to snuggle down below, a rather official looking boat came out and turned up next to us. It was a local man (not the gendarmes- phew) and his young son. He spoke only Spanish, we do not speak much, nonetheless with my gestures and half Spanish/French…whatever (Italian??) we managed to communicate that he wanted us to take up a large buoy closer to shore and that we were “mye mal” in our current location. Out I went again to the bow while John and I coordinated bringing up the anchor in thundering winds, then went over to pick
up this large buoy. This man put in maximum effort to help us and it went surprisingly well, although he was climbing precariously out over his slippy bow (plastic, no traction, no gutter) to help me lasso the buoy ring and then bring it back to the boat.
John and I then attached another two lines, including a fat one off the buoy. Good thing because these winds have been continuously blasting us for the past 24 hrs. The wind generator is making so much power, John ran the refrigeration off the batteries for 3 hours last night just to try and use some of it up so the batteries don’t over-heat! All the drawers in the kitchen slammed open with the heeling of the boat during one blast. Needless to say, it was a rather restless night for all aboard – a bit like being at sea. We were both ready to jump up in action should the anchor alarm go off meaning that the mooring buoy had given way!
After a shore trip to try and get our boat visa extended…quite a story in itself as we were passed along, then ended up at the original custom office getting a “letter” requesting the extension because a) the current one doesn’t expire until the 18th of Dec (8 days) and, b) contrary to the yacht guide information, they don’t give visa extensions here…I guess we’ll be fine. At least we’re trying and we have the letter with an official stamp that we tried. We shall see what Puerto Montt thinks when we get back there. Meanwhile, back on board the winds continue to howl, the boat heels over and I have to brace myself in the galley in order to chop any vegetables and cook. Hardly a peaceful anchorage. We’ll stay on tomorrow and take the bus over to Aysen for shopping and hopefully Internet. Wednesday morning, we’ll try to catch the early morning high tide to motor around back out of here and up the canal, this time slamming into the winds and waves which we hope will be a bit less, and up to our previous little Caleta Gato anchorage which was so peaceful and protected. Then we’ll head down to San Rafael Glacier, but not until the weather systems calm down a bit.
Off to Aysen on the bus today to do some shopping and walk around. We’ve heard it’s really lovely. We’re leaving this windy, gusty Puerto Chacabuco tomorrow. It’s lovely and the people very nice, but it’s just to blustery. We’ll be going back up to our secure little Caleta Gato for some expected stronger winds that are in the forecast
NAVIGANDO: Oxxean Chacabuco -Seno Aysen a Caleta Gato
We got up at 5am this morning to try and catch the high tide to navigate around the shallow course out of Ensenada Baja to the main bay of Chacabuco. Once again, I shouted directions from below and Capt. John, Man of Steel, steered the course. This time we didn’t see less that 1 meter depth, so no plowing of the mud. Definitely stressful though. I slept little last night worrying about this morning, especially with the wind generator howling away all night! Now we’re tied up to the dock waiting for Oxxean, the fuel company to open and hopefully fill us up with good diesel. This place puts a lot of demand on our engines. The winds always seem to be on our nose and/or the tidal currents against us. We’ll head back up to Caleta Gato for at least one night due to a nasty weather forecast and we know that’s a secure anchorage. Once we get a break in the weather, we’ll make our way the 100 miles south toward San Rafael. It should be spectacular there, especially if Chile will give us a couple of sunny days:)
Weather and tides are a HUGE issue here. Similar to Alaska, but fewer resources available to form our itinerary from. We have yet to meet up with our Norwegian friends on sv/Impuls. They are at San Rafael now. Because they are making plans to head north in March, it’s likely that we’ll at least meet up in Valdivia, but hopefully before then.
ANCLADO Caleta Gata
Back home again in lovely Caleta Gato. After an anxious night, an early 5:30am start, tricky navigation, new fuel dock protocols…AND plowing against the wind all the way up the canal, we both breathed a sigh of relief when the anchor was dropped and set in this lovely little cove, a sort of home away from home. Winds are beginning to really howl outside, so we’ll tie to a couple of trees on each side as well just to make it super secure in here:) Then it’s a relaxing afternoon, some fresh salad and cups of tea. If the weather is as forecast mid-morning, we’ll move onward tomorrow for about 39 miles.
13 diciembre 2018 13545 Chilean (18:45 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 45°46.53’S 073°33.59’W
ANCLADO Caleta Punta Lynch
We’re snuggled into a very secure and lovely cove after a day of rain and squalls, so it’s wonderful to be peacefully settled AND the sun just came out! Always like that:)
14 diciembre 2018 19:00 Chilean (22:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 45°56.22’S 073°34.27’W
ANCLADO Bahia Eugenia
We met up not only with our Norwegian friends, Marianne and Kolbjorn, but also with a couple from Edmonton, Canada with whom they’ve been cruising since leaving Valdivia in November. We started on sv/Implus for happy hour, then everyone came aboard sv Raynad for chicken curry.
It was a fun time for all, although I drank far too much wine -ugh! We’ll go over to Impuls again in a little bit for some coffee and cake before we pick up our anchor and move further south. It’s a nasty, rainy, windy day out so our trip won’t be much fun, but at least the winds are from the north and it’ll help us make some of the distance we need with the correct tides (we hope) to eventually get down to the glacier. The others will stay here another night because they are heading north and so don’t want these nasty winds on their nose. I’m loath to leave our cozy boat and head out, but as John likes to say, you’ve got to tolerate the bad days in order to get to enjoy the good ones. We really want to try and be at the glacier on a nice day:)
15 diciembre 2018 18:30 Chilean (21:30 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 46°09.02’S 073°42.56’W
ANCLADO Estero Odger
It’s been a nasty, stormy, rainy (even snowy!!) day for us. We relaxed this morning while the winds howled outside and we were cozy in our little boat. Around noon we went over to the Norwegian boat for coffee and chocolate brownies – yum:) and another chat with our friend Marianne and Kolbjorn and the new friends Shelly and Barry on a Canadian catamaran (brand new built at a boatyard in Valdivia, Chile) called Starship. They are all heading back northward and then west to the Gambier Island in F.P., the Marquesas and then on to Hawaii and Alaska. Perhaps we’ll meet them again up there:) Around 2pm we dropped our shorelines and picked up the anchor to make another 20 miles of progress toward the San Rafael glacier. Not a pleasant trip at all! Wind and rain in the cockpit, poor visibility…John was good enough to stay out in the weather while I kept track on the charts inside, only peaking out to confirm what I could about our location. Fortunately, after about 4 hours we are safely anchored, shore tied and warmly snuggled in our boat. We’ll move another 28 miles tomorrow and then plan to visit the glacier the following day. The forecast is for sunshine on the 17th, so keep your fingers crossed!
16 diciembre 2018 19:00 Chilean (22:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 46°33.76’S 073°56.53’W
ANCLADO Rio de Los Patos
A LONG day with wind and currents on our nose despite what should have been favorable tides, and gusty winds and squalls rather than the forecasted 10-12kts! Average progress was only at 3-5 kts, got as low at 1.5, but never over 5.5. Oh well. We are here in the Rio de los Platos anchored with 1-2 meters under our keel, with shore ties to trees trying to keep in one small place for the night. Finally a bit peaceful. Just finished hamburger steak rather than the planned meatballs. Yummy and filling, now it’s 9:30pm and we’re off to sleep hoping for sunshine tomorrow to navigate our way further up the lagoon to the glacier:)
Navigado San Rafael Lagoon to the Glacier
We got the SUNSHINE for our glacier trip!! After a long day navigating down the fjord and some trickier navigation around the shallow marshy, lagoon for about 8 miles, we anchored the boat up a small river in shallow, muddy water and tied two shore lines off the stern and one from the bow to try and keep Raynad from moving at all. Although it was a little nerve-wracking to drop the anchor with only 1.4m under the keel, once settled, we had a super calm and restful evening. Both of us slept great. We got up early, dropped the lines and took off hoping to maximize the good morning light at the glacier. It was spectacular! Once inside the Laguna San Rafael, we still had about 9 miles to go before getting to the glacier.
There were some monstrous icebergs in all sorts of shapes and sizes like floating ice sculptures in the lagoon.
When the sun shone down or through the ice it reflected deeply brilliant ice turquoise colors. Really a magical morning.
I drove the boat around all of the ice while John took photos and even messed around in the inflatable dinghy getting pictures of Raynad among the ice.
AND we might be on Chilean television! A crew was there on the ship, Scorpio II and they came over in their launch to interview and film us:)
They said that they were a film crew from some Chilean company. We shall see!?!?
After about 4 hours at the glacier, we needed to head out and try to catch some of the outgoing tidal currents to re-navigate the marsh rivers and out through two passes. Now we’re just trying to make as much progress north as we can before the winds switch from southern to northern gusty ones. It’s been a terrific day, we were so lucky to get some sun:)
Navigado Estero Elephante
This long canal was named Estero Elephante because of the huge number of Elephant Seals that used to live here. Unfortunately, they have all been hunted to extinction in this area. Boats must travel to very isolated places in the far south to find them now. The largest colonies are in South Georgia Island.
17 diciembre 2018 18:30 Chilean (21:30 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 46°01.56’S 073°39.89’W
ANCLADO Caleta Pinin
We’ve had a sort of catch up day. The forecast was for some strong north winds for about 36 hrs and since we’re trying to go north, that’s not great for us. Plus they tend to bring rain. I needed to do some laundry and also wanted to spend some time sorting our recent photographs and selecting some for uploading to the website next time we have Internet. Also did a bit of route planning for our onward journey. It’s been kind of nice to relax a bit and not have pressure to get the right tides/winds and a new anchorage. Homemade pizza is in the oven and I’m trying to restart my sourdough to make bread tomorrow. Life is good on Raynad.
19 diciembre 2018 16:00 Chilean (19:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 45°47.37’S 073°57.14’W
ANCLADO Isle Fitzroy
It’s been a good day first making our way down a lesser traveled canal Liucura toward Canal del Diablo toward the anchorage Pozo Marcos. The day started with wispy clouds and a light mist, flat calm waters, a few dolphins swimming and jumping around the boat, lots of cormorant busily feeding and steep mountains on both sides. We even came across our first Chilean Sea Lion haul-out rocks. It was magical. Then the sun came out! Although we made it in good time to our proposed anchorage, both of the options were just not sufficient for our size of boat. After trying to make it work, we decided that it was best to up the anchor and find somewhere else. Capt John looked on the chart and decided that this inlet on Isla Fitzroy looked good. On route we found yet another isolated group of rocks with cormorant, sea lion and even one spotted seal soaking up the warmth of the sun:) Most of the passage was only minimally charted and this entire inlet has no charting, so that was a bit of an adventure. It’s not the best anchorage, but we are safely swinging at anchor. Sun is still out. We may go exploring around a bit. All is well on Raynad.
20 diciembre 2018 13:00 Chilean (16:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 45°43.95’S 073°57.43’W
ANCLADO Caleta Jacqueline, Canal Chacabuco-S Isla Humos
We had a lovely peaceful night at anchor and woke up to flat calm water, although totally overcast with low clouds. Anxious to get going, we left just after the turn of the incoming tide to go over and view a large rock with masses of cormorant, sea lion and even condor lazing about. They were really funny to watch through the binoculars and then as we slowly approached the rock many of the sea lions took off. I got some fun pictures of them launching into the water:) Afterwards we decided to go out the Renjieo Canal uncertain just how the tide might effect the waters. According to “Patagonian” logic, the flood runs north and east, and since our course was mostly north it seemed “logical” that we might get it right. Not so. Steel-nerved Capt. John ended up steering us through about 6 miles of at times roaring waves with the boat getting pushed back to a low of 0.7kts. I guess this is the Peril Straits concept in that the tidal currents run the opposite of what would usually be expected. John thought it was great fun. I tried to take some photos of the whirlpools, eddies and overfalls. Lots of wildlife (for here) – the sea lions being the most fun to watch as they nearly leap out of the water and swirl about, occasionally surfacing to thrash a fish to death. Now we’re safely anchored in a place called Caleta Jacqueline with white sandy beaches..now we just need the sun and clear skies to come back:)
So ends the adventures of the day…only 12 miles of progress, but it took 5 hours!
21 diciembre 2018 17:00 Chilean (20:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 45°11.55’S 073°41.91’W
ANCLADO Estero Atracadero – Isla Melchor
We’re enjoying a beautiful sunny day with super calm waters. We’re just motoring up the canal to our next anchorage. Kind of a relaxing change from some of the other boisterous passages:) We came into a lovely inlet called Estero Atracadero late yesterday – a surprise really in that it’s beautiful here with the Volcan Maca at 2,916 meters beautifully capped in glaciers viewed out to the east and a lagoon, too shallow for Raynad, but navigable by dinghy, that stretches for about a mile to the west. We ventured into the lagoon last night getting a chance to walk around the shoreline composed at low tide of sticky mud, masses of mussels, sand and/or rocks. There were many water birds including some ducks, blue eyed cormorant,Imperial cormorant, black swan, great egret (Garza Blanca), ruddy-headed geese, Magellan goose and others. Yesterday we got some great pictures of the Carancho, both a male and female raptor bird. As you can imagine, it was great fun to be able to walk around and explore. At high tide today we’re going to take the dinghy back into the lagoon and try to navigate up the river a bit more. Last night was the summer solstice! By 7:00pm the sky was totally clear blue with intense sunshine coming down into the cockpit. It was really warm and wonderful, minus the pesky biting flies that would not leave us alone. I thought of taking a polar plunge, but tempered those excesses and decided that my swim in the bay between hot pools a few anchorages back would suffice! Driven inside by the persistent peskiness of these flies, we enjoyed our views out the pilot house windows over a pasta dinner, as Raynad moved around in the various light winds and moving tide. Determined to stay up until dark, we watched as the sun set over the hills, reflecting a very brief sunset on the volcano and then the big full moon rose out over the trees. It was really lovely. Today we woke up late to another misty, cloudy morning, however it appears that the sky will once again clear a little for our lagoon trip. We’ll then raise the anchor just after high tide and make our way about 15 miles north of here to another anchorage.
Thinking of you all and wishing that we were not so far away over the holidays. Nonetheless, it is really special to be here in Chile during such beautiful weather:)
22-25 diciembre 2018 18:30 Chilean (21:30 UTC) POSICIÓN: 45°00.78’S 073°42.37’W
ANCLADO Puerto Americano
As forecast the day has turned windy, rainy and great for just reading, baking and enjoying cups of tea. I have a really good book going right now (on the Nook) called “Where the Crawdads Sing”. Baking included some more sourdough bread and then a special rum, date, coconut, pecan cake for Christmas. Seems to have turned out well. Now there is a pot of chili on the stove for dinner (fitting with the weather.) No other news. Although this anchorage is not as lovely as the last one, it is protected enough yet also open enough that we can hopefully get a good satellite signal for some phone calls to everyone. Looking forward to talking with you soon!
With the fine weather today we decided to at last explore around this area taking our dinghy with the larger engine across the bay where there is a long sand spit and steep gravel beach. There is a farmhouse, but it appeared that the owners were away for the day. A cute little black and white puppy of about 9-10 mos ran all around the beach to greet us and was absolutely delightful joining us on our walk, she scampered around tossing bits of beach detritus in the air, leaping like a jackrabbit through the long grasses and racing back over to score lots of affirmation and petting from us. She gave us both lots of laughter and Christmas joy:) When it was time to return to Raynad, she tried to swim after our dinghy. Finally giving that up, we saw her safely return to the beach and race around toward the house. Little did we know that she was in fact running all the way around the bay and when we eventually came back onboard Raynad, she barked at us from some rocks on the shoreline! Poor wee thing. It was really hard not to go over and pet her some more and now that she’s given up and presumably gone back home, not to go back over to her beach and take her some tidbits. We know it would only make things harder in the long run. We do miss having a dog. Her brief companionship was wonderful.
As things turned out just as we were leaving the anchorage, the puppy’s owners arrived back home early on the 26th and we got to witness her hysterical excitement at their return. The could hardly get the boat tied up with her jumping and leaping around – it was really cute – warmed my heart and left us with a happy feeling as we left. Had I been sure they’d return, I would have gone and played with her again knowing that she’d eventually have a family again. We went walking yesterday and reminisced that we needed our puppy to walk with us, although she’d of likely chewed the boat to pieces by now!! She’s in a lovely location with lots of freedom to run and roam safely, so no tears for her now.
26-31 diciembre 2018
POSICIÓN: 44°29.39’S 073°47.05’W
ANCLADO Pozo Delfino, Islas Mazote
We headed out of Puerto Americano early this morning (6:30am) to catch the high tide and make our way around to an anchorage called Estero Arboles Espectrales, however, when we arrived at that inlet the winds were blowing unexpectedly from the east making it not a very good choice. With the weather forecast coming up in the next couple of days, we decided to continue on under sunny skies and good tides toward our next selection which is called Pozo Delfino after the dolphins that frequent this little cove. Haven’t seen any of those yet – but will be hopeful that they will arrive and entertain us a bit. For now, it’s only the biting flies that are keeping us busy (grrr). We’re now anchored and also tied snugly to the shore – a real exercise in crew cooperation!?!? This should be a good secure place for the next couple of days. It’s still sunny and pretty nice in here. I think we’ll go out and explore a bit in the dinghy. Turkey soup for dinner:)
No dolphins here yet, despite the name of the bay. We enjoyed taking the dinghy out yesterday evening and exploring some of the many inlets and crannies, even got a short couple of walks/hikes in. Brush here so sooo dense that even trying to follow a stream yesterday became clogged with branches and tangles. Not sure what we’ll do today. This is lovely and we’re tied safely with two stern lines and a good anchor forward. Winds will start blowing tonight and for a couple of days, then we’ll get one day of okay stuff before an even bigger blow. Crazy stuff this!! Yesterday was gorgeous though and overall a wonderful day. Life is good.
As it ended up, we decided to stay here in this snug little cove with all of the interesting islets to visit. Our boat is secured for the coming storms and we weren’t sure if the next anchorage options were as good. It’s turned out perfect:) We did a long exploration of some of the extended coves and islets here, beaching the dinghy several times and hiking as much as we could around the shoreline. It was an extra low tide which opened up a lot of options. We even made the perfect beach fire to burn our garbage! Exciting!?!? Best of all, we found several small beach treasures which I’ve arranged on the table and we also got to sit and watch a pod of dolphins swim around one of the small coves, doing a full circuit as they terrorized the wee fishes! Although overcast, we didn’t have any rain. It was wonderful. Upon returning to Raynad, we got busy trying to clean the deck a bit and scrub at the gunk on the waterline. A bit of interior cleaning and we’re now happy to just sit with a cup of tea and good book while the generator runs, freezer gets cold, laundry washes and batteries get charged. A pretty busy day after all and a nice change of routine.
31 December 2018
Yet another rainy day in our little Pozo Dolfino. The winds are less blustery, but the rain is relentlessly falling. If things lighten up a bit by around 4pm, we’ll probably drop our lines, lift anchor and move about 12 miles north of here for the night with plans to continue on tomorrow. No real hurry, we’re just restless. John decided to take the oven/stove apart to try and fix the temperature control problem. I made some yeast cinnamon bread yesterday and had a tough time getting it to cook properly and thoroughly without burning. I had to run the oven for 2-3 mins, then turn it off for 4 mins repeatedly to get the center baked. It actually turned out surprisingly well, but on a damp morning, Capt John needed a project and was irritated by my exasperation at the challenges of using the oven (no real temperature controls, although oddly when I cooked the large turkey breast for 3-4 hours, it managed okay!??!) I need a new stove when we get the chance to buy one that will work. In the meantime, he’ll tinker away at it and hopefully not break it!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Our New Year was cheered in at 24:00UTC (old farts that we are, this seemed far more reasonable.) We did go out today for a dinghy/shore excursion only to end up seeking shelter under some rocky overhangs and later various tree shrubbery! Arriving back at the boat soaking wet (me with rain gear so fine, bit John only wore his Grunden overalls and fleece wind jacket, so….) then as we opened the celebration part of the evening with some real Single Malt Scotch and humus…out comes the sun, lots of Arctic Terns swerving around our boat, a hawk landed on the Genoa sheet and then walked about the deck and I even saw a special otter! Totally cool and a beautiful evening:) John took lots of bird photos. It’s a good omen for 2019 I think.
—
As it turned out, despite our 24:00 UTC New Year’s Eve celebration, we ended up awake past the Chilean midnight, so had a second round of “Happy New Years”:) Now we woke up this morning to birds singing, absolutely stark blue cloudless skies and mirror calm waters. A great beginning for 2019!
2019
01 enero 2019 15:45 Chilean (18:45 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 44°20.23’S 073°46.37’W
ANCLADO Caleta Valverde, Canal Perez Norte – E Isla Valverde
02 enero 2019 13:45 Chilean (16:45 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 44°04.83’S 073°52.95’W
ANCLADO Caleta Amita,Isla Amita, SE Canal Tamapu – Archipielago de Los Chonos
We’ve moved about 15 miles north of where we were last night to Caleta Amita. Had the right tidal currents for the first 5 miles, then they switched – argh! Not bad though and we had sunshine for nearly all of the trip…even sun while it was raining?? Once again, we are all alone. Other than the basic Chilean work traffic, we have hardly passed any boat and have not shared any anchorages. Nice, but also weird. When the tide goes out, we’ll probably take the dinghy exploring around this rather large fjord/bay.
03 enero 2019 17:12 Chilean (20:12 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 43°50.85’S 073°53.22’W
ANCLADO Caleta El Conchal, Isla Guaiteca
We left just after coffee and traveled about 25 miles up to a cove W of Canal Puquitin in the group of Isla Guaiteca. It was a more adventurous passage winding around islets, hidden rocks and using only basic charting. Best of all from this anchorage we were able to take a really long walk! We hiked from our bay around and over to the bays west of us (following some cow tracks), and eventually over to the other side of the island to the wild Bahia Low (Low Beach). It was a step back in time passing a few small farmhouses, walking past cows, horses, sheep and meandering along a wide expanse of dark sand beach on the “wild side” toward the ocean! It felt wonderful to really stretch our legs out and explore across the countryside:) On our return, we passed one of the farmers, a wizened old guy with a sombrero-like hat and a big toothy grin. We did our best to communicate with him, multiple hand-shakes, stuttered Spanish and John even took his photo which is a great character shot. We also had a much easier walk back because the tide was all the way out and we were able to watch a farmer and his wife who were about 1/2 a mile ahead of us walk right through the low waters of the inlet rather than fight the sticky, sinking mud around the shore! So, much better. It’s a gorgeously sunny day and tomorrow should be more of the same. We’ll head over to Malinka, one of the largest towns in this part of Patagonia and then leave early on the 5th to cross the Golfo Corcovado northward back toward Isla Chiloe and eventually Puerto Montt.
John and I are waiting for the slack tide to make our way about 12 miles over toward Melinka, a small town but the largest in this region of Patagonia. We’re hoping to get some fresh fruit, some veges and some more sparkling water. Then tomorrow morning super early, we will set out to make the crossing of Golfo Corcovado during what is forecast to be pretty settled weather conditions. This can be a cranky 50 miles if the winds and tides are not good. Not sure just what we’ll decide to do exploring our way back to Puerto Montt. Mostly it depends on the weather. There is a small group of islands in the middle of the Golfo Corcovado which we really wanted to go visit, but the charting is a bit sketchy and we really need at least 3 days of rather settled weather to make it worthwhile. That’s not in the forecast, so we’ll just make the crossing and tuck in somewhere on the south end of Isla Chiloe.
04 enero 2019 14:00 Chilean (17:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 43°53.95’S 073°45.14’W
ANCLADO Bahia Melinka-SE Isla Ascension – Puerto Melinka
We had an easy, short trip through the Canal Lagrez to Melinka. It’s actually a pretty town with many colorful houses built steeply up the hillsides. They have a terrific dock we were able to tie the dingy to, although it was at least 24 feet below us at low tide! They had steps and landings every 2 meters to assist boarding whatever the tide. Ashore we enjoyed wandering around some small shops, sitting in the village square overlooking the mountain views and chatting with everyone back home via Skype:) Although the produce was pretty tired looking, we did score some lovely tomatoes and a few avocados. I bought other stuff too, but most of it has very little life left. Unfortunately, the anchoring here is not great, so at 10pm we found our anchor moving back a bit. There was an empty buoy in front of us, so getting dressed again, we picked up the buoy and enjoyed a lovely night’s rest, despite the noise of boat coming and going late into the night. We planned to leave at sunrise to catch the tides, so hopefully no boats will be annoyed that we’ve grabbed this buoy.
05 enerio 2019 05:30 (08:30 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 43°53.89’S 073°45.11’W
RUMBO: 018T RV
VELOCIDAD: 6.5 NUDOS
NAVIGANDO: Boca del Guafo
05-06 enero 2019 14:00 Chilean (17:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 43°11.51’S 073°44.11’W
ANCLADO Canal Coldita, Isla Coldita
We left Melinka at 6am and made a good crossing of the Boca del Guafo and Golfo Corcovado deciding to pass up the city of Quellon and explore into what appeared to be a quiet and pastoral bay. We were greeted by a school of dolphins mostly just exploring around and under our boat, diving back and forth much to the frustration of John who was trying to get some photographs! Of course there are lots of shell fish farms, but it is also quiet and peaceful here. Just as we were arriving the sun broke out and we now have mostly clear, sunny skies. We now have a resident honking penguin floating around next to us. We’ll launch the dingy and explore the two small villages on either side of the canal. We have left our new, more radical, explorations of Chile and are now back in the familiar Isla Chiloe. A relief to be on the other side of Golfo Corcovado, yet also a bit sad to leave the more dramatic scenery of the eastern sides of Patagonia. It was very tempting to go back across to the east side and visit Puerto Tic Toc and Isles Coloci, Huepan and Hernandez. Had the forecast been better for the next couple of days, we would have, but we also didn’t want to get trapped there. We may cross the Golfo Ancud and visit Puerto Bonito (nice name:) but we’ll see what the weather, etc is doing. Tomorrow is a forecast for increased winds followed by 3 days of rain, hence we’ll probably leave tomorrow for the very quaint and protected Estero Pilaid.
We had a bit too much celebration last night – it was sunny outside and we’d enjoyed a long walk along the shore at low tide – so came back to the boat for GTs, then an older bottle of French wine that I’d found in the back of the storage….not a good thing. We both woke with monstrous headaches and John’s stomach is upset, so perhaps it was the wine, or too much alcohol, or who knows….we were going to move on this morning, but will stay here another night and recuperate. This will bring back my sobriety for awhile!?! My tolerance for such stuff isn’t very good these days.
07-10 enero 2019 14:00 Chilean (27:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 42°51.81’S 073°35.38’W
ANCLADO Estero Pailad
We were up early and set off by 7am this morning to try and catch the tides. To our total surprise the weather was not at all what was forecast and we had what we are now terming noserlies (winds on the nose) – in this case out of the north at 25-30 kts, lots of squalls and the tide not nearly as helpful as we’d hoped. Fortunately, the tidal currents were in our favor in the one 7 mile narrows where it mattered most, but as we poked our nose out into the next lagoon we were blasted with 35 kts that heeled the boat right over. Super nasty, not scary, just really unpleasant. With visibility so poor, we missed seeing the lovely countryside dotted with farms, old churches, forests and pastures. We also met more traffic than we’ve seen in a long time, including four sailboats! One guy was jibbing south and crossed our bow twice…he was having a real struggle. There is a Chilean sailboat anchored across the estuary from us now. This was one of our favorite stops on the way south, although we only stayed here for one night. The village is a quaint native community with lots of dirt roads for us to walk with nice views out over the inner lagoons. We have a family of black necked swans and a family of ducks sharing our wee cove. They are lovely. This time, we’ll stay here for at least a couple of nights, perhaps even for John’s birthday because that day is forecasting lots of rain:( I’ll let him decide what we do. My oven is broken now (the stove top works, the oven just won’t stay lit) so I’m glad that I made a big chocolate cake around Christmas and froze a big chunk of it. We’ll light that with candles:)
John wrote: Kris and I have had another day reading indoors and making the best of the very unpredictable summer weather in Chile. Despite our plans for a walk (that’s why we came here – you CAN !), it has been way too wet and gusty. Still, it beats being in a traffic jam in the USA and we enjoy watching the swans manage their youngsters who are now way too big to be riding their mothers back as they cross the estuary but that’s what they do. They hop on mothers back and she leans into to wind and the waves, straining to carry them to the other side where the sun will rise and heat them first after a cold wet night on the muddy shore.
10 January
Yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny day for John’s celebration. After coffee and pancakes, we took a VERY long walk up, over and around the island (about 15km) arriving back at the boat totally ready to sit and relax! We then enjoyed some good Single Malt with blue cheese followed by a lingering dinner of filet mignon and a good bottle of Chilean wine finishing off at sunset (10:00pm)with Mt Douglas Chocolate Cake:) He did not suffer! This morning we awoke to another sunny day. It’s absolutely fantastic and very much appreciated after several weeks of mostly cold, rainy snarly weather and few options for walking.
Estero Paildad
Two sunny days in a row! We are truly spoiled and grateful to have mostly clear, dry, sunny and calm weather allowing us to soak up the quiet pastoral atmosphere of this very special corner of Isla Chiloe. Yesterday we hiked up and down and up and over through the middle of the island walking through the forests on some impressively steep dirt roads. We eventually ended up at a viewpoint looking out over Point Aulen and Conejos Canal before taking a sharp hairpin turn and steeply descending 300 meters to where the road ended at only three houses! At this point we had walked 5+/- miles, so we turned around and started back the way we’d come. As we were slowly climbing back up that same steep road, we heard some jangling and commotion behind us. It was a strong young man with two very large, muscular bulls attached together with a heavy hand carved yoke. Incredible beasts, we moved aside as best we could and let them pass. Later after we’d hiked on around the corners, this same young man was running fast back down the hill for something…meanwhile, he’d left the bulls still yoked together in a grassy patch next to the road. We eyed each other warily, gave them lots of berth and continued on our way. We’d come across a large stack of split wood and hypothesized that these bulls were used to harvest and haul the timber. All in all, our walk which we figured was around 9 miles, took us nearly 5 hours to complete. Our knees were very glad to be back at the boat. We then had a wonderfully relaxing evening celebrating John’s 69th birthday, even catching the sunset around 10pm over some chocolate cake and the last of our fine Chilean wine.
Today, we did a few jobs on the boat, then went ashore again and this time rather than turning up and over through the middle of the island, we continued on straight thinking we’d had enough hill walking yesterday. Not to happen…this road also went up and down continuously and at one section was so steep, they had a crew working to concrete the entire length, including hand laid drainage ditches on each side of the single lane road using concrete and evenly spaced round beach rocks. Pretty unbelievable…all done by hand. On this walk we heard a bunch of shouting and when we came around that corner found a gaucho and another worker on foot managing two bulls also yoked together, only this time they were hauling a very large whole log out of the forest down a steep track to where there were at least another dozen logs and another huge stack of split wood. Clearly this is an important enterprise in this area. Although most homes appear to have electricity available, most of them look like they use wood stoves for heating and cooking. This is a wonderfully tranquil and interesting rural area. All of the people we’ve met are very friendly, try to talk with us and then get on with their work. When we arrived back at the village, we even met a couple of Jehovah’s Witness women who tried in Spanish to convert us. I do wish that we were more fluent with Spanish and could engage in more conversations. We miss so much not being able to communicate and ask questions. No one we’ve met yet here in this area speaks English and in fact they have a very strong Chiloen dialect.
11 enero 2019 15:00 Chilean (18:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 42°43.84’S 073°00.94’W
ANCLADO Bahia Edwards, Isla Talcan
We lifted anchor just after coffee and sailed our way east across the northern section of the Golfo Corcovado and are now wonderfully anchored in the sandy Bahia Edwards. It’s been another snotty passage with gusty winds, rain and waves breaking over the bow. At least we avoided the “noserlies” and were able to get a hard angle on the wind. Capt John was particularly happy about that:) Lots of cargo traffic which added diversity to the journey as we were crossing the shipping channel. This is bringing us closer to the east side of Patagonia and eventually some more mountainous anchorages. We knew that today would be rainy, but are hoping that our efforts are rewarded with sunshine tomorrow!?!? For now, it’s soothingly warm cups of tea and some good reads. My favorite part of cruising…being at anchor! Even with the rain and wind outside, we’re snuggled cozily inside sv Raynad enjoying John’s great hot water heating system and views out the pilothouse windows.
12 enero 2019 17:00 Chilean (20:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 42 05.81 / 072 33.45 W
ANCLADO Caleta Andrada, Isla Llancahue
We were going to only go about 15 miles today over to the mainland and into a small anchorage in the middle of Tompkin’s private lands, but the entrance is tricky with rocks and poor charting, so it was imperative that we be able to see the rocks as we approach….it’s not raining, but it’s a low cloud, gray day which makes all of the water look dull, so we’re going 50 miles instead up to a dramatic island (I hope). We’ll hang around that area for a few days and then head over toward Puerto Montt. Probably won’t have much of a signal for anything while in these next few anchorages due to the steep terrain. I was hoping for clearer skies to enjoy the magnificent vistas of the Andes….maybe it will clear, right now they are shrouded completely in low clouds.
13 enero 2019 17:00 Chilean (20:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 42 10.08 / 072 23.55 W
ANCLADO Estero Quentupeu, N Estero Comau, Canal Cholgo
We awoke to a gorgeous, sunny, glassy calm day and were surprised to look out the end of our bay and see snowy ice topped mountains! In celebration of the “settled” weather, we decided to go just around the corner and anchor off the beach of the Llancahue Resort where we were able to dinghy ashore and luxuriate in their hot pools, even eat a lunch of ceviche and soak a bit more:) Total indulgence! We met a Chilean family who strongly recommended that we visit the fjords of Quentupeu and also Comau. After getting our fill of hot baths, we lifted anchor and have made our way into a really stunning fjord with super steep, tall mountains more like cliffs shooting straight up to 1400-1500 meters, with rocky peaks and lots of waterfalls pouring down their sides. Below we have 100-150 meters of water. It’s surprising that anything at all grows on these steep cliffs, but the rock is layered, almost peeling hard rock found all over Chile which gives the little roots a purchase so that even the most sheer peak has a lace of greenery struggling to grow and take over. An exception is the dark side where a lack of sun leaves only sheer rock. It’s amazingly gorgeous, especially so on such a beautiful day. I keep expecting some sort of pterodactyl to fly off the peaks!?!? We’d have totally missed this lovely spot had we not met that family. They own a cabin up at the end of Comau Fjord. We’ll go there tomorrow (a really long inlet) and then hike what’s supposed to be an amazing new trail the following day. Keeping our fingers crossed this weather holds. Everything is spectacular when the sun shines:)
14 enero 2019 16:30 Chilean (20:00 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 42 27.76 / 072 26.94 W
ANCLADO Caleta Porcelana, Estero Comau
We thoroughly enjoyed the last paradise we unexpectedly found yesterday. After a walk ashore, we lifted anchor and made our way 28 miles down the main fjord to a unique area. This was all once owned by Douglas Tompkins the millionaire who started North Face. He tried to buy up a huge swath of Central Patagonia, much to the annoyance of Chilean authorities. Eventually, this property all ended up in a “private” Chilean Land Trust and is being “eco-developed” with “organic salmon farms”, controlled timbering, roads and of course tourism. It’s very lovely here and we’d thought about doing a big hike tomorrow, however, we’re not comfortable with the boat mooring/anchoring situation and the unpredictable weather forecasts, so we’ll likely drop our buoy line (we’re actually tied up to a “private” mooring ball because it was in the way of where we needed to anchor and looked strong) and return back up the fjord tomorrow. If the weather is really nice and settled in the morning, we may try to anchor and tie to trees and stay a bit longer. There are hot pools here too, but expensive and muddy.
Off to sit in the cockpit and enjoy the view a bit. We won’t go to bed until the sun sets just to make sure that the owner’s boat doesn’t come and want this mooring ball.
15 enero 2019 12:45 Chilean (15:45 UTC)
POSICIÓN: 42 08.02 / 072 34.47 W
ANCLADO Puerto Bonito, Estero Bonito – S Isla Llanchaue
We only did an overnight down at Caleta Porcelana. It was a gorgeous day yesterday and a lovely evening which we fully enjoyed while waiting to see if we got kicked off of the “Privado” buoy that we’d picked up. The winds calmed and no one bothered us. We woke up early to find that the weather had changed, it was totally clouding over and the winds were just beginning to build from the north. With that information, we decided that we either had to anchor (in 30+meters) and shore tie to wait out the northerlies (gusty winds and rain), or drop the buoy and go north with the outgoing tide before the weather picked up. Although it was cool to see the mountains as they occasionally broke through the clouds, we were even more grateful for the beautiful sunny “settled” weather we had for three days that allowed us to fully appreciate the stunning beauty of these fjords. We’ll likely pick up the anchor mid-day tomorrow and make our way across the Gulfo de Ancud to overnight somewhere before making our way into Puerto Montt. We’ll likely be in the big city by the 17th. Our Zarpa deadline is the 20th. In Chile we have to file an official “Zarpa” which is like a float plan and then report in every day to the Chilean Armada on where we are/what we are doing. If underway, we must report twice a day. After having said in previous emails that we weren’t seeing any other boats, that has totally changed! We shared the anchorage last night with a sailboat and motoryacht, then passed three sailboats on our way here today. It’s the summer holidays from school now, so families are out and about, plus we’re very close to the road system and not that far from Puerto Montt. Lots of fishing boats, shell fish farms and salmonellas (salmon farms) too. We passed about 10 different large salmon farming operations on our way here and in fact there was a really new one sharing our bay last night. Outside our current anchorage, on either side of the shore, there are also fish farms. They are nearly everywhere! It seems that rather than be inside the closed lagoons and sheltered waterways, they are all mostly out in more open areas so the fish get cleaner water flowing through. They had a super outbreak of disease in their farms several years ago that was likely caused because they were all clogging the main anchorages. Good for us that they have moved out, nonetheless, it can add challenges to navigation.
It’s a fresh cup of tea and good book time!