Sailing in the Beagle last summer (more in our article from the time). Hoping to head back out shortly!
Category: Travel/Places
Sailing in the glaciers: Space Oddity’s first journey
After so much time in Williams, and after much work on Space Oddity, we started the year by taking the boat on what was (for us) her first long sailing journey. The famous Canal Beagle or Beagle Channel cuts through Patagonia slightly above South America’s most southern cape (the Horn of course). In fact it consists of two forking channels which have a landmass of reasonable size, Isla Gordon, in the middle. In the course of a month we ascended one arm and descended the other arm and went round Isla Gordon in this way.
Autumn in Patagonia
Autumn’s my favourite of the seasons of Patagonia, the nothofagus trees creating incredible colours here, and the weather less wet than in summer (and warmer than winter, of course). Quarantine’s meant we’ve been a bit less busy, so I shot some pictures this time, mostly while walking the doggy. These leaves are falling as we enter May.
In March first reds/yellows appear in leaves
March – the harbour shores are still green mainly
The red colour descends from the higher hillsides, because of the colder air there
In April the autumn colours predominate
The forest is nothofagus about entirely, though there are subvarieties apparently
Above the trees are Argentina’s mountains on the Beagle’s other side
Chilean fishing craft in front of the Beagle
Colours coming down the hillside
The trees are at their brightest for a week or two only, before the leaves turn brown and blow away
The red slopes behind the city are shifting into brown by start of May
Sunset now falls at six or so, earlier every day
Orcas and whales
Last Monday (9th of March) Puerto Williams had a dramatic day, by the standards of this little isolated city: a number of orcas chased two whales onto the shores, and went on to kill them eventually. Orcas are seen in the area rather occasionally, and while whales are common in the channels of Chile, they don’t often enter the bay. They tend also not to be sei whales as these ones were, being the smaller humpbacks normally.
The 2020 Cape Horn race
Conditions didn’t allow the Desafío Cabo de Hornos race to reach the Horn itself this time; instead boats competed in the Beagle nearby. Click to view photos individually.
The Chilean-owned X-yacht Patagonia
‘Ata ‘Ata celebrates the start of the race
The Argentinian boats Unicornio and Serendipia
The X-50 has won both versions of the regatta
French-Basque entrant Sonabia
Calms and rainsqualls on the first day
Cool Change (US) disturbing the birdlife
Some of the fleet shelters for the night in Margarita
The start of a leg off Puerto Toro
Kzar, a Joshua from Ushuaia
Beating outside Toro in the Beagle
Star Spangled (Polish-Canadian vessel) is pursued by Sonabia
The fleet occupies the pier at Puerto Toro
Patagonia waits for wind on the last day
Star Spangled passes the accompanying Chilean navy
Ypake on the last day
Serendipia in front of Cool Change
Kzar checks out the wildlife
Bible boat: Chilean-built tall ship Victory
Wreck of Williams
Tied to the Pontón Micalvi, the stranded naval vessel that acts as dock in Puerto Williams, are boats of two varieties, all moored onto one another in rows with the last to arrive outside. There are the charterers, with their trips in the summer to Cape Horn or to Antarctica, and there are the cruisers, stopping for a few months at the tip of South America before they turn north from here. But one yacht’s never left Micalvi in the years we’ve known the place, innermost boat in the innermost row throughout that time, next to Micalvi with six visitors outside. Continue reading “Bible boat: Chilean-built tall ship Victory”
The southernmost city
Through the seasons in the world’s southernmost city, Puerto Williams, Chile. Continue reading “The southernmost city”
Winter Puerto Williams
Strolling in southern Patagonia
A main attraction of Puerto Williams – only major settlement in Chile’s Cape Horn province – is the nearby five-day Dientes hike. But here I’ll look at short strolls in the area, both for the less ambitious visitor, and for all curious about this remote place. Continue reading “Strolling in southern Patagonia”
Dientes de Navarino
The Dientes mountains, south of all settlements, are almost within sight (if the clouds ever cleared) of where Cape Horn ends the land completely. We did this five-day hike with Xoe’s brother when in Puerto Williams before.
Puerto Williams with Dientes mountains in the distance
Caesar (Xoe’s brother) on the road to the Dientes
In the mountains
Gean and Caesar stand on a ridge
Xoe and Caesar in front of the Lindermayer cordillera
Xoe above Laguna Guanacos (Beagle Channel in the distance)
Looking down on Laguna Guanacos
Caesar on Laguna Guanacos shore
Xoe by the Guanacos lake
Making coffee before we set out home
Gean finds abandoned guns in the forest
Gean in an abandoned house
