Heading North

Leaving Pto Williams March 9, 2017

While it can be safely argued that going down the Patagonia Channels is no laid back sail, going north is another matter completely.   Usually! This is because you normally have wind on the nose and a lot more wind than you need or want. Patience and lots of diesel fuel are your best friends if you want to go north, in our case, back to Valdivia, at about 40 degrees S.

We got a nice weather break in early March that allowed us leave Puerto Williams, about 100 miles from Cape Horn, and go down further south and around Cape Horn.  We arrived back at the Micalvi, the old Chilean munitions carrier, that serves as a "yacht club" to get settled in for another blow.

Anchorage at Coloane, off the Brazo Sudoeste.  Eventually had  seven lines out for the blow! 

Coloane

Our philosophy for the return journey was based upon watching the fall weather both last year while we were in Valdivia preparing to go south and reading some blogs.  While the old Patagonia hands will recommend that you make the north  trip in the winter because, baring storms, you have a lot less wind since it is cold and you don't have the temperature differentials that cause "rachas" or williwaws  that can scream off the mountains that often are on either side of the channels.

Stephen was born and raised in California and Marja was born in Texas and raised there and later in Phoenix.  In other words, we were not looking forward to winter temperatures and short daylight periods while going north.

We saw last year that the weather often had periods of high pressure systems settling over large areas of Patagonia in late February, March, and even into April.  The OCC boat,  Joyant, with Tom and Dorothy Wadlow, aboard ,went north two years ago at this time and made it to Valdivia in a month.
We decided to give it a try.  We said our good-byes to our friends David and Margaret on "Heart and Soul" and Dominique and Carole on "Hippos Camp" who had elected to leave their boats in Puerto Williams for the winter.  Burr! Our intrepid young friends, Max and Laura on "Tortuga",  went to the Falklands (rough trip).

Bundled up in THE COAT.  

We got our weather window on March 9th and proceeded north under a beautiful high pressure that allowed us to motorsail 600 nautical miles north as far as Pto Eden at S 49 08 arriving on March 31st.

Atracadero before the NE blow and anchor drag.

Steamer Ducks of Atracadero (flightless birds that use their wings like paddlewheels!)

Our Anchorage buddies at Atracadero

Now in the interests of full disclosure, we did have to sit out some strong winds for a short period, and had two nasty little encounters.  The first occurred in Atracadero.   Took a great hike in the mountains behind the boat, photographed the goofy steamer ducks, and just after returning to Motu for a cup of tea, a strong Northeasterly caused the anchor to drag due to a huge ball of kelp and some old fisherman's foul weather gear, all wrapped nicely around the anchor!  Extracted ourselves from that mess, got away from the rocks, reanchored and sat out the westerly blow the next day with up to five fishing boats all rafted together off our starboard stern by a little islet.

The bad bow line that flipped off the rock in Pto Riemann - don't know why?!?!

The next fiasco was in Puerto Niemann when a line we had tied to rocks off our port  bow pulled out.  Other than elevated heart rates and a little scratch in the boot-top when a racha blew Motu onto a rock wall, only our pride was damaged.  We also had a rather unpleasant experience crossing the Straits of Magellans with a hat full of wind.

Beautiful and dramatic Bahia Wodsworth, on the Magellan

HUGE waterfall behind the boat at Bahia Wodsworth

Now we are anchored at Puerto Eden and it is blowing out of the north.  We are hoping to continue north tomorrow and are waiting for our old friend, the HIGH, to return.

Gorgeous weather on Canal Sarmiento

Massive ice blocking entrance to Seno Penguin - in the fall can  even block main channel, Canal Wide

Back at Pto. Eden, in sun!!