Day 22 Caleta Playa Parda to Puerto Angosto

Caramor - sailing around the world
Franco Ferrero / Kath Mcnulty
Thu 14 Jul 2016 00:18
53:13.26S 73:21.90W

High pressure of 1022 and rising. The Strait of Magellan is as calm as a millpond, we are very privileged indeed. We hope to round the corner on Friday (weather permitting) and start heading north towards Puerto Natales.

Looking back down the Strait of Magellan

Puerto Angosto, our anchorage, is grandiose. Water cascades from the mountain plunge down a large waterfall on the other side of the pool. In the shallows, there are mussels, which, much to Franco’s disappointment, we cannot eat because of the red tide (which isn’t red in this area). The water is crystal clear and we can see down to the bottom where the occasional starfish and king crab lie motionless. 

Very large juicy mussels

Beyond the rocks of the foreshore, we step onto the most spongy vegetation imaginable, formed by layers of mosses, with tiny vascular plants growing out of them, then lichens on top, all interwoven by a creeper with needles. Each stride takes a considerable amount of effort. 

A new tree species has joined Nothofagus betuloides, it is a conifer and I have yet to identify it. So far the specimens we have seen have the most extraordinary shape, the gnarly trunk starts above the ground and is anchored by ‘branches’, their height is maybe two metres at the most and they are often denuded of needles, apart from at the base and at the very top. 

Caramor in Puerto Angosto, shorelines to bow and stern and anchor out in the deeper water