Day 33 Bahia Mallet to Caleta Jaime

Caramor - sailing around the world
Franco Ferrero / Kath Mcnulty
Sun 24 Jul 2016 22:21
52:10.91S 73:17.11W

Franco refused point blank to haul Caramor over the peninsula. Therefore we had to sail the twenty miles around Peninsula Zach.

Predictably the light north-westerly was against us for the first ten miles so we motored. A high pressure is building and we are keen to make the most of it to visit Estero Las Montañas, a long thin fjord that passes between high Andean peaks and is said to be spectacular.

As soon as we turned the corner at the northern end of the peninsula, we hoisted the sails. The wind died and were were barely making 1.2 knots. This was very depressing, the only section of our entire route in the Canales where we are heading south-east and it looked like we would have to motor. Franco set up the pole so that we could sail goosewinged, we weren’t giving up yet. As we emerged from the wind shadow of Isla Hunter, we picked up speed and were soon making 6 knots.

Caramor goosewinged

The weather was definitely trying to improve though there was still quite a lot of low cloud around. 

A strange looking craft was motoring towards us, it looked like an orange helicopter on water. The AIS informed us she was called ‘Mabel Alice’ and headed for Yarmouth, which seemed rather a long way away. Close up we decided she must be an ex-lifeboat or coastguard cutter, possibly from the USA. As she passed, the skipper radioed and offered us any support we needed once we arrived in Puerto Natales where he is based.

We sailed south of Isla Jaime and parked in a sheltered cove on the east coast.

Our batting score has improved to 33% sailing.