41:49.67S 73:05.47W

Today was another fabulous sailing day in the Golfo de Ancud. We’d called Aries back from his extended holiday and he steered us all the way while Franco and I took silly ‘selfies’ of ourselves.

Caramor’s crew (from the left) Franco, Aries and Kath

Approaching the passage between Isla Chidguapi and Isla Puluqui was a little nerve racking as the entrance was full of mussel farms and although we had been warned, finding the way through was tricky.

Mussel farming - thousands of buoys strung together

The anchorage, around the first headland, was crowded with moorings. We hadn’t expected this. Two were occupied, by a work boat and a yacht and the others were empty. We have been very wary of empty moorings since Brazil, when we woke up in the middle of the night to find a 160’ ferry just two metres away. 

Our neighbour

We anchored close in and were considering putting out a stern anchor to stop Caramor from swinging when we were hailed from the yacht ‘Qulacoya’. They invited us over for a drink.

The four man crew are from Santiago and keep the boat in Puerto Montt. They were very interested in our journey, particularly the Atlantic crossing. While we sipped our tea, we discussed all matter of topics. At some point Mr Trump came up in the conversation and our friends were speculating as to how he would behave. Franco and I exchanged glances, were these Chileans Trump fans? it seemed unlikely. Suddenly we had a terrible glimmering that the US presidential election had taken place. “He hasn’t been elected, has he?” asked Franco. Our Chileans looked puzzled, then roared with laughter once they realised that we had no idea because we’ve been sailing.

Andrés and Alfonso explained that the moorings belong to a lady who has opened a restaurant near the jetty and that we were welcome to use one for the night. They told us that the islands have witnessed a huge change over the past four years. The residents used to be very poor, scraping a living from small holding but this is slowly changing. A track across the island has been constructed, homes have been improved and more land has been cleared. They didn’t say where the wealth has come from and I’m guessing from the fish farming operations. 

Tomorrow will be the last day of south-westerlies for some time. Then the wind will swing around to the north overnight. We have 22 nautical miles to go to Puerto Montt and hope to get there before the change.