Day 38 Water water everywhere, but not in our tank!

Caramor - sailing around the world
Franco Ferrero / Kath Mcnulty
Wed 21 Sep 2016 01:00
47:45.17S 76:14.83W

Finding a good stream to fill our water tank was a priority. It had rained steadily all night and the trickles around our anchorage had increased to a flow. It still took Franco a couple of hours and five round trips to fill the reservoir.

Franco collecting water

We travelled a short distance today, to Caleta Feliz (‘Happy’ in Spanish, we just couldn’t miss it out!) which is ‘an average day’ away from the entrance to the Golfo de Penas. We are starting to look for a good weather window to get across and, according to the weather forecast, none are on the horizon.

Atmospheric, if not very pleasant

As we motored up the inlet towards our Caleta Feliz, a flightless steamer duck was speeding ahead and gaining on Caramor. I checked our speed, we were travelling at 4.5 knots. Although fast, losing the ability to fly for a bird seems hardly an evolutionary advantage. Back in the 1940s (British-based) ornithologists were adamant that it was the same species as the flying steamer duck which, as it got older and fatter, was no longer able to take off – an understandable mistake. Less forgivable though is that they simply wouldn’t listen to naturalists on the ground who reported vast differences between the two types.

Caleta Feliz as the sun comes out