Day2 PATAGONIA Channel Southern Chile Heading South Part 4 (dropped anchor)

Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Mon 10 May 2010 00:42
Location: PATAGONIA Channel Southern Chile, Chile (48:45.5S 74:21.16W)
It is sunset time for sundowners so I have a Chilean beer next to me I am on
the aft deck looking out over the channel we in. It is about a 1/2 mile
either side to this Glacier cut gorge fed with different other Fjords/
gorges. They a green with thick forested trees 3 /4 of the way up and then
the last 1/4 is scrub and what looks like grass but on the background of
rock. We have had clear skies all day and to say it has been stunning since
we entered the channel at lunch is an understatement, it is really is a
place worth visiting. It is different but similar to the Inside Channel up
in the North west of North America, but the size and grandeur goes further,
and it is way more isolated. We past one boat all day going up the other
way, to my starboard side high up a waterfall stars and tumbles down
disappearing behind the trees at the base. As we pass these coves and bays I
look at them in envy that they great anchorages and it is like a lake in
here so calm.
The last of sun is now catching the tops of the peaks on the port side,
making them glow and any light rock stand out like beacons, another valley
passes it is as big as many of the bays I have gone in this year, but I see
it turn a corner and keep going. It is very deep here but I am the only one
outside now with the rumble of engines behind me I just look out to this
majestic beauty and I am glad we have the boys here, and we must maintain
places like this, as they are truly wild and untouched.
It is now 8 pm we have dropped anchor behind and island in the channel, due
to the winds last night which went to 65 knots and the current yesterday we
have been delayed too long that we cannot cover the next section which is
very narrow and can only be handled in daylight. So as one crew member
stated this is the first time he has seen this and he has been doing this
trip for 2 years, but it does not effect us, ( we have slack in our plan) we
will now arrive at 2 am on Tuesday morning, so we stay on board that night
and go into PT Natales when we wake. While this is a working ferry it is
governed by rules of the sea as this inside the sea boards so falls under
the Chilean navigation authority which has rules about what can be covered
at night, as one thing we have seen different to InSide Passage in Canada is
it does get a lot more narrow in places. So a first to be at anchor in a
beautiful place in calm water for a night on a public ferry!.
It is interesting to watch how all the passengers have now come together and
are talking and discussing, in many ways we are travelers off the normal
tourist path, and we have our books out, we discuss what we going to do at
the other end. I have been talking to a German lady on places to see in
Easter Island (as she has just come from there), and the others on the lakes
area in Argentina. There are 6 people young in the late 20s early 30s who
remind me of when I travelled / back packed back in the 80s/ early 90s we
often ended up on boats like this heading to remote places in North Africa
or Scandi, it is nice to mix with travelers of a different kind they are all
on 3 to 4 month trips must be back for the next year of studies or work. We
have only one retired American on this boat, surprising as it is easier for
US, and it is such an opportunity, I hope the boys grow up with the urge to
discover new places and travel, I doubt Tracy and I will ever loose our bug
for seeing new places and revisiting many places we have been to spend more
time there.