Day4 PATAGONIA Channel Southern Chile Heading South Part 7
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Tue 11 May 2010 22:28
We woke to the speakers telling us breakfast is ready, I stuck my head out
of the bunk and drew back the curtains and saw that it was overcast by high
cloud and good visibility, which is a good thing as this is meant to be the
most spectacular section. Sure enough as we completed breakfast (which is
becoming an issue with Alex as we running out of clean cloths for him, we
are in need of a Laundry day glad we have 4 days in the same place), we saw
the rock towers of Torres Del Paine on the port side, a different view to
norm as we had water in front but spectacular with the these huge shear rock
towers rising up, and surrounded by rock mountains covered in snow. The
water in front is still as a lake and the add white bird flies across. We
will be passing through the narrowest part of the channel in the next hour
it gets down to 40 M across and we are 25 M wide as a boat.
The plan is that we will ETA at Puerto Natales at around 11 am this morning,
a whole 24 hours latter than expected, but it has been no issue as we have
seen more and we are in no rush to leave this peaceful and dramatic
landscape.
The sea has come alive with sea lions and birds as we get close to these
narrow straints and we have been joined by a couple of small fishing vessels
also heading south, after the last 2 days where we have seen very little
human activity out side of Puerto Eden.
As we passed through the narrow straits it was more like running a river
rapid with the current rushing through as well, but doing it on a 130 meter
boat, we had seals jumping out and swimming along side us, and as we turned
the majestic mountains rose before us further down a long fjord. We had just
turned the corner and now head up to Puerto Natales.
Now we pack and clean up, and warm up as we run the next 2 hours.
Stay tuned.