Position: 54° 51.453S 068° 48.863W, Caleta Ferrari, Bahia
Yendegaia
Date: 22 February 2012
The day before yesterday we returned, once again, from
Ushuaia to Puerto Williams to clear into Chile in order to start our second
cruise of the Chilean fjords.
Ushuaia in Argentina is the place to and from where crew
arrive by plane, and it is the only place with supermarkets where one can stock
up with provisions for a long cruise. So it has to be the starting point for any
cruise of the spectacular fjords and glaciers which branch off the Beagle
Channel, starting 50 miles to the west of Ushuaia. Only problem is that Ushuaia
is in Argentina and the fjords are in Chile and the only place where you can
clear into Chile is 25 miles in the wrong direction at Puerto Williams. So the
first two days and the last two days of any cruise is spent clearing out of and
into the two respective countries and sailing the 25 miles away to Puerto
Williams then battling against the fierce westerlies all the way back, past
Ushuaia where one first started and on to the fjords.
So having cleared into Chile in Puerto Williams we left
at breakfast time yesterday morning for the 42 mile first passage to Caleta
Ferrari at the top of Bahia Yendegaia.
As we left Puerto Williams we saw the distinctive blows
of the enormous Sei whales which we had seen before rescuing John Wheeler on
Tramp. Since then I have discovered that it is almost unheard of to see baleen
whales in the Beagle Channel so we have been very privileged to see so many.
As the morning progressed, the strong westerlies against
which we were punching, became very strong westerlies. By lunchtime, even though
we are in a channel barely 2 miles across – not exactly in the open sea, the
waves were a metre and a half high and steep sided. Mina2 was bucketing through
the chop. It was cold, wet and uncomfortable. By mid-afternoon we had barely
covered the first 20 miles. The wind was now blowing a full gale with gusts of
more than 50 knots across the deck and the constantly chattering coastguard
stations announced that all the ports were closing on both sides of the channel.
It would have been very late evening before we were likely to get to Ferrari, so
we threw the towel in and went into a well protected anchorage opposite Ushuaia
for the night. A few hours later our Norwegian friends on Anne Mari also came in
seeking shelter, looking completely beaten up, and snugged alongside
us.
By this morning the winds had subsided but more very
strong winds were forecast for this afternoon so we made an early start for the
last 17 miles to Ferrari, leaving the crew of Anne Mari still sleeping. Twenty
minutes before we reached the protection of the big bay, the wind rapidly
increased and with it, the boat stopping choppy waves. We’d made it in the nick
of time. Three hours later, who should come in but Anne Mari, the crew looking
completely beaten up again. They said that, if anything, the conditions, which
we had missed by a whisker, were if anything worse today than they had been
yesterday.
Caleta Ferrari, overlooked by a range of sugar-coated
mountains, has a small rather ramshackle farm house at the head, where Jose the
gaucho farmer lives with Anemie, a Belgian woman who arrived by yacht and
stayed. They keep horses and will take crews off for a few hours trekking which
everyone says is a brilliant experience, fording deep rivers and seeing more of
the wild countryside than could be possible for even the most intrepid hiker.
Sadly we found they had gone away, so we will leave tomorrow morning for our
next stepping stone to the glaciers, Caleta Olla, and plan to return here at the
end of our circumnavigation of the glacier ridden Isla Gordon.
I ferried the DS and Andrew ashore in the dinghy for a
walk whilst I settled down to catch up with the blog (the sacrifices I make for
you faithful readers is limitless). When they returned we were all marvelling at
our good fortune at being able to enjoy such spectacular, tranquil anchorages
when, to cap it all, a family of Sealions came frolicking around the boat. The
magic of it all almost made us forget the low scudding clouds dumping sleet on
us.
Andrew seems to have settled in well. He now runs the
boat quite efficiently but has ruined his goodwill by beating both the other
Skippers at Rummy on his first two games ever. The DS is also slightly concerned
about Andrew’s appetite. He eats for four and at this rate we’re going to run
out of food well before the end of the cruise. The DS says I will have to go out
and catch a guanaco (llama) to supplement what might otherwise become a meagre
diet.
