Position 54:32.69 S 071:54.65 W

Yesterday we came out of Puerto King and headed down the Cockburn Channel towards the Pacific Ocean, with our goal being the Brecknock Channel.  Early in the morning after we had got the boat sailing we made our way, winding through the intricate passageway, down the Cockburn.  It is difficult to express the vastness of this area in terms of its cruising aptitude.  Everywhere that you look, hides an inlet, ready to be explored, most of which are uncharted.  Onboard we have a “Ruta”, which is a catalogue of drawings put together by Skip, and the other skippers of Pelagic.  Occasionally, Ruta information is exchanged with other boating explorers, mixing within the same circles.  The Ruta information is incredibly detailed, including soundings, positions of dangers, where to drop the hook, and where shore lines are best attached.  It allows us to enter coves where the chart information is non existent, which nearly always guarantees us a private anchorage.

Skip Novak is a keen climber, and many of Pelagic’s trips involve taking mountaineers to unclimbed peaks.  Inside our Ruta, there is also information on best ascents, pitches of climbs, and camp positions … serious stuff.

On our trip down the Cockburn we eventually came face to face with the ferocity of the Pacific Ocean, even with very light wind a nice ground swell squeezed its way in the channel.  The turn into the Brecknock Channel exposed us to a serious lee shore hazard, not apparent today due to the conditions, but it didn’t take much imagination to conjure up how difficult it could be in a blow.

As we neared our anchorage we were escorted in by approximately 100 southern fur seals, who obviously enjoyed showing off their agility in the water, darting up to the boat and jumping out of the water.  This is something that I have seen Dolphins do many times, but not seals, it was spectacular.  I went a little mad with my new digital SLR camera with the seals, as it takes 5 frames per second in action mode, and so I quickly rattled off nearly 450 pictures just of the seals, but it was worth to get some mid flight seals, which I would never have got without the new camera … thank you Jackie.

 Again the anchorage chosen by Stewart was awesome, surrounded by snow topped mountains, not too sheer sided so that we could stay out of the worst of the Williwaws.  The anchorage offered yet another peaceful night sleep here in Chile.

Ian Jinks on Pelagic signing out