9/3/08 10:30 AM

We left  Puerto Hope at 7:15 having weighed anchor in the rain. As we were leaving the little bay we saw a ship approaching which turned out to the HMS ENDURANCE (last seen in Port Lockroy) whose chopper took the aerial photos.  I don’t think they were snapping this time.  They disappeared ahead of us in the mist in The Straits of Magellan where we will be for the next couple of days.

The wind forecast was North 10 knots so naturally we have NW 7 (25/30) knots on the nose. As we are in open water, the combination of wind and sea slows us to barely 6 knots, still it stopped raining and there’s a hint of sun.

12:00

The winds pips up to Force 8, sometimes a wave stops us almost dead in our track, boat speed averages between 4 and 5 knots.  We could stop early but than we will definitely miss the window of relative calm in open sea on the approach to The Smyth Canal so for the moment I want to keep on.

16:00

The NW Force 8 has carried on all afternoon and just went to Force 9.  Sometimes our boat speed drops below 4 knots.

17:00 We arrive at Bahiá Mussel on Isla Carlos III, a distance of 60 miles which we did in 9 ¾ hours.  The first half much faster boat speed that the second half.

Anchoring in 35 knots of wind is a new experience.  We are in a deep finger but the wind is still blowing hard. All manoeuvres had to be done under lots of power to keep control of the bow.  There is possibly a more sheltered option which Steve and Nik have gone in the dinghy to investigate, although the anchors seem to be holding well. Steve and Nik report the other anchorage is more sheltered but none of us really feel like upping anchor in this wind so we add two shore lines to either side of the finger from the bow so that the boat can still swivel side to side in the wind.

I’m afraid today hasn’t been a day for taking pictures, but I enclose one from my daughter Ellen who has  found a beer in London  she thought I might like.

It definitely cheered me up.