17/3/08 12:00

Yesterday afternoon the wind suddenly came up from the SW and our position on the dock became untenable as there was a chop building as well as the wind pinning us to the dock.  The dock has a series of rubber tires as fenders and one of their brackets pierced the gel coat on the hull in two places high up near the gunnels. Our fenders are not big enough to hold us off in those conditions. The damage is not serious and Steve has done a temporary filling with gel coat to insure nothing gets in the skin until we can do it properly in Ushuaia.  Nik was off the boat when this happened and we anchored on the other side of the inlet, thinking to go back for him in the dinghy.  We anchored with one anchor and we dragged, we also realized the dinghy ride back to get Nik would be a challenge so we went back with the boat to get him with a short dinghy ride and re-anchored  with the tandem  arrangement  and sat solidly all night although we did rack up 5 miles overnight  swinging at anchor.  The town is actually a mile away.

This morning I went to the Armada at nine and the permit was ready for us. Fortunately the Armada have their own dock with dinghy access as there is absolutely no where else anywhere near them.

We’ve been running around buying the fresh food, and saying a fond farewell to Gabriele who has now left the boat. He will be missed. We welcome Nick Fletcher who we met in Rio and who will be our 4^th crew member for the rest of the Chile run.  He has done a lot of blue water racing including the 1979 Fastnet on one of the four boats that actually finished that disastrous race.

19:00

So we upped anchor at 12:45 in a Force 8, as you do, and headed back across the Golfo Almirante Montt which had been a glass lake a few days ago.  With 40 knots on the nose it is a very different experience.  As we we’re preparing to leave it was clear that we we’re now dragging for the first time with the tandem anchors. I had planned to return via a more scenic route but the combination of the wind, sea state, visibility and our very bad charts for a tricky entrance put us off.  Our second choice was  Caleta Fog named by the HMS Beagle crew in 1830 when they had to retreat from a sudden fog like the one we had two days ago.  Unfortunately the wind went SW and made that stop dodgy, so we carried on through the Canal Kirke entrance which is the tricky bit.  As we arrived so did a nasty squall so we went about and waited for it to pass. We’re now tucked up in a tiny inlet in a small bay off the Canal Kirke called “Caleta Desaparecidos” with the tandem anchors and 4 shore lines. No worries about dragging anchor tonight. Today’s run was a modest 32 miles, and ironically we are moored exactly where and when I predicted we might, when I did the itinerary three weeks ago.

The 2 Niks, well one Nik and one Nick, have gone for a stroll in the rain while Steve is cooking and I’m blogging.  It is already very confusing having both of them on board.

Our new anchorage last night gave us a different perspective on Puerto Natales.  That great Lighting Designer In The Sky put on one hell of a show, with one amazing cue after another.  Every time I looked up it was different.  The sun was a giant low level beam light cross light and the clouds acted like shutters. So the first ten pictures tonight as a sampling of what we saw and the last two taken by Niko are of Nick and our mooring in Caleta Desaparecidos.