14/3/08 19:00

We’ve come back down the fjord to a point slightly South of where we were last night.  While at the head of the fjord Nik and Steve went for a climb and Gabriele and I went exploring in the dinghy.  We had heard some howling and speculated as to what it might be; when we went to investigate we found a colony of seals making an amazing racket.  There were pups as well as mums and bulls and a vulture standing by in the hope of an accident.

On the way back we flew the spinnaker as a tribute to this place. We had hoped to fly it in Antarctica but didn’t have the opportunity.  Tomorrow we will be in Puerto Natales, the first town since leaving Puerto Williams.

While I’ve been doing this the others went off in the dinghy and found some mussel fishermen.  They have been here one month catching mussels which they boil and smoke prior to taking them to Puerto Natales.  When the fresh food runs out all they eat is mussels.  There are mountains of shells.  They’ve come back with a bag of fresh mussels and a bag of smoked ones which were swapped for a couple of small boxes of wine.

All of the “high level” pics attached were taken by Nik as well as the shots of the sail.