Sailing the Beagle Channel

Weeks of rubbing elbows and fenders with all the boats in urban Ushuaia made us ready to depart Argentina for Chile. We wrangled with “government bureaucracy” for the last two weeks of December and it was a relief to finally get underway again. Though we did have to haul the Argentine flag to the top of the mast to satisfy the Armada safety inspector before we were allowed to untie the lines!



Had we been headed south, Peter would have lashed a lamb somewhere as a traditional way to carry meat into the deep-freeze climate in the south.



To Ginger's relief it isn't quite cold enough for “outdoor refrigeration” in the Beagle Channel so we had to settle for vacuum packed beef in the fridge. Lucky for the cows in Puerto Williams we left Ushuaia with more beef than one person should be able to eat in a month. In fact, we had so much Ginger even had to taste a few bites of it. She liked it....



We enjoyed our trip to Cape Horn and the quiet uninhabited islands around the cape.

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On our way back from Cape Horn we stopped at Puerto Toro and enjoyed a hike to an old cemetary.





One more stop (required by Armada) for paperwork to travel from Puerto Williams to Puerto Natales and we were finally on our way west in the Beagle Channel. Our first couple of days were short hops between tiny anchorages barely out of the wind. Several times we anchored for a few hours and then carried on as the wind subsided.



After entering the NW arm of the Beagle Channel our travels were rewarded by close up views of glaciers and waterfalls. It seemed almost like cheating to see these sights from the comfort of the cockpit without having to hike even a few feet.







We encountered our first floating ice soon enough and were lucky to have an unusual following wind as we sailed in to anchor near a glacier.



After setting our anchor and shore line we decided to stay a couple of nights while the wind howled out in the canal. We took advantage of the great views from above our anchorage.



Peter explored the bay by dinghy.



For lighter winds the best time to travel in the canals seems to be early in the morning, so we rose before sunrise and headed west in the channel early one morning



Several anchorages along the route provided excellent opportunities for hiking as we enjoyed some sunny weather.

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With the hilly terrain we were afforded many views of Marcy at anchor.





One of the most unusual anchorages was Caleta Brecknok with steep rock walls and hanging lakes, one barely higher than sea level.



Of course, after the sun.. comes the rain. We are in Patagonia for summer and the coldest winter we've seen on this trip has been summer in Patagonia!



It's great weather for ducks!



So, we don our rubber boots and foulies and go hiking in the rain.