Lat S 4 13 / W 030 12

Day 11
This morning I had 20 dolphins jumping around the boat. I saw them come in
from a distance, in pairs and sometimes four abreast. When they had arrived at the boat
they swam in a race. Some rolled up a bit as usual to get air,
and some jumped, sometimes there was a bellyflop but usually they made
fancy jumps. I wished I had one of those rings that I could
hold out for them. I think they would have jumped through. It was like a
show and lasted for about half an hour. It feels powerful and fantastic
to be present on such a morning - and the camera did not turn up in
my consciousness until the entire show was over.

Anna Karin

Lat S 15 41 / long W 035 02

Day 6
On the way we have met and been in contact with a lot of
different people. Today I think of our friend P. who we met in Puerto
Montt. He was a solo-sailing American, who has lived more time in Mexico than in the
USA. He was very helpful and helped us translate from / to
Spanish in certain situations. He had sailed from Mexico through Panama to
Easter Island. There he remained for three weeks before he headed for
Puerto Montt. He loved to tell the story of when there was
really bad weather over the island and he had to go out to sea for four
days to ride out the storm. We heard the story at least three times and
it was surprisingly similar each time. The last time I could
have filled in the next sentence myself through the whole story.
He was headed south like us, then up to the Caribbean to
visit a sister.
When we asked why he chose the way around South America to visit
his sister in Antigua, he replied:

But you are going the same way, why are you doing it?

Anna Karin

Lat S 17 00 / long W 035 56

Day 5

Our planned route is moving us further away from the Brazilian coast, more
and more. I read the names on the map: Salvador, Recife, Natal. When I
hear the names I think of the endless sandy beaches, where sun umbrellas stand
in row after row. Makes me think of when the children were small and we
travelled to Mexico, Isla Mujeres on vacation, when we approached
Cancun by plane little Y looked out and said - "Mommy look what a
long beach down there ", after she watched a while came
the best comment: - "But it's a very narrow beach, so we have to
sunbathe in single file. "

Anna Karin

Lat S 18 28 / long W 037 01

Day 4
Rolling home, rolling home across the sea. ... Even though we are not on a
full-rigger on the way home, we sing this shanty at the top of our lungs. Nobody
can hear us, anyway, as we are into the steady grip of the southeast trade wind.
We can sing any way we want. We have now set a waypoint at the N 5 / W 25
. This should be a good place to cross the equator and meet the
trade winds of the northern hemisphere.

Anna Karin

Lat S 26 52 / long W 047 13

Day 9
In contrast to the desolate Pacific, where ships did not
existed along the route we sailed, we are here along South America's east coast in the middle of
a traffic thoroughfare. It's fun to see the little boats in the daytime, it reminds us
of "the good old days".
Yesterday we had an incident, could have been worse if we had not observed
the ship's advance. The boat was called "m s Effort One" and was from Panama.
It was his duty to turn, but nothing happened, we called them
on channel 16 but nothing happened. In the end we had to make an
evasive action, he passed near the front of our stem. We were so close that
we could see the whole bridge through our binoculars. Not a soul to be seen. First mate was
perhaps making coffee, looking aft, or he was
sleeping in the pilot seat.
Was it better in the old days?

Lat S 28 53 / long W 048 27

Day 8
After rain comes sunshine. The sail was torn and needed serious repairs, we started
planning for Rio, and then we get a stunning day at sea. It was like changing the set
on a stage, an abrupt switch from the mischievous sea with heavy black clouds to light
skies and a friendly sea. The wind carried and we sailed at high speed throughout the
day. We dried wet gear, aired the cabin, yes all that stuff which is not done during tough
days.
Going to Rio de Janeiro does not feel entirely wrong. As you know, there are
worse places to be heading towards. We have read the Pilot Book and
checked with people with internet access, and it seems that you can find
most things there.

Lat S 54 52,3 / long W 067 20,6

Adventure. I have been thinking about what an adventure is. For us, it has been
sailing and getting to where we are now. The Pacific, first. 2800 NM to French
Polynesia then 4000 NM to Chile. The Chilean channels 1300 NM.
In Ushuaia we have met many people who start their adventure there. Ushuaia is
the hub of the charter yachts. In the morning the taxis arrived with
(mostly) men dragging roller bags. Every day some charter boat set off
day, and another came back. They went for off one or two weeks,
the Horn, often Antarctica, and a glacier on the way home.
We have different amounts of time to realize our adventure.
Now, Th and I start out on a new stage. We are sailing north.
We did not come so far today, we must carefully plan for the weather we will meet. We must position ourselves now and wait out a gale which is going to
pull over on Wednesday

Islas Malvinas

All the maps you see here say Islas Malvinas on the islands we call the Falkland Islands. There is like a thorn left about the islands, and you often see texts such as the above.
As for our sailing, we have almost decided to skip the Falkland Islands and sail towards the Mar del Plata, Argentina instead. We need to thaw.

Fuel

Today we filled up with fresh fuel, you have to go with canisters of gas station, so there will be several trips with the rental car, we have also loaded up with gas. Tonight, we booked ourselves on the grill in the club house. We are going to have a real Asado, you should see the sausages and cuts of meat, we have bought.

New pictures

We are in Ushuaia, I have found Internet access, a bunch of new photos uploaded:

• Patagonia part 1
• Laguna San Rafael
• Puerto Prefundo
• Patagonia part 2
  
• The Beagle channel

Links to photo sets on Flickr.

Lat S 54 49° / long W 068 18

Ushuaia, Argentina

We have left the quiet of Chile in Puerto Williams, and ended up in a
big city according to our standards.
Ushuaia is very beautifully situated in a bay at the Beagle Channel, with the high
snow-capped mountains in the background, the city is made for beautiful postcards.
Today we had fantastic fair weather and it has been really warm.
We walked around town and found that they have many restaurants
specializing in King Crab. It looked very tempting and tomorrow
we will sample one of them.

Lunch in front of the glacier

Here we are in front of the glacier. You see roughly how cold it was. This was yesterday on our way to Puerto Williams. I will upload more images in Ushuaia where we sail tomorrow.

Lat S 54 56,1°/ long W 067 37,1°

Puerto Williams

Here we are, a milestone on our journey. I felt really good to
moor at the Club de Yates Miclavi yesterday. The club is on an old boat
settled on the bottom, you moor on the outside and go to the bar on
inside of the boat. Practical.
Today we walked around the city which mostly consists of houses exactly alike;
which apparently is due to all the people living here belong to the Armada, employment
including free accommodation.
The weather was perfect today, sunny and calm. Tomorrow we sail to
Argentina, Ushuaia, where the guests are to leave us, for further transport to
Buenos Aires.

Lat S 54 59 / long W 068 53

Soon we are in the world's southernmost town, Puerto Williams. Arrival in a
few hours. Right now we are sailing for a Westerly breeze in the Beagle Channel. We are
making good speed 9 knots, the sun is shining on the fabulous landscape. Snowy
mountain tops, the wind biting our cheeks.
Captain is preparing a Chile Con Carne for dinner, the bread is rising
life is pretty good for the crew.

Lat S 54 54 / long W 069 47°

Caleta Julia

We are now in a bay just south of the Darwin Cordillera mountains. Along
the entire Braso Noroeste, you can see glacier arms running down towards the channel. Some
go all the way down where we sail, and some are viewed only from a distance. Today
the weather was gray and rainy, which naturally diminishes the effect of the scenery. In all
photos in the books, there is sunshine, so we hope for sun
tomorrow.

Lat S 54 40° / long W 071 53°

Last night we anchored in a small Caleta in full storm. Anchor out;
rubber boat darting from edge to edge, we drew lines in all directions possible.
Good work done, it felt really good to sit inside the boat,
listen to the howling wind, eating dinner, playing cards. By chance
S looked out and said: "Seriously now, here comes another yacht."
We offered two windswept French people to tie down next to us and join in on our
ropes, even pulled out another prow line. It's so grim out here when the winds
rise so when you see another boat you offer all the help you can give.
During the night the wind subsided, and on our morning walk we saw two whales.
They blew a couple of times and then dived with the magnificent
caudal fin high up in the sky. A fabulous sight

Lat S 52 57°/ long W 073 50,3°

Estrecho de Magellanes
Here we are, the wind blowing hard as usual. Magellan, the strait, which makes
it possible toto round South America without having to round Cape Horn . We will
sail as far as where it begins to turn to the north to Punta Arenas. There
we will instead go further south through some other channels to enter the
Beagle Channel. That is where you find Puerto Williams, Chile's southernmost city, where
we are clearing out. Then we go to Ushuaia 25 NM away, clearing in
to Argentina. We leave off rounding the Horn, this time. Our taste
for adventure is satisfied just by sailing here.
We are now leaving Patagonia, reaching Tierra del Fuego,
the Land of Fire.

Lat S 52 00 / long W 073 43

Puerto Prefundo, windbound.

Now we have sailed in gale winds for several days, okay so long as it is
NW-ly. But already last night when the barometer fell to bottom level and I
took home the weather files, we knew that we would remain here for one more night;

EVANGELISTAS TO LAT 56 DGS SOUTH: OVC VIS 4/10 KMS RAIN/SHOWERS
WIND N/NW 25/35 KT SHIFTING AND INCREASING SW/S 35/45 KT (GALE),GUSTY 90
KT SEA STATE 5.0/8.0 MTS INNER WATER SLIGHT TO MODERATE.

We are only 15 NM from the Estrecho de Magellan, and once we are there
SW or NW doesn't matter. But today, we used the day at anchor
for various projects: airing, cleaning, patching and mending.

Lat S 52 36,3° / W 073 40°

Canal Smyth
Today, we have encountered some vessels and also seen a big wreck. The
ships passing through the Strait of Magellan and wanting to continue a bit inshore
are going the same way as we do.
We had a perfect night port yesterday. A small pool where we anchored and
pulled the ropes to the shore. We were welcomed by four small dolphins
jumping around the boat and also around the dinghy when the guys went with
the mooring ropes. We even had a little evening sun, it was a
perfect conclusion to an otherwise very windy day.

Lat S 51 46 / long W 073 42

Guest Blogger Erik
Anchoring here in Patagonia is generally not done asway, although we have
our secure 50 kgs patent anchor.
No. Samuel and I am the vanguard - "Avant Garde". We launch the dinghy
and travel in advance, sometimes with the sinker on hand so we can find good
places to cast an anchor. Then we fix some ropes and go back up
to the boat, this way you can sew her up on the spot.
We spent last night next to two northbound French yachts.
(Moreover, two out of the five other yachts we have seen since we left
Puerto Montt). They must have had several hundred meters of line out in addition to their
anchors - firmly determined to sleep well.
For it is needed. The night peace, as everyone knows, is entirely dependent on how well
you are secured against the elements.
Now we are going to Canal Smyth, and must find a night port before we get there,
Magellan will have to wait until a bit later.