Monday we stayed anchored and hiked on a windless day among mirror lakes in glacier-carved cirques, all contained in a gigantic glacier moraine a half-kilometer wide.
Yesterday, we sailed fjords among Chilean islands, with only a high cirrus ceiling, affording a view of the entire height of Mt. Sarmiento, the highest peak in the Darwin Range, for several hours as we approached it, then sailed northeast away from it. Giff, a fellow traveler with years of experience in this area, says that sometimes weeks will pass without a view of the peak.
Today? Today is one of those days. The ceiling has lowered almost to sea level, and other than the lowest fifty meters or so, passing islands disappear into the clouds. Near constant drizzle accompanies us. Though a humpback whale with calf, seven Peale’s dolphins, and some South American terns, albatrosses and cormorants have punctuated our day, scenic panoramas can only be imagined. The one exception was during our sail through the narrow Gabriel Channel when we were close enough to land to see the waterfalls pouring out of the cloud-enshrouded islands and into the channel. But we all knew this was coming in, and are grateful for the clear days past and ahead.
Meanwhile, Alejandro repairs a fishing reel, the knitting club is in session, and books and laptops occupy the rest of us. Our plan for today was to run all day and anchor a few hours from Point Arenas. We were to make it the rest of the way tomorrow. As is often the case, a weather prediction has intervened. The wind is supposed to come up on Friday, the day we are planning to sail out the Strait of Magellan and on toward the Falkland Islands, or Islas Malvinas, depending on whose territorial claim you believe. Punta Arenas has no dock to tie to, so we’ll tie to floats or drop anchor and take the Zodiac to shore. If the wind hits early, we won’t be able to go ashore, so we now plan to run all night to hit Punta Arenas first thing in the morning. We’ll do a little shopping and take on another passenger, Michael, a Frenchman who will be aboard for the Malvinas leg.
When exactly will we head east into the Atlantic? When the weather says, “It’s time.”
Bob