After spending the past three weeks sailing south amongst the islands of Chiloe we departed from the southern port town of Quellon and crossed the Gulfo de Corcovado 40 miles to arrive in a secluded group of anchorages known as Bahia Tic Toc. We chose to stay at Puerto Juan Yates which provides very good protection from all winds. As we were winding our way through the many rocky islets towards the anchorage a pod of blackchin or Fitzroy’s dolphins came by to play(it’s difficult to
distinguish the species when they are leaping about). Jessie got into the action and the once peaceful bay was wild with all the raucous barking, leaping and splashing as we looked for the most protected spot to anchor. Fortunately there were no other boats in the bay.
This area is part of the Parque Nacional Corcovado and encompasses the peaks of Volcan Corcovado rising 2,290 metres above us to the north and Cerro Yali at 1,607 metres, visible from our anchorage. As the area is a park, there are no developments such as logging, fish farming or habitation. This was a very welcome change from all of the other developed places we had been to visiting lately. From the anchorage we had occasional glimpses of the cordillera range poking through the clouds which form a majestic backdrop to this pristine area of Chile. We took a lot of dog walks to a nearby islet to look at the geology and at the hummingbirds and a few longer walks through a grassy estuary to view the entance to the many Tic Toc anchorages.
Within the anchorage we had a couple of small colonies of Magellanic penguins swimming around Curare, lots of steamer ducks, an otter or two, a lone pelican and of course the dolphins. In the evenings as the sun was setting we would watch the penguins hop out of the water, up onto the rocks and enter the bushes for the night. In the morning a sentinel would waddle out, check the weather and a few minutes later the group of penguins waddle, trip and hop their way down to the water. This was very humorous entertainment for us.
Dolphins came rushing over anytime we got into the dinghy to take Jessie for a walk on the beach. They jumped very close to the boat trying to splash us and this encouraged Jessie to lean further and further out of the dinghy - they hoped she’d fall in but we kept yanking her back inside. It was hard to get Jessie to concentrate on matters once on shore as all she wanted to do was get back in the dinghy to play with her buddies.
One morning while we were in Bahia Tic Toc we heard an anchor being deployed. Looking out the steamed up windows we could see a large 100+ metre power boat loaded down with every conceivable toy available, including of course a helicopter. In short order the passengers on this pocket cruiser were loaded into kayaks and in true Chilean fashion paddled straight towards Curare oblivious to the fact they were interrupting our tranquil setting. One of the kayakers was a German women who has set out to solo paddle around South America . We didn’t get the whole story but she
apparently ran into the cruise ship somewhere and they offered her a bed and food in exchange for telling her story. Not a bad deal for everyone. After a few hours of buzzing around in high
speed jet boats and taking rides in the helicopter, the cruise ship departed allowing us to enjoy another colourful sunset in peace and quiet.
We spent three full days at Bahia Tic Toc and could have spent many more. But as usual, we wanted to see what was on the other side of the fence and pushed on again, this time turning north. We expect to arrive in Puerto Montt in a few weeks’ time.