Curare's Adventures

Some photos

We selected 57 photos from the trip so far and I have added them to the photo album section in the left sidebar.  Most of these have a self explanatory title, a few also have a short explanation. The name of the album is Cruising in Patagonia 1. 

Merry Christmas

Mystery Solved

Torres del Paine national park is, justifiably, a very popular and iconic region.  Throughout Chile and South America images of the towers that are the centre piece of the park are presented on tourist brochures and maps.  These tall spires are in contrast to the rounded, flat terrain of the region.  On our recent driving tour of the park we caught glimpses of the torres (towers) and cuernos (horns) from different vantage points.  L and G postulated from their armchair geology perspective that the rocks looked like either 1) thick layers of alternating dark and light coloured sediments; 2)felsic intrusives with basalt caps; or 3)klippes - slices of rock tectonically emplaced on each other along shallow fault planes.  Again, two geologists, three opinions.

The mystery was explained at one view point that had an excellent geological description of the area.  Neither G nor L were correct, nor were they entirely wrong.  The torres and the cuernos are made of Tertiary granite to monzodiorite (grey colour) intruded along the bedding planes (geologically this is called a laccolith) of a Cretaceous mudstone (the dark colour caps).  These rock formations were not effected by the extensive southern glacial activity that took place during the Pleistocene over an approximate 20,000 year period and tower above the surrounding rounded hills.  It was great to have such large relief to expose so much geology and allow us to grasp the geological formations.

Besides the geology of the park there was an abundance of alpine flowers in bloom such as the porcelin orchid, orange and yellow lady slippers, firebush, lupin and prickly health.  We saw large herds of guanaco, so many in fact they were fighting over each other who was going to pose for our camera.  We had thought that the large emu-like Darwin's Rhea was a rare bird but these were also in abundance.  We came across a young male rhea that was looking after the local brood of chicks.  He made like he had a lame wing and tried to lure us away from the chicks but the kids forgot the part of the lesson where it said they were not supposed to follow.  It was humourous to watch the 30 or so chicks tripping over each other trying to keep up with the male bird.

Throughout our drive in the southern part of the park there was significant evidence of the extensive forest fire that burned large tracts of land last summer.  This wasn't the first fire in this location as we saw other areas with older burns already in the process of regeneration. As we went on a few short walks we kept wondering what we would do if a fire came roaring through while we were stuck out there; this happened to friends of ours during last summer's fire.

Torres del Paine National Park was created in 1959 and became a world biosphere reserve in 1978.  The park covers 242,242 hectares with elevations ranging from 200 metres to 3050 metres. Adjacent to the north and west lies the enormous Bernardo O'Higgins National Park that covers 3,525,900 hectares.  This park protects large areas of the Patagonia Icefield as well as a most of the islands and channels that we have recently been travelling through.  In fact, the vast majority of the area of southern Chile is designated either as a park or a national reserve which presumably will protect the region from industrial development.

Cueva del Milodon

We have been enjoying our time at Puerto Consuelo and have already done quite a lot despite only being anchored here for 5 days. Jessie is happy because there is a nearby beach for her to play on and a shallow bit of ocean in which she can "go fishing", L is happy because there are numerous new birds and flowers, and G is happy because the crew is happy.

The second day at anchor L joined two other cruisers and went on an 8 km walk to the Mylodon Cave. The Mylodon was a giant ground sloth, about 4.5 meters in height, and lived 10,000 years ago. At the entrance to Puerto Natales there is a fiberglass mylodon rearing up in the center of a roundabout using it's legs and tail as a tripod, it vaguely reminds me of an angry grizzly bear but I think the ancient sloth was a vegetarian and I am pretty sure grizzly bears are omnivores.

In 1895 Herman Eberhard, the original settler of Puerto Consuelo, explored a cavern in the hills at the back of his property and discovered a large piece of skin sticking to the floor, one side of which was covered in coarse reddish hair. This cave has been immortalized by Bruce Chatwin in his book "In Patagonia" and now I was going there too. The day was lovely and warm, almost too warm after the cold and wet of the Patagonian channels, but I had worn layers so as I walked my pack became heavier and I became less swaddled. Eight km seemed a long way, maybe it was the lack of exercise for the past two months but by the time I arrived at the restaurant I was thankful for a place to sit down. No longer is this a remote, partially explored cavern, now it is a full blown tourist attraction with a place to eat and a souvenir shop where I could have purchased a plastic mylodon key chain. Although numerous cars had passed us as we trekked along the dusty gravel road there were only two in the parking lot and no one in the restaurant.

Revived by a $3.00 can of diet coke I wandered over to the entrance intending to go in but when I was asked to hand over another $10.00 I decided against it. The skin was long gone, I had already seen the fiberglass sloth in Puerto Natales, and I had to walk along a paved pathway and follow the arrows. Instead I and my companions hiked back about 1.5 km to the rock formation known as "Silla del Diablo" (Devil's Armchair) and climbed over a cattle fence. Another cruiser had told us that there was another, smaller, cave close to this location and in his opinion it was more like what the Mylodon Cave used to be, before it became a "must-see". The Silla and the caves are comprised of a sorted conglomerate with thin interbeds of sandstone/mudstone, a photogenic rock, kind of like a plum pudding, even if you are not a geologist. This type of rock formation is relatively soft and,at an elevation of only 150m above sea level, I do not know how it survived this area's extensive glaciation when every other nearby place is covered by thick deposits of glacial material, not rock. I did not see any evidence of Mylodons in the smaller cave but I did smell a skunk which is very odd as I thought skunks were restricted to North America. I still have so much to learn.

Puerto Consuelo

We had a fairly busy day yesterday and accomplished quite a few things. Overnight the anchorage at Bahia Coruna was very calm and next morning, when we took Jessie ashore for a stroll, the bay was like a mirror. We raised anchor at 8 AM and motored 14 miles across Golfo Almirante Montt to Puerto Natales. This is the major center of this region and is the jumping off point for visits to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. There is also a port captain's office, and when we were about 2 miles out G dutifully reported in by VHF radio. Even though he gave them all of the regular info he was requested to present himself in person once we had safely anchored.

The town is located on the east side of Canal Senoret, a narrow channel with shallow sand banks extending 100 meters or more from the shore. The canal is notorious for strong winds and, despite it's name, Puerto Natales is not a place to safely anchor. Fortunately it was almost flat calm for the four hours that we anchored off the ferry pier, but just in case it suddenly turned windy we decided that both of us should not go ashore at the same time. While Geoff and Jessie stayed on board, Linda went off to find a place to do our laundry, to get a little cash from the ATM and to purchase some fresh food supplies. What a hunter and gatherer!

Once L came back to Curare G went off to the port Captain's office to complete the check in procedure. As soon as he jumped into the dinghy a strong rain squall blew through drenching him completely so he was dripping wet when he entered the office to fill in a little paper work. The officer on duty spoke reasonable English and wanted to chat. He had spent a year as crew on the Chilean tall ship "Esmeralda" and had visited many places along the Pacific coast, including Vancouver. By the sounds of it he thoroughly enjoyed his visit. The rain squall now over and Curare properly recorded in the captain's log book, G set off in search of a beer store to replenish his depleted stock before returning to the boat to find a safe anchorage for the night. L had already provisioned wine.

We continued 4 miles further up Canal Senoret and entered into Estero Eberhardt, named after one of the early settlers of the area and whose family still resides here. Entering the estuary was a little tricky with shallow water and sand banks on both sides. We slowly felt our way north passing though Angostura Del Diablo before coming into Puerto Consuelo. The last mile into the open bay was very shallow with an average depth of 2.3 metres, even four hours after low water. We managed to get to a good anchor spot (51 deg 36.585'S:72 deg 39.662'W) behind a tall hill without touching bottom along the way even though there were a few spots where our depth gauge showed 2.0 meters, the depth of Curare's keel. There are three other sail boats anchored here, all of whom we had spoken to on the Patagonia radio net but only one that we had actually met before. We plan to stay in this anchorage for the next couple of weeks so that we can do some land traveling and of course enjoy the Christmas festivities.

Crossing the Divide

Today we crossed over the continental divide of southern Chile, sort of like going from BC into Alberta, only we connected through a series of narrow channels that lead from the Pacific side of the Andes into Golfo Almirante Montt on the eastern side. Technically it may not be a true continental divide as rivers flow into this Golfo and ultimately drain into the Pacific rather than the Atlantic.

Unfortunately today was a motor boat ride for the entire 40 mile day. Just as we hoisted the anchor a light southwest wind started to blow into our anchorage. Last evening we had tucked in as close as possible to the shore to get out of the hard north winds, had the wind shifted to the south during our snoring time we would have been on the beach. Upon departure we turned south east into canal Union and motored ten miles to our most southern position yet, 52 deg 10 min, before rounding the corner and entering a series of 0.5 to 2 mile wide passages - Paso Escobar Doxrud, Canal Morla Vicuna and Canal Kirke - that lead northeast towards Puerto Natales. Fortunately winds were light in all of these channels and the seas were calm.

At the eastern end of Canal Kirke is a narrow passage called Angostura Kirke. This passage is 120 metres wide and is similar to heading up Stuart Channel into Dodds Narrow only without only the yelling and screaming that is heard on the VHF as hordes of power boats race through knocking every one around with their wake. Our passage through this narrows was quite benign. We didn't have any tide tables to calculate the time for slack water, instead we just relied on our observations from the past few days as when to expect low or high tides. We had intended to wait for slack water before transiting since the current can reach 10 knots on the springs, and spring tides are near. However after following some well placed range markers we arrived at the narrows with a thin strip of flood current going in our direction and strong overfalls of ebb on either side. We just rode the current through as easy as could be, reaching a speed over ground of 8.7 knots. High tide at the closest recording station, Puerto Montt 650 miles north of here, was at the exact time we transited - 1345 hours - and according to our guide books the Angostura should have been in full flood.

Traveling through the channels was very scenic with lots of high mountains, some with glaciers, and good close up geology as we passed close to steep sided outcrops. We could make out what looked like fault lines and distortion in the bedding planes, which prompted some typical divergent geological discussions. With two geologists you are bound to have at least three opinions on any formation. Once onto the eastern side of the divide the geography is much more subdued with flat plains stretching off to the horizon at elevations probably less than 500 metres. Vegetation seems different as well, with less trees and more grass cover. Temperatures are also higher and our humidity is less than 70% for the first time in weeks.

After exiting the narrows it was still early afternoon and we realized we could go further than the anchorage we had chosen for the day. So we motored on in light winds, sometimes with glassy calm waters, other times with slight waves. Oh, did we mention it wasn't raining? Not sunny, but the decks were actually dry and we managed to air out our foul (smelling) weather gear. As we approached Bahia Coruna a light rain started to fall but we got the anchor down inside the bay (51 deg, 48.970'S; 072 deg, 42.916'W) without getting too wet. From here it is only 12 miles to Puerto Natales and we hope to get there fairly early tomorrow to buy more provisions. Puerto Natales is the central point for all tours leading into the Torres del Paine national park. While we are here we hope to figure out a way to do some land based travel and see the awesome scenery featured on nearly all of the Chilean tourist brochures, some glimpses that we have already seen on our way south.

The Day of the Condor

We said goodbye to our new friends that were tied alongside last night, cast off our lines, and left Caleta Bernard this morning at 0930. It was raining. Even though the constant rain is getting rather tiresome, we expect it, and I am sure there will be many more rain days to come. In a few days we hope to be in Puerto Natales, east of the Andes, and the guide books say that it will be drier because we are in the rain shadow, I am keeping my fingers crossed. We need to get Curare aired out!

I was rather looking forward to today because it would show 12-12-12-12-12 on our digital clock, the one we use to keep track of the local time. At 12:12 this clock showed five 12's, two for the time (it does not show seconds) and three for the date. As I was sitting down below out of the rain and watching the clock turn over to this sequence of numbers GG, who was steering in the cockpit, yelled down that we had just gone 12 miles. So there were actually seven 12's for precisely one second, never to be seen again.

Just as we departed the anchorage to enter Canal Sarmiento LE saw a white bird on the shore. Using binoculars she saw that there were actually two birds, one of them with white feathers and one of them with black feathers. This was a pair of Kelp geese, related to the Ashy-headed goose, both members of the genus Chloephaga. Most members of this genus show strong sexual dimorphism (but not the ashy-headed goose), which means the male and female are strikingly different. A male kelp goose is all white with yellow legs and a dark bill but, except for the yellow legs, the female is entirely different. The female is black above, has a black and white striped belly, a white tail and a pink bill. A new bird to tick off the list.

From the south end of canal Sarmiento we made a short, 3 mile, jog to the east and entered Estrecho Collingwood. As we turned south once again LE spied a large black bird skimming above the water with 'fingers' on it's wing tips. By the time she grabbed the binoculars the bird had flown inland and was soaring adjacent to the rocky cliffs. It was very close and even without the binoculars it was easy to see that it was dark underneath, had a brilliant white patch near it's head and it's upper wings were coloured snowy white. Too good to be true, but this was a sighting of an Andean Condor. I have no idea if it is unusual to see condors in the Patagonian canals but it was a thrill to see this one and was another of today's remarkable memories.

Shortly after sighting the condor two north bound vessels passed us. The first was a freighter who called to talk to us on the VHF, took down our particulars to pass along to the Chilean Armada and basically just wanted to chat on the radio. The second vessel was a cruise ship and it looked deserted. There was, not too surprisingly, no one on deck since the weather was cold and wet but neither were there any lights to be seen on any of the nine decks of cabins. Everyone must have been at the casino.

We entered Canal Union about 2:30 PM and decided that we had had enough. The wind had increased to 30 knots and it was becoming a chore to steer, even with a reef in the genoa. The first anchorage that we entered had a very rocky bottom and the anchor would not hold so we decided to skip that one and go to another anchorage about 1/2 mile to the south. This anchorage is named Caleta Punta Jose Goni (52 deg 05.729'S; 073 deg 25.305'W) and is a small cove on the west coast of Peninsula las Montanas, sheltered behind a point that provides some protection from northerly winds. It is a little blowy, with winds gusting to 20 knots, but the water is calm and the anchor is holding well. As we write this the rain has stopped momentarily and we have a few breaks in the clouds, even a patch of blue sky. Perhaps tomorrow will be sunny.

Anchoring with Shore lines

Most of the anchorages in the channels of southern Chile recommend the use of at least 2 stern lines, and a few of them recommend two bow lines as well. When we were cruising in the area north of Vancouver Canada a few of the more crowded anchorages suggested the use of a single stern line to prevent boats from swinging into each other, and if you didn't use a stern line you soon got dirty looks from your neighbours. Here there are rarely any other boats in the anchorages so why are stern lines advisable? Answer: To prevent boats from swinging.

The small bays used for anchoring are little more than indents and most of them have shallow areas close to the shore so you want to make sure that your boat stays stationary, not matter what the wind conditions. Ideally you drop the anchor outside of the indent and then maneuver your boat backward, taking two stern lines to tree trunks or large boulders. Our problem: Curare does not like to back up. If there is any wind blowing, and there usually is, our bow blows off so when we reverse the stern moves in an arc instead of going straight. Obviously this is not a good thing when we are trying to squeeze into a tiny anchorage not much larger than the boat itself and there are rocks on all sides of us.

We have tried several methods to get us into these tight spots, described in the guidebooks as "bullet proof anchorages" but we have not yet perfected a technique. We have tried dropping the hook well out, attaching the shore lines and pulling the stern around into position, and also putting the stern lines out first (G in the dinghy with the lines already attached to shore)and L motoring up and abruptly turning the boat and attaching the stern lines in a well orchestrated maneuver, but neither of these techniques would work in a really tight little spot. We have noticed that local fishing boats drop the anchor astern then motor ahead and attach one bow line ashore and that seems to work well, but is this method appropriate for a sailboat?

Today we woke up at 0530 to howling wind and a thumping noise. The tide had gone out, the wind had started blowing from a different direction, and we had swung over a rock. Both of us got dressed for the outdoors and went on deck to see what we could do. Did I mention it was raining? Last evening we had tried the one line "Fishing boat" technique which appeared to be working well, but as soon as the wind changed, sometime during the night, this line did not keep our stern in the position that it was in before we went to sleep. So we let out some of the original line and Geoff jumped in the dinghy to attach a second line, soon Curare was lying properly and well away from the rock.

After breakfast and coffee it was still early so we went for a short walk up a hill at the head of the bay. From there we could see canal Sarmiento stretching to the north, and caught a glimpse of the Pacific to the west. The winds did not look too bad so we decided to leave and travel a little further to the south. Once again we set the staysail and genoa and had a lovely downwind sail to Caleta Bernard (51 deg 45.09'S: 73 deg 51.99'W). Did I mention it was raining? As soon as as we turned into the caleta the wind dropped from 17 knots to less than 2 knots. A German flagged sailboat that we had spoken with on the radio was already anchored and they invited us to tie alongside them. So tonight we did not even drop our anchor, we just put the dinghy in the water to take Jessie ashore. Even better, they invited us for dinner. It was an enjoyable social evening and we exchanged notes on the various anchorages that each of us had visited; they are headed north and we are going south, perhaps one day we'll see each other again.

Vancouver Island

Today, in spite of the rain, we had an enjoyable sail. The seaweed fishermen that shared Puerto Bueno with us last evening were up at 5 AM and left early. Another fishing boat came in late last night, around 10 PM, and they left a few minutes before we got underway. We left the anchorage at 9:15 AM and entered Canal Sarmiento headed south. Initially the north wind was light but as midday approached it had increased into the high teens and low 20's, perfect for downwind sailing wing on wing with the genoa and staysail. Occasionally, as the wind dropped off, we were tempted to set the spinnaker in the relatively calm waters but these lower winds were always short lived so the "go fast sail" stayed in its turtle. We were averaging over 6 knots anyways so no real need to hurry along. When we woke this morning the barometer had fallen 8 points overnight and during the day it continued to fall. Late in the afternoon we had recorded a change of 18 points in 10 hours (from 998 to 980 millibars) so we chose an anchorage that looked to provide reasonable protection from any weather that might blow up.

Most of the day was overcast but during one brief moment of partial clearing we had a few wonderful glimpses of some of the glaciers and spires in Torres de Paine national park some 20 miles to the east. The glaciers that we saw in the distance are part of a long continental ice ridge known as Campo de Hielo Sur and the tidewater glacier that we saw about two weeks ago was part of this same massive ice cap. Later in the afternoon we sailed past Isla Vancouver and although not as large as the one in the Pacific northwest it was quite mountainous. Several of the place names around here would be familiar to anyone that has sailed through the Gulf Islands in Canada. One of the anchorages that we bypassed today was Puerto Mayne named after Captain Richard Charles Mayne of HMS Nassau who sailed through this area in 1869. Another anchorage, Caleta Bedwell, was named after one of Mayne's cartographers.

As we approached the entrance to the narrow inlet that led 1.5 miles to our selected anchorage, Caleta Moonlight Shadow, we dropped the staysail in 25 knots of wind and motored the remaining distance. Motoring at the end of the day is a good thing; we have hot water for showers, the engine block gets warmed for drying gloves and hats and the batteries get a little boost. As soon as we turned west and entered the inlet the rain started coming down in sheets reducing visibility to a few tens of meters, but we were still able to make out the hazards at the entrance and along the way. Once the anchor was set (51 deg 33.634S; 074 deg 04.616W) and all of us were soaked the sun came out, briefly, to greet us in this evening's home. With luck we may see a moon tonight and who knows - maybe even it's shadow.

A Day at Anchor

We decided not to move today. The rain let up, there was a little bit of blue sky and we spent a few hours exploring the area on foot and by dinghy. We are anchored in a wide bay named Puerto Bueno. Incredible to believe, but it has had this name since 1579 when Sarmiento de Gamboa anchored his fleet here waiting for Sir Francis Drake to pass by. Unluckily for the Spaniards who wanted the British prize, Drake chose to enter the Pacific via the Straits of Magellan.

Walking is wet, the ground is saturated with rain water and the trees are dripping but there are also a lot of granitic rocks poking through the spongy grass/moss so it is not like wading through a swamp. Rubber boots helped. We went for a short hike up a hill overlooking the anchorage and had a great view south along Canal Sarmiento and to the east toward a fresh water lagoon. The clouds were low so there was not much of a mountain view but what we could see was a lot of rounded, unvegetated rock outcrop; with better weather I think we could have gone on a day hike. Jessie still has tender feet after burning them at the hot springs a few weeks ago so after a short stroll we went for a dinghy ride.

Our destination was the lagoon and we headed up the tidal channel about 300 meters, when we turned the corner we were confronted by a steep set of rapids, some would call this a waterfall. It was obvious that no watercraft would make it past this point so we reluctantly turned around, but as a source of fresh water this is a great spot, we could have filled buckets without setting foot on shore. A pair of Ringed Kingfishers (martin pescador) were perched in a tree, chattering at us as we motored by, a perfect photo opportunity but I did not want to get rain spots on my lens.

We motored along the north shore of the bay so that L could look for more birds but there were none to be seen. Instead she spotted a squatty geometrical structure on a point of land which looked man made. As we approached we saw what appeared to be concrete so we beached the dinghy for a closer look. This man made artifact is about 70 cm in height and has a square concrete base supporting a rounded column comprised of small boulders encircled by a rusting iron band. There is very little iron left and at one time this rounded portion may have been entirely encased in metal. We think it could have been a navigation mark, but why it is so far inside the bay is a mystery.

In the late afternoon a fishing boat arrived and anchored next to us. G and Jessie were ashore when they arrived so G helped them to tie off to a tree and had a little chat. They are from the island of Chiloe and are gathering seaweed which they will deliver to Puerto Natales. The captain said they had 10,000 kilos of seaweed on board - more than the total weight of Curare - no wonder they are sitting so low in the water. They hope to reach Natales in three days, we may take another week. As soon as they had finished anchoring two of the crew went rowing around the anchorage looking amongst the seaweed, when they returned they had two large spiny crabs (centolla) which they offered to us. L already had dinner underway, and we had no food to trade, so we declined their very generous offer.