Eagle Bay, San Isidro Lighthouse.

Eagle Bay, a small secluded embayment about 30 nm south of Punta Arenas and next to San Isidro Lighthouse, is where the Europa drops her anchor at 01:30h. Conditions are calm and the seas flat, allowing for a quiet night, hoping for a landing in the morning.

By breakfast time the weather is overcast but clearing up, just a light breeze can be felt and the waters in the cove are almost mirroring the surrounding mountains and forests.

High hopes for a nice outing off the ship. But the Chilean authorities curb our enthusiasm, they don’t grant us permit to go ashore. Apparently they extrapolate the windy and gusty weather in Punta Arenas to all this coast southwards. A hectic early morning of messages and phone calls led to finally getting their permission to operate with our zodiacs and finally land. Not too bad yet, it is about 09:30h when the first zodiac starts making her way ashore.

Eagle Bay, rich in history dating all the way back to 6000 years ago when native populations used this sheltered inlet, more recently also home for a joint Chilean/Norwegian whaling station that started operations at the beginning of the 1900s, to process their catch in the Straits of Magellan.

Nowadays barely anything is left from it, just here and there some whale bones and baleen can be found and, still standing, a few poles from their jetty. The baleen we found probably belong to a Humpback whale that stranded in 2021. Its massive body was left to rot and the bones cleaned and transported to the nearby Faro San Isidro.

A well-trodden path along the coastal forests leads from the beach to this lighthouse. Following it we get there after this scenic hike. All the time, above our heads looms the top of Mount Tarn, a mountain that reaches over 800 m in height. Worth mentioning as it was climbed by Charles Darwin in February 1834 and made for an interesting writing for the book he published after he sailed around the world in the HMS Beagle. Here he dealt with the thick beech forest and the wet and muddy terrain where nowadays there is a path. Reading him we can realise his accurate understanding of nature and observation skills as he talks about the profusion of mosses, lichens and fungus species, the evergreen channel woods and the diversity of the coastline. One of his most interesting findings was the profusion of marine fossils near the top of the mountain, making him think about a more dynamic idea of the earth and its workings than the static world that was believed at the time.

Along the path we are welcomed by the people that nowadays man the area and the lighthouse, together with their two dogs. They are old friends and actually crew on the Europa sometimes. Today they walked with us and showed us around.

The 7.8 m high lighthouse started shining its light in 1904, and still does, nowadays powered by solar energy, whilst in the past it burned oil. Inside we are welcomed by the almost full skeleton of the Humpback whale recently found beached, plus many other whalebones that in the past littered the seafloor of Eagle Bay. They all lay next to other exhibitions about the history of the place, the history of whaling and the ancient history of the native population.

Talking about the aboriginal inhabitants of Patagonia, further south we were sailing in the Yaghan area, now, here in the Straits of Magellan the ethnic group that colonised the area were called the Kawésqar.

But they were not the only two groups in Patagonia. Historically identifiable indigenous ethnic groups around the strait are the Kawésqar, the Tehuelche, the Selk'nam and Yaghan people. The Kawésqar lived on the western part of the strait's northern coast. To the east of them were the Tehuelche, whose territory extended to the north in Patagonia. To the south of the Tehuelche across the strait lived the Selk'nam, who inhabited the majority of the eastern portion of Tierra del Fuego. To the west of them were the Yaghan people, who inhabited the southernmost part of Tierra del Fuego. Both Kawésqar and Yaghan were seafaring cultures, who preferred to move around in their boats, first made out of wood frames and bark, afterwards with the acquisition of axes and other tools, were constructed from a hollowed tree.

Artifacts, photographs, makeshift recreations of their boats and utensils are also displayed in the lighthouse.

The whole place is still a work in process, nevertheless giving us a good idea of the possibilities of the site and where all the work is leading to. Besides that, another of the projects that is under way here is to make out of a whole large area including this spot, to be part of a new National Park.

After our visit the ship heaves anchor from the neighbouring Eagle Bay and comes closer to the lighthouse to send the zodiacs and pick us up. By then it is already lunch time. After our meal the ship resumes her way along the Magellan Strait, now towards the southernmost point of South American mainland, Cape Froward.

As usual the westerly wind blows hard here and the clouds hang low, but still allowing for a good look from our decks.

The rocky hill is 400 m high, topped by the metal frame of a huge white cross, the "Cruz de los Mares”. It was blessed by Pope John Paul II on March 28th, 1987, but since it was located here it had to be replaced twice: the first one erected in 1913, was destroyed by the elements in 1930. A second iron cross was built in 1944 but the weather broke it again in 1956.

The characteristic meteorology of this spot brought the buccaneer Thomas Cavendish in 1587 to name it Froward for the violence and persistence of the bad weather in the area, since “froward” means not easily controlled or managed.

A quick look and the ship keeps on steaming our way around such illustrious cape against the strong headwinds to reach the good anchorage of Fortesquieu Bay to spend the night. Tomorrow a new day full of adventures around Carlos III Island.