Estero de las Montañas.
Making way northwards against strong winds in the Chilean Channels. A night with a few hours of truce from the changeable and gusty weather. It blows though, it keeps blowing in the 20s knots, but now it is downwind for us. Using these conditions, for a while the roar of her engines stops, and the Europa sails under bare poles for two and a half hours.
Still in the dark hours of the early morning, the motoring resumes.
We pass by Canal Union towards Paso Sobenes, taking a detour from the main shipping route along the Chilean Channels. Turning to starboard, soon the ship faces a long and narrow fjord, leaving at our starboard the tall Jaime Island. From then on, under the first light of the day, the scenic Seno de las Montañas opens. With the considerable length of about 30 nautical miles, being just barely a mile wide, it extends amongst cliffs and peaks that often climb over 1000 meters in height along steep forested slopes crowned by several glaciers.
At the entrance of such picturesque fjord and while the ship heads north along it, suddenly we find ourselves dealing again with the extremely variable weather that characterises the whole of this area. Now the ship faces up to almost 40 kn of blustery wind on her nose, now the wind meter shows only just about 10 kn. The northerly funnels inside and along this tight inlet. Of course clouds and showers sweep past bringing up and down the blows and rain.
Luckily in several occasions there are openings in the drizzly grey skies and a grand panorama reveals itself. Green shores lead to high mountains, waterfalls and streams run down “U”-shaped glacial carved valleys and a number of glaciers top some of the highest peaks. They hang up above Strahr Point, a bit further the most spectacular Zamudio shows up framed by rocky cliffs and spires and even reaches sea level.
By now the weather has turned for the better, the northerly wind is steadier and calmer. The visibility much better. Right in front of Zamudio Glacier, after heading north along the Estero de las Montañas for 13 nm, the ship stops, she turns around. Crew springs aloft to unfurl some of her canvas. As soon as they are readied, many hands show up on deck to pull on sheets and halyards, ease clews and buntlines. We are just needed on the foremast, running downwind now on 12 to 15 kn of nice breeze. Topsails, Course and Topgallants are set, engines are off. A nice, panoramic and easy going sailing at about 4 kn of speed is ahead of us, at least until the entrance of the fjord, when the ship rejoins the main passageway in the Chilean Channels. And so it happens just by the time lunch is finished. Time that comes to take sails down, now under the pouring rain, and go up the yards to furl, while the engines can be heard again as they are switched on.
With the long and tapered Estero de las Montañas at our back, now we are once again at Canal Union, where the light breeze gives way to yet another shift. Facing gusts up to 50 kn, steady winds on the nose from 35 to 40 kn, the ship manoeuvres through channels that funnel in different wind directions requiring bracing back and forth a couple of times. We tighten the angle of the yards as much as possible to avoid most of the rig’s windage.
Still in similar conditions, next is to make way north, now through the 12 nm of the Collingwood Strait, between Newton Islands, Quena Island and, on the continental coast, the Benson Peninsula. Straight and deep, it offers views over the Sarmiento mountain range, and after a couple of narrow passages, at the end joins with Sarmiento Channel, to finally tomorrow at some point enter Peel Fjord, where we plan the following activities. When? Well Aeolus, god of winds (with the origin of this Greek word rooted in “swift” and “changeable” exactly as we experience in this voyage) has lots to say about progress and timings when sailing in those conditions.