Magellan Straits
Sailing to Punta Arenas from last night’s anchorage at Bahia San Nicolas. Pilots exchange. Sailing back south to Faro San Isidro.
Gusty night in Bahia San Nicolas, though the 5 shackles of anchor chain that we dropped last night over its sandy bottom hold well.
It was not just the wind but the weather for almost the whole of the night wasn’t the best, as we could see when we wake up today to a snowy landscape all around.
Not much later crew is sent aloft to unfurl some of our canvas and hands called on deck to pull on sheets and halyards, ease bunts and clews. We are setting sail. Gradually sails come up. First the recently repaired Fore Lower Topsail, then the Fore Topmast Staysail, Deckswabber, Aap and Spanker, then the inner jib joins.
The sun is out and it looks like the weather now is with us, but we are sailing in southern Patagonia, where the climatology changes by the minute. Good visibility and a pleasant early morning is soon replaced again by low clouds passing by, loaded with more snow and rain.
Until morning coffee time when the wind drops and we make progress with the help of the engines, with the Topsails being clewed up. It doesn’t take much longer to experience another of the typical weather changes that characterise the area, and before lunch the sun shines again, the wind blows from the Northwest, just to become blustery and gusty with blows up to 37 kn of westerly. Time to set Topsails once more and Fore Course.
Sails up, sails down, wind picking up, wind easing, rain, sun, snowfall. Welcome to sailing in southern Patagonia.
About 16:30h in the afternoon the pilot boat from Punta Arenas comes alongside and the change of pilots is done, after striking all sails. Straight away braces are pulled tight on starboard tack, sails set again and off we go, now sailing south once more. Punta Arenas falls behind, a city with a long history of colonisation and an old port of great strategical importance for Chile. A country that took possession of the Strait of Magellan on May 23, 1843. President Manuel Bulnes ordered this expedition after consulting the Chilean libertador Bernardo O'Higgins, who feared an occupation by Great Britain or France. The first Chilean settlement, Fuerte Bulnes, was situated in a forested zone on the north side of the strait, and was later abandoned. In 1848, Punta Arenas was founded farther north, where the Magellanic forests meet the Patagonian plains. Until the opening of the Panama Canal, the town was an important supply stop for mariners.
In the evening and part of the night, the Europa sails along Brunswick Peninsula (the southernmost piece of land belonging to the South American continent) to her next stop at Eagle Bay and San Isidro Lighthouse.