Sailing into the Beagle Channel
By the very beginning of the day, still in nighttime, the ship pitches hard as she pushes through the swell and headwinds that blow up well over the 40kn on her way to the Beagle Channel. Cape Horn itself is already behind but still kicks us with the hard seas and blustery gusts.
Quite a rough upwind ride that lasts from last evening to well passed midnight and the early hours. Luckily, then the wind backs from the strong northerly blowing on our nose, to a good westerly, and steadily drops, allowing for a start of the day of good sailing again.
It is around 2 in the morning when the night watches start setting sail, and by breakfast time all squares are up, together with headrig, lower staysails and spanker. Sun is shining, but we well know by now that the weather on those southern latitudes is a continuous gamble and always changing.
It just takes a couple of hours for the good wind to become a light breeze, which we still sail towards the Beagle Channel. Safety nets are not necessary anymore and are stowed away, at the same time some maintenance and hull cleaning is done before our arrival to port in just a couple of days.
The light breeze practically stops and the ship drifts now with the current, a flow that makes her turn her bow south but still slowly make some way in the direction we want to go, northwestwards to the Beagle. A wind drop that announces a forecasted shift. Waiting for it, the ship is readied to sail close-hauled on Starboard tack, and then, just in time the wind picks up to a good Northeasterly 15kn. A favourable wind direction for our purpose but not so common here, where the general pattern blows from the West. With going back to a nice easy sailing comes too a weather change and the sunny morning gives way to a rainy couple hours.
After bashing ourselves against last night headwinds, today things have been completely different. Sails set, a great way to spend the last day at sea of our fantastic Antarctic adventure, an elegant and good sail that brought us around Isla Nueva into the Eastern mouth of the Beagle Channel.
Soon at the ship’s starboard side lays Argentina. Looking at port side the Chilean islands and Patagonian forests.
The rain stops during the early afternoon, the sun comes back. The weather change comes again at the same time with a wind shift to a WNW that soon eases down. After 15:00H all sails are pulled down and the engines push us to Davison, where we arrive at 18:30H. That’s the anchorage where we'll wait for tomorrow’s morning, when we will resume our way to Ushuaia. Later on the sunset is one of those amazing ones that sometimes happen in Patagonia. A sei whale swims by and a large Sea lion spends some time checking us.
Tonight Europa takes a deserved rest, she now lays at anchor, all her sails have been furled, her braces tighten. Decks are tidy. She is about to finish her first Antarctic voyage of this season, a sort of trip that she knows well. She has been daring these waters for many years already.
