Seno Almirantazgo & Bahía Brookes.

It is a windy and rainy morning. During the night, the ship has been making her way from the depths of Seno Almirantazgo to the so-called Brookes Bay, the westernmost inlet of this large fjord.

Here we plan to spend the morning in a sort of exploratory mood, cruising its scenic shores and why not trying to find a landing spot. This bay opens to the south for 18 nm, of which only barely the northern part is charted and allowed to sail in, but nevertheless inside this zone there are several anchorages along the west coast worth the try.

And like this soon we come across the rocky cape called Esperanza. The westerly and northwesterly keep blowing, the seas build up, but heading to the southern shores of the cape, some shelter is found. Here we are welcomed by a tiny and scenic cove enclosed by two rocky points forming a narrow entrance.

Local fishermen often use this anchorage as we could see from the numerous broken king crab traps left lying around.

Ashore, the ones looking for a quiet morning have the option to stay around the beach and lower areas while the most daring ones seem to be up to a walk up the hills, a hike almost around the whole of the little cove over peat moss and untouched forests. At some point it is decided to descend towards the inlet at the northern side of Punta Esperanza.

There, in a picturesque coastal scenery with the trees growing all the way to sea level and hanging over some vertical cliffs above the waves, we could walk around the whole peninsula. It is a good, large and wide intertidal area, and lucky us, we are here at low tide. Around the last corner the ship comes into view again. There the zodiacs pick us up on a good ride over calm waters that seem to be a preferred area for a Peale’s dolphin pod. They enjoy bow-riding our boats and hang around the Europa, which by that time is already heaving anchor and readying all for starting her way.

Due to the passing of a quick but strong low pressure system, the best option we have to head north towards the Strait of Magellan and the vicinity of Punta Arenas is to retrace our steps along the narrows of Canal Gabriel, cross Seno Magdalena and head northwards along the coast. The best option we can see, having in mind the strong westerlies forecast for tomorrow, is to sail along the windward shoreline of the southernmost tip of the continental Americas.

As we can remember, Canal Gabriel is subjected to strong tidal runs, so the morning outing returned early back aboard, to time it properly in order to make way with the tide flowing with us in this beautiful waterway.

Once there the wind blows on our nose, the current pushes us, conditions that create eddies and swirls in the constricted waters of the passage.

The afternoon at sea was also used to bend on the fore upper topsail that has been under repairs, to do some sail training talks and to fit in a lecture by our guides. The day ends at about 23:00h when we drop anchor at San Nicolas Bay, already along the mainland coast of South America, and not far from Punta Arenas, where we plan to disembark our two pilots tomorrow and welcome two new ones that will be with us until Puerto Montt.