Ushuaia: Southern Sailing!

Last Sunday, I flew to Punta Arenas, then took a bus to Ushuaia to join up with the boat and crew I am going to be sailing with for the next two months. It snowed in Ushuaia the night before we arrived, so the mountains surrounding the town had that dusted-with-icing-sugar beauty.

The plan is to sail south across the Beagle Channel to Puerto Williams, check back into Chile and do the necessary paperwork, then head north up the Chilean channels to Puerto Montt.

Rainbow over the Straits of Magellan, looking from Punta Arenas.

Taking the ferry over to Tierra del Fuego, a huge island shared by Argentina and Chile. It's called "Land of Fire" because the indigenous folks used a lot of fire to keep warm, even in their canoes.

Dolphins came and frisked in the waves beside the ferry. We later learned they were Commerson dolphins, also called 'Skunk' dolphins because of sharp contrast between their black and white parts.


An estancia, or sheep farm. Right in the middle of this terrain, all faded gold and blue prairie colours, I saw pink flamingos in a little body of water! They looked so out of place, like valley girls at a rodeo.


Westerley Serenade, my home for the next few months.


My crewmates: Alex, Patricia and Captain Frank.

Yup, that is snow in the foreground! After a year of summer, it's actually pretty refreshing to be in a colder climate. I reserve the right to change my mind about that, though...



Patricia in the galley (fancy name for a kitchen on a boat).

Team colours!

We're currently buying enough food for the entire two months, since there are only two stops along the way - Puerto Eden and Puerto Chacabuco. We've already bought 60 bottles of wine and the plan is to buy even more!

We have a few more little things to get, then we'll head out of town in the next bit of nice weather, probably on Tuesday.

You can follow the boat's progress over the next months by clicking here:

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=mepp5

For you keeners who want more information about the trip we're about to do, or sailing in the south of Chile, Frank (who has done this trip twice before) has put together an excellent "wiki":

http://www.cruiserlog.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chile