Date of Entry: February 14th 2016
Date of Writing: Saturday,March 19th 2016, Hostel Danicar, Puerto Natales
After a quiet day spent hunkered down in the boat waiting for some strong winds and bad weather to clear in whaler’s bay we rise early to set sail towards Enterprise Island. Now when I say early I mean early. Around 3 am actually, in time to see the early morning sunrise as we set sail hurrying out of the huge caldera of deception island and into the glowing mosaic of orange, purple and pink light on rough waves. It’s hard work sailing but under lights like this, zipping out of the caldera and into the open ocean once more, it’s all worth it, and endlessly beautiful.
As we sail out over rolling waves Darrel gets us all set up before ducking back into his cabin to get an hour or two of well earned sleep, leaving Josh, myself and I believe Matt outside to keep watch. Today should be the last full day of sailing until our voyage back across the drake passage. A trip I know Ulises and Mariana are both dreading already.
As we cut across the open ocean adjusting the sails according to wind speeds which unexpectedly are gusting up to 40 knots (about 72 km) the sunrise only grows more impressive. The bright pastel hues of pink and purple begin fading into bright and pure orange as the sun peaks above the horizon, and all well before 5 am.
We continue cutting across the southern seas which seem to calm down once we’ve gained a decent distance from the opening of the Deception Caldera and we watch as a large cruise ship sails by to our right. As we watch it approach Josh teaches me how to tell if we are on a collision course or not, picking a non moving item on our boat and correlating there position with that as we move. As the sun rises higher the brilliance of the orangeness fades, but the skies are still beautiful.
As the hours drift on and we pass more and more icebergs I’m relieved from watch but choose to sit up above the cockpit for a long while watching the incredible scenery pass me by. Enjoying listening to some music as I try to keep my singing and rapping along silent enough to go unnoticed. We end up having to dodge a lot of ice with the autopilot, me even being in charge at one brief point. It makes the day a little bit stressful.
The long hours of sailing also provide another much needed shower day, as hot water through the plumbing is only available when the engine is running. One by one we edge into the tiny bathroom and clean ourselves as quickly as possible, I at least want to get back on deck to watch for animals.
A few groups of swimming penguins both chinstraps and gentoos jump in the waters around our boat sporadically and a distant minke whale makes a brief appearance though frustratingly my camera is put away. Matt spots more whales and I catch some brief glimpses before getting a little better view of a minke, unfortunately still without my camera.
It’s early evening by the time we arrive at our final destination after a long day spent zipping alongside the antarctic peninsula through icebergs, penguins, seals, and a few whales. The mountains on the continents amaze me, a near constant line of them,rough and snow capped, and unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
Pulling in to Enterprise Island we have to be careful with a storm growing behind us and multiple channels in towards Foyn harbour, but only one that is safe to take us in.
We eventually find it, pulling in past penguins and fur seals hanging out on the rocks near the water. The chinstraps won’t be seen again for a while now and we’ve moved firmly into Gentoo territory. I’m too busy getting ready to help with our anchoring to take any photos this time around, but don’t worry, by the time this antarctica series is done you’ll all be very sick of photos of Gentoo penguins.
As we pull in we find three other yachts already anchored to the wreckage of an old sunken whaling ship and pull up next to one of them, running stern and bowlines out to the wreck and some big enough rocks on the small beach at the edge of the bay. Once the work is done I marvel at the beauty of this place, especially the incredible blueness of the ice.
The anchorage is stunning and as we sit down to a long overdue dinner of tasty fish and Caribbean style salad prepared by Josh I find myself smiling. It’s been a long day on the seas but now we’re at a new island and I’m excited for what it might hold for us. If it’s anything like our two incredible days spent at deception island, well then I’m in for a treat.
