Location 44° 07S, 73° 17W
Wednesday 11.21.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 44° 07S, 073° 17W at noon on November 21st. We were navigating out of the incredibly beautiful Canal Refugio, where a ship called the Anna (she was properly called a “pink,” hence Bahia Anna Pink) took refuge in 1741 after having been dismasted off the Horn. The wind has been from the north, west, south and east, and calm. The sun is bright and the sky is clear. The barometer has fallen 15 millibars since setting out on Monday.

We spent last night in a lovely spot called Bahia Anihue or Bahia Islas, in an unnamed harbor. Our anchor was out ahead in 8-9 meters of water and astern we tied to a tree with about 100 meters of dock line. We had no swinging room to our starboard and a small island was about 10 meters in front of our anchor. Despite some current (3-4 meters tide) through the harbor, we spent a perfect night. A small pod of active dolphin met us and played close around the boat. They were small in size, like a US harbor porpoise, but had a quite different dorsal fin, quite rounded and relatively soft.

We are briefly out in the big Canal Moraleda, in a maze of fishing bouys, and then we are tucking into the narrow Canal Jacaf. Canal Jacaf will take us to Canal Puguguapi, then Seno Ventisquero and finally Bahia Dorita (44° 24.9S, 072° 38.6W). In Bahia Dorta there is a five star hotel with a series of thermal pools. We have a reservation for dinner at 2030 tonight.

Our new Spanish dictionary includes: Seno=sound; Canal=channel; bahia=bay; cabo=cape; boca=mouth; caleta=cove; goleta=schooner; punta=point or cape; faro=lighthouse; racha=williwaw; velero=sailing yacht; zarpe=permit to navigate.

It is hard to describe how beautiful it is here with the almost deserted green shore with the snow capped Andes as backdrop. Those of us who know and love Maine, Tasmania, Newfoundland and New Zealand are still searching for new superlatives.

Hannah and Alden are both knitters. We bought some lovely yarn in Puerto Montt. Alden can only knit hats and Hannah can only knit scarves. The rest of us are looking forward to hat and scarves and we are also wondering if they get together, perhaps there’ll be a sweater in it somewhere.

This area is a bit of a nightmare for the Navigator. While it is exciting to discover, the charts are sketchy, if marked at all. Every bay, channel, sound, or cove has a different name on every chart, if it is named at all. Depths are infrequently recorded, and will have 45 feet right next to 774. The general rule is to look out for kelp, which marks 30 feet, or maybe zero. On top of all this, the Armada (the Chilean Navy) has changed the position of things, presumably to make invading Argentineans run aground. Sigh.

Hot baths and great food tonight!

All is well.