sy Timoneer

Mrs. G’s guests joined her on Timoneer 17th February in Ushuaia, Argentina, “The gateway to Antarctica”.

The next morning we cleared out of Argentina and motored to Puerto Williams to clear in to Chile. We then continued past the Logos, one of the latest shipwrecks, which was a library ship before hitting the rocks in 1988. We also passed penguins on our way to Puerto Toro, a small fishing village where we anchored for the night. The next morning was a stunner with blue skies and light winds. We motored South past the East side of Wollaston Is. and through the narrows to the West of Herschel Is. The weather continued to be kind to us and so we continued South with 15’ (5m) swells as we passed the impressive cliffs of Cape Horn. We rounded the Horn from West to East and into the lee of Isla de Hornas. After a tricky landing on a rocky beach we huffed and puffed our way up the many stairs to go and visit the lighthouse keeper and buy a few souvenirs from him. After a few photos at the lighthouse and more at the albatross monument we returned to Timoneer and motored north to anchor in Caleta Martial on Herschel Is. where we had our first encounter with the very friendly dolphins.

Cape Horn Albatross Monument

In the morning we continued North and back in to the relative safety of the Beagle Channel.  We stopped at Caleta Lennox to stretch our legs ashore. The family of the lighthouse keeper was very appreciative of the school supplies we took ashore. While ashore we were treated to seeing a beautiful King penguin at close range. On the way back to the yacht we had an escort of excited dolphins. We left with 2 reefs in the main and the staysail and had a great sail for 2 hours to Picton Is. where we anchored for the night

The next day the weather continued to stun us with another sunny day and we stopped at Martillo Is. to see a nesting colony of Magellan penguins. They were very cute and completely unconcerned by us. That evening we spent anchored off Pto. Williams and some ventured ashore to sample Pisco Sours at the Yacht Club, which is in a shipwreck.

Magellan Penguins

In the morning we motored west past Ushuaia to a beautiful little bay, Caleta Olla, where we anchored with 2 lines ashore and were treated to a magical sunset. In the morning “Laura” the lamb was spit roasted over an open fire. The weather was hot, the lamb was perfect and we couldn’t have had a better beach BBQ in Patagonia. While on the beach we met mountaineers returning from a 4-day trip conquering the ice-covered peak high above the bay. They joined us for cocktails that evening and amongst them was Simon Yates, of “Touching the Void” fame. All were very interesting people.

Laura the lamb

We then headed in to glacier country. One of the first was Ventisquero Romanche, which had a huge waterfall coming out of it and tumbling down a massive rock face into the sea. From there we went into Fiordo Pia and were surrounded by spectacular views as we headed up the West Arm to where we were confronted by willi waws which stirred up spray off the sea and buffeted us with winds up to 60 knots. We anchored in the East Arm for the night and took a tender ride to the glacier face in the morning. It performed right on cue and calved for us sending out waves around the bay. On the way back to Timoneer we stopped at a beautiful waterfall coming from high up the mountains above. From there we stopped in at Fiordo Garibaldi to be surrounded by more amazing scenery and blue sky. We got within 0.25miles of the glacier before heading back down the fiord to anchor where guests went ashore to pick wild flowers.

Fiordo Pia

The next morning we moved on to Seno Ventisquero, yet another spectacular glacier. We stopped in for a close encounter with sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks before continuing West to Pto. Engano, Londonderry Is. Some of the crew climbed the surrounding hills for great views back down onto Timoneer.

Heading West along Canal Ballenero we sighted 2 humpback whales blowing and showing their tales. After 2 dives we lost them. We arrived in Seno Occasion and were anchored with 2 stern lines and a bow line ashore when a 60’ French yacht arrived and wanted to go behind us and tie ashore between our stern lines. This provided some great cocktail hour entertainment.

In the morning we left the French and headed along Canal Brecknock and out into the Pacific swell for a few miles. It was quite strange feeling the yacht moving after so long on flat waters. We did a side trip in to Seno Bluff and were awarded with incredible reflections on the sea. The entrance into the West arm was very narrow and shallow but opened in to a huge sheltered basin. Steamer ducks that no matter how hard they tried never took off entertained us. We Stopped for the night further East along Canal Cockburn in Pto. King.

We were treated to another fine day and so went exploring Seno Chico and with the tender guiding us we entered the very narrow Fiordo Alacaluf passing within 30’ (9m) of the most spectacular waterfall of the trip roaring down into the water beside us. We continued into the 1.5mile long arm pushing our way slowly through the bergy bits until we could finally see where they were coming from, an amazingly blue glacier. After Chanon took a few photos from the top of the mast we headed North into Canal Magdalena passing near Cabo Froward, the most southern tip of continental South America and onto the wide open Bahia San Nicolas.

Fiordo Alacaluf Falls

Glacier Alacaluf

Timoneer in ice

The sunrise turned the water golden and dolphins turned up to chase the crew tender around the yacht. Soon after sunrise we started steaming north to arrive in Punta Arenas in time for lunch. The guests spent the afternoon exploring ashore.

The 2nd March was time for the guests to head home and just to make their last tender journey more memorable the wind picked up to 35 knots making full wet weather gear a must. Everyone made it to the airport safe and dry finishing an incredible 2 weeks of exploring Southern Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego.

Dolphins

Shipwreck in Punta Arena

JC

Timoneer has made it to Punta Del Este and in daylight just to be told we can not enter the marina until dock staff arrive tomorrow morning. Our voyage was 1345 miles long. We will be spending the night anchored off and waiting for customs to clear us in tomorrow when we get to the dock.

JC

Noon Position 36deg 03S 55deg  12W

Course – 010 Degrees   Speed –  8.5  Knots        Day’s Run – 236  Miles

Weather –   Overcast with rain squalls and very confused seas

Wind – 25 knots from the North

Today’s News

It has been a very rough, wet and wild ride for the last 24 hours. It has felt much worse than the previous 24 but somehow we have managed to cover more miles. At the speed we are doing we have about another 8 hours to go to Punta Del Este and we are all looking forward to getting tied up to a dock and for the boat to stop moving.

JC

Noon Position 39deg 42S 56deg  39W

Course – 30 Degrees   Speed –  9.6  Knots        Day’s Run – 215  Miles

Weather –   Sunny and very rough, confused seas

Wind – 27 knots from the North

Today’s News

The Submarine Timoneer continues to make slow progress North. For most of the last 24 hours we have had 25-30 knots of wind on the nose with ground swells coming in from starboard and wind generated swells from port causing very confused seas and no easy way through. It has been very bumpy and uncomfortable and no sign of a reprieve until we arrive in Punta Del Este. At this stage, if the slow progress continues, our ETA will be around 2300 on Friday 11th March.

JC

Noon Position 42deg 52S 58deg  55W

Course – 035 Degrees   Speed –  9.5  Knots        Day’s Run – 233  Miles

Weather –   Fog with 10 foot (3M) swells from North

Wind – 28 knots from North

Today’s News

Yesterday afternoon 2 humpback whales put on a spectacular show of breaching for us. We also had a lot of visits from dolphins and lots of seabirds.

Within minutes of the sun touching the horizon last night fog dropped in on us and we have been in it ever since. The wind and seas picked up around the same time making for a very bumpy, slow,  sleepless night. We have been taking a lot of water over the decks and found a couple of new leaks in the deck. This morning we picked up a much needed 2 knot current to push us along and we are still being helped by it. Unfortunately it looks like we have 2 more days of this weather ahead of us.

JC

Noon Position 46deg 03S 61deg  54W

Course – 032 Degrees   Speed –  10.6  Knots        Day’s Run – 264  Miles

Weather –   Sunny 3-6 foot seas (1-2m)

Wind – 15 from NNW

Today’s News

The wind continued from the West all of yesterday afternoon helping us to cover some miles quickly. The wind died early evening and we motored through the night with a 3 foot (1m) swell. The water and weather have been warming up steadily and today I think will see us back to shorts and T-shirts. Just before sunrise we saw a whale and calf which at first we thought was a Blue whale but in consulting the book we think it was its slightly smaller cousin the Fin whale which grow up to 90 feet (27m) long.

During the night we have been passing dozens of fishing boats and so this morning I decide to try my luck but had to bring the lines in soon after as my chance of catching one of the many Albatross that came in for a look was much greater than catching a fish.

JC

Noon Position 49deg 43.4S 65deg  26.0W

Course – 34 Degrees   Speed –  12.5  Knots        Day’s Run – 260  Miles

Weather –   Partly cloudy and 6 foot seas from N

Wind – 20 knots from W

Today’s News

Yesterday afternoon saw us with as much as 6 knots of current against us in the narrows before exiting the Straits of Magellan. At the mouth were many oil rigs which had been closed down years ago as they were no longer economical with low oil prices. Now they are starting them up again one by one.

We had very pleasant calm conditions through the night until sunrise when the wind and swell both picked up on the nose.To make it even worse we picked up 1 knot of current against us as well forcing our speed down into the 8’s. A few hours ago the wind unexpectedly turned to the west and we are sailing nicely with genoa and mizzen doing 12’s. Now that we have cleared land we are seeing plenty of large albatross gliding by so effortlessly.

JC

Noon Position 52deg 31.9S 69deg  36.8W

Course –  037Degrees   Speed –   6 Knots        Day’s Run – 66  Miles

Weather –   Partly cloudy and cool.

Wind – 27 knots from ESE

Today’s News

Timoneer has begun the 7000 mile journey from Punta Arenas, Chile, to Palma, Spain. We finished with the Chilean officials about 0545 this morning and got underway very soon after. We have had up to 30 knots of breeze from behind and 4 knots of current with us to start with and now it is against us. We have just spotted, for our first time, Commerson’s Dolphins which are only found around the Magellan Straits. By sunset tonight we will be out of the Straits and  in the Atlantic Ocean. It should then take us around 5 days to get to Punta Del Este, Uruguay, our first stop.

JC

51 18S 074 04W

The rain has been incessant. We left Seno Iceberg and went through Angostura Inglesa without any problems despite reports of current up to 8 knots. We pulled into Puerto Eden to see if we could get a internet hookup on our cell phones but to no avail. We had not even anchored but when we were about to leave we got a call to say that we must anchor for an “inspection”. Eventually two navy guys came on board and all they wanted was to make sure that our mainsail was fixed so that we were OK! They did not even ask for our documents.

Our next overnight stop was in a lovely little cove called Caleta Luna. It only gets dark at about 10pm so the crew all went off exploring in the dinghy in the pouring rain after dinner and reported seeing a lot of wildlife.

This morning we started just after 6am to give us time to take a look at Amalia Glacier which was worth the slight detour, again despite all the rain which continues unabated. We are now anchored for the night in Puerto Mayne, an uninhabited small bay on Canal Sarmiente.

All are well on board and we are making good progress and on schedule to arrive in Puerto Williams on 25th January.

Phil

POSITION: 48  41S    074 07W. 

Sorry about the mix up in dates in the last report. We left Puerto Montt on Saturday 15th and the report went out on Sunday 16th not 17th as I wrote.

We left Caleta Perez at first light and carried on down the narrow channels but then got a gale warning over the radio. Within half and hour it was blowing between 30 and 40 knots, we had a reefed main and staysail and a great sail in flat waters. Our forecast continued to say that the weather was OK out at sea so we kept going, the gale died down to 25 knots and we were well on our way out at sea by nightfall.

Coming through the maze of islands it was intriguing to see the names. Just next to each other are Seno Cornish and Boca Wickham (We have Captain Cornish and his girlfriend on board, Jordi Wickham) and not far away is Isla McPherson, the same name as the deckhand. Today we are close to English Narrows and the mate is John Paul English so I guess some of our ancestors must have passed this way. Quite a coincidence.

Once clear of the land we saw lots of bird life and were visited by several Great Wandering Albatross as well as shearwaters and petrels. Just as we were bouncing along all up in the pilot house having dinner a huge blue whale surfaced not even 100 yards from the boat. What a sight! We also had visits from lots of dolphins and a sea lion.

The Gulf lived up to it’s bad reputation and the going was bumpy with lots of rain and confused seas. We had up a reefed main and genoa so were able to sail some of the time but it was coming and going. At 0230 a squall came through with a major wind shift and the mainsail gibed over breaking a batten and ripping the sail. We all got called out, got the sail down and continued on to shelter in Canal Messier using the mizzen and genoa to steady the uncomfortable ride.

We are now anchored in a spectacular anchorage in pouring rain sewing the mainsail on deck. It is a big job so we will probably be delayed a while here but then make up time on the rest of the trip down with another overnight passage or two.

Will keep you updated.

Phil and the crew