Caleta Perez
Caleta Perez. Latitude S45 15 Longitude 073 15 W
We are now heading down the “inside” passage through the Chilean Channels and expect to be in Puerto Williams in the Beagle Channel on the 25th of this month. The total distance is about 1,300 miles which is quite a lot in the time as it is not recommended to travel at night in some of the channels, navigation is difficult and some of the charts are just plain wrong!
We left Puerto Montt early yesterday morning (Sat 16th) after nearly a month at the small marina so were happy to be on our way again, although all on board seemed to enjoy the town. Saturday was a rainy day so we kept going and finally anchored in Rada Pelata which has a very narrow entrance leading into a spectacular lagoon surround by high snow covered peaks. A beautiful anchorage.
We are now anchored for the night in a very protected cove near the entrance to Seno Aisen after a very long day. We left our last anchorage at 0610 this morning and have traveled all day, finally putting down a tenuous anchor at 6 pm at Punto Tortuga, so that we could visit the hot springs. They were fabulous and we would like to have stayed but the anchorage was definitely not for overnight so we moved down another 12 miles until we found this place arriving here at 21.30 in the last light of the day. A long day!
Tomorrow we will take off fairly early again and thread our way down through the various channels and by late afternoon exit into the open water for crossing the infamous Gulfo de Penas. This is the only section where we leave the protected Channels and have to be out in the open seas but the gulf has a bad reputation due to the storms and confused seas which bounce off the cliffs and make going tough. It is about 150 miles of open water so we will do that overnight and get some sleep the following day in calmer waters.
Everyone is well on board and we are making good progress on schedule.
Phil and the crew.
PS Due to problems with communications down here we will update the website every couple of days instead of daily.
