Puerto Williams
Club Naval de Yates Micalvi
Farewell Patagonia!
On the 2nd of January, after 54 days of sailing in Chilean Patagonia we finally arrived in Puerto Williams. Of the total of 52 nights we spent at anchor, we shared the anchorage only twice with another boat - a local fishing vessel. And during all this time, we saw only three other sailing boats in the canals.
For weeks on end, whenever the daily showers allowed, we saw nothing but snow-capped peaks of the Andes, the sea, and the sky but not a trace of animal life on the shores or the mountainsides. Although the landscape surrounding us was absolutely magnificent, within a few weeks it began to lose some of its charm, and after about two months we had become almost indifferent to its splendour.
While crossing Golfo de Penas, we learned that our radar was not functioning. Pekka had installed a new magnetron in the radar while we were still in Puerto Montt but apparently, the radar belonged to the cluster of devises that had, for some reason or other, decided to malfunction after our departure from Puerto Montt.
Because there is no technical assistance available in Puerto Williams we had to sail to Ushuaia on the Argentinian side of Canal Beagle to get the radar repaired. Our dinghy, the better and at the moment our only one, had started to leak, and it too had to be fixed.
We had been fortunate enough to meet four Argentinian sailors in Puerto Williams who in addition to inviting us to a wonderful lunch at Micalvi Club House also provided us with the contact information of Roxana, an efficient lady whom we met at Club Nautico AFASyN in Ushuaia.
Upon our arrival, she immediately contacted Gustavo, a radar specialist who managed to “repair” our Furuno. It turned out that Furuno Finland had sold us a completely wrong magnetron that was meant for a much bigger radar. We had bought it in 2013 as a spare before we had set sail for the North-East Passage. Thank God we did not have any problems with our radar while traversing the icy passage!
We returned from Ushuaia to Puerto Williams last Saturday, and yesterday got our last zarpe from Armada de Chile. While waiting for our next blog update, which may take quite some time, remember to keep your fingers crossed and/or thumbs up (the Finnish way of wishing good luck!) as we are now all set for a bit more adventurous leg i.e. from Cape Horn to Falkland Islands - via Antarctica!
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