16.01.07 – Chile at Last

A fast, wet and quite uncomfortable arrival at dusk in a 30kt beam wind, awkward seas and dense fog. The landfall was a slightly apprehensive one for timid old me. Looking ghostly, forbidding and quite primeval, Chiloe Island finally emerged from the swirling mists when we were only 1.8 miles off. Ahh, the magic of radar and GPS.

In the last fading light we rounded Punta Corona into flat water. After 37 days, how wonderful to be out of the swell. At 9pm we dropped anchor at Puerto Inglese in 5m sand. Oh what a feeling! Punta Corona light sweeps imperiously through the mist above us and the town of Ancud twinkles in the distance. Things to look at! Things to see!

Here we are. After 5 weeks, such rich earthy land smells. Flat water – I didn’t know such a thing existed – causes such disconcerting absence of movement.

Now it all has to sink in.

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