Leaving Puerto Williams

 After 2.5 years Sea Rover left Puerto Williams at 7am this morning to start her trek north towards warmer climates.  We have loved our time in Tierra del Fuego but Sea Rover needs some loving that only a stint on the hard in Puerto Montt can provide.  Why go now at the end of the cold Austral winter, you might ask?  Perhaps counterintuitively, there are more days of calm, sunny weather in the winter in the deep south compared to the summer.  Having experienced a number of Austral summers, I hardly think it could be worse!  And since Sea Rover needs to travel 1300 nm north against the prevailing north winds, a few days of relative calm here and there where the boat wouldn't be pounding into a 30 knot headwind sounded like a good plan.

As with all good plans, there was a snag.  Karina was in the middle of a huge project at work and couldn't take time off.  So on to Plan B.  Gary found Crew willing to spend a long period of time in a small boat motoring through some of the most challenging but most beautiful waters in the world.  Joining Gary for this trip are Karina's cousin Mark, as well as Brian and Allan from Piers Island.

I hope the Crew are hungry!!

Gary and Karina spent the month of September doing small boat projects, provisioning with water, diesel (790 L by HAND!!) and food (hundreds and hundreds of pounds).  Sea Rover has never been so low in the water. 

Ushuaia

We took a small detour to Ushuaia to reset the boat visa (with thankfully less drama than last time) and remembered why we both love and hate the town.  Ushuaia is a lovely, vibrant city with nice restaurants and beautiful scenery, but it must be the windiest city in the world.  It is always a challenging place to be in a boat.

While in Ushuaia we met up with our old friend Rene, who is now Ata Ata-less as he recently sold his boat to one of the other Cruisers in Puerto Williams.  He is now living on land in a warm, dry house with his lovely girlfriend Graciella in town.  It was wonderful to see him again  as we don't know where our next meeting will be...

Club room at the Micalvi with flags from Cruisers around the World

We cleared back into Chile on Thursday and the Crew arrived on Saturday.  Miraculously a weather window to move west in the Beagle Channel opened up for Sunday, so despite the fact that Karina's flight to Canada didn't leave until Monday, the decision was made to leave on Sunday.  After some last minute provisioning, rope tying lessons and a few boat jobs on Saturday afternoon that led into the evening, the extended Crew of  Sea Rover had a last celebratory dinner of Argentinian beef and then hung our flag in the club room of the Micalvi, as is the tradition of all that pass through here.  

Quietly motoring out of Puerto Williams on a calm morning

All hands were up before the crack of dawn to be ready for the 7am departure.  Karina saw them off the dock, out of the bay and on their way to the next adventure.  

Bluewater Cruising burgee put to good use.

The remains of the flag we had up during the pandemic. A fitting end for it, I think.