Heading South

September 14, 2015

We set sail at 08:00, heading to Caleta Connor, 50 miles further south. We will still have light south winds so against us and being Canal Messier just 2/3 mile wide tacking is going to be an issue. So I expect to have to cover more than 70 miles. Therefore, we are certain to arrive after sunset.

During the day we experience all kind of weather. We go from Summer to Winter in the laps of 10 minutes. Switching to Spring and Autumn it takes a bit longer. A beautiful clear sky with warm sun gradually clouds over. Then black clouds begin to cover the entire channel, temperature drops and by the time we are totally swallowed by the black clouds it starts snowing horizontally and the wind goesup to 30 knots with a jump of 15 or 20°. The entire proces takes about 10 -15 minutes and then, suddenly, the sun comes back, the air warm up again as the bow head back to its original course, at least until the next "black clouds".

At 21:15h we are abeam of Caleta Connor, we take down the sails and turn on our bow and stern projectors that I have installe in Puerto Montt. I knew that sooner or later it would happen to anchor in the dark so I thought to provide Angelique II with projectors. Unfortunately marine projectors are very expensive and are designed to produce deep and very concentrated light, useful to detect an object at sea but not to illuminate a large area. What is needed is something that illuminate a wide and close area, also considering that the majority of the anchorages in Patagoinia requires lines ashore. So I bought 3, 220V, LED lamps for domestic use, which I paid just 40 USD each which I installed one in each bow and one oon the ster, all removable, which I install only when needed in few seconds.

So this handy an cheap solution perfectly supported our first night anchorage and switch off the engines at 22:15h.