The northwest arm of the Beagle Channel is probably the most scenic area we’ve seen in Patagonia. The steep hills of Isla Gordon loom to starboard while the jagged, snow-covered mountains of Cordillera Darwin on Tierra del Fuego tower over Madrone to port.
This channel features 10 or 15 glaciers, each a separate arm extending from the Patagonian ice cap. We anchor in the east arm of Seno Pia, nearly at the base of one of the tidewater glaciers, Glacier Romanche.
The approach to the anchorage is completely clear – the incoming tide and prevailing wind has pushed all of the ice floes that have calved from the glacier further up the seno – and we go through our by now well-practiced routine of dropping the anchor, backing towards shore, and tying the stern to the trees at what would have formerly been an impossibly close distance.
At night, the wind changes and we’re awoken by ice floes rattling against the anchored boat. None of the floating ice pieces are big enough to harm the boat, though, so we head back to sleep before awakening to a bay filled with bergie bits.
