The lure of uninhabited wilderness, stunning scenery, and challenging sailing made the decision to come to southern Chile and Patagonia easy.
But the tip of South America is a long way from anywhere, and there’s not really an easy way to get back north. A return through the channels of Patagonia means a 1300nm slog into the prevailing winds and against the current that helped us south. It’s possible to do, but nearly all of the boats we met that have done the trip reported that they ran the engine between 90 and 100% of the trip – not our idea of a fun sailing trip.
A second option is to sail across the Atlantic to South Africa. About 4000nm away, this passage has the benefit of being mostly a downwind run in the westerlies, with perhaps even a stop at South Georgia Island for the adventurous. While South Africa’s border is currently open to arriving sailors, the pandemic makes it a less than attractive spot to visit right now.
The third option is a sail north in the Atlantic. In normal times, this could be broken up with a visit to the Falkland Islands and hopping up the east coast of Brazil before rounding the bulge of South America for a downwind run in the trade winds to the Caribbean. But these are not normal times, of course. Brazil’s maritime borders are closed (along with those of the Falklands, Argentina, and Uruguay), and even if they were open the pandemic news from Brazil isn’t encouraging. Without a stop, the sail from Chile to the Carribbean is 6000-7000nm – that’s a long way.
The fourth option is to park the boat here in Puerto Williams to wait for the world to return to normal. There’s a small community of (very hardy) sailors who live on their boats even through the winter, and they report that while it’s quite cold, the weather is milder than might be expected.
There are a few options, and none of them are perfect. After much mulling and option-considering, we’ve decided to head north in the Atlantic bound for the Caribbean. It’s a long way to go, but we’ve made contact with a sailor in southern Brazil who promises to assist us with some non-contact provisioning if we decide to stop.
So, we’re headed north and hope you’ll be reading along with us as we go.
