For this
day (yesterday) we had planned to travel a bit more inland because of
supposedly beautiful water and air wildlife expecting us: Cormorans, Pinguines,
Sea Lions and Dolphins. It was even more beautiful than we expected. I will not
write much, the pictures say way more than this.
Just half
an hour before we left the French boat, who we met in Caleta Hornos, came in.
We communicated via radio, in French. Puh, difficult to switch, haven’t talked French
in a while…Another beautiful experience.
First we
anchored between the “Isla de pajaros”, which however is not inhibited by pajaros
but by pinguines, and the sea lion island.
We took our
dinghy to drive to those little islands in paradise. All I can say: wow!!!
First we went to see the sea lions:
From there we went to Pinguin island:
Aren't they cute?
Back to Alita we
drove about 7nm up the river to our overnight anchorage.
The more we came
inland, the hotter it got. In the end we had about 30°C. We sweated to much
Hanno and I had to go into the about 14°C water. The wind had changed from a
cold southern wind to a warm northern wind, which heats up over the desert. It
was as if standing beneath a hand-blow dryer. A minute out of the water and we
were dry. Hanno and I took the Dinghy to land to get a better overview of the
river and to better swim ashore. Well, in the end we also had a muscular
training and “Kneipp-Kur”. As we went back the Dinghy went off. Problem: the
wind had justpicked up really hard and already created such waves that it was
impossible to row to Alita. So we had to row back to land, which was very
tough. Then we pulled the Dinghy in the water along the shore (walking on
millions of stones in the cold water) to a point where we believed we could
make it back to Alita rowing. Thank god the motor started again and about 45min
after not having been able to reach Alita Hanno and I were back. Exhausted, but
we kind of enjoyed the fun.The pictures from land were well worth that experience:
To get us
right back to happy, Dolphins, which we had seen before and which accompanied us droiving the Dinghy, came to swim around
Alita. In total they did so for at least 3hrs! We just could not believe this.
About 4 – 6 of them. Just for us, playing with Alita, who kept swinging left-
right at the anchor. However since the water was not clear it was hard to catch
these guys. They suddenly appeared and by the time you saw them after first
hearing them they already dived back into the water. Here some of the best shots
I was able to take:
After such
an amazing and exciting day, this was our end of the day view:
Happy and
tired we fell to bed and slept well with 35knots of wind.
Today we
went back Puerto Deseado. First to the anchorage where we spent the first
night, to wait for the strong southerly wind to pass by. Then, as the wind got
less strong (belwo 20 knots), we put the main sail back on the boom and then
went across back to the anchorage in front of the Club Nautico. The French boat
had stayed there and encountered real trouble at the anchorage with the
suddenly strong wind, although we had warned them. Again Marcus was very good
and right in choosing where to anchor at which time / weather.
Today at
these conditions it occurred to me how perspectives can change. 25 knots for us
now is light wind which we’re happy to have, 35 is quite strong, we’re getting
used to 40knots and more. One year ago 17 knots for me was A LOT. Hmm.
Note: Tomorrow
we want to head south to Staten Island and then check there for good weather to
enter the Beagle channel to go to Ushuaia. It is very probable that I won’t be
able to upload pictures til we’re in Ushuaia, latest on January 27th.
All
pictures as always in the photo gallery under “Puerto Deseado Wildlife” or just
follow the link:
