Phil: Kitty has now departed from Punta Arenas, and I’m awaiting the arrival on February 24 of Jack Burnell, Steve Halverson and Peter Rummell for a week of cruising the Chilean archipelago to Puerto Natales. Captain Toby and crew have been hard at work taking on provisions, making repairs, and getting Indigo in fine nick (a South African/British word meaning top condition). They also take some well-deserved time off. […]
This is the day my pals arrive. Jack and Peter are on the same plane, which is right on time, even after 20 hours of flying. Captain Toby and I greet them, load their bags into the van we’ve stocked with an ice bucket, champagne and flutes, take them on a brief tour of town, then deliver them into the arms of the crew. […]
Today, the day of my friends’ departure, Toby, Geraldine and Tony flew on a scheduled flight to Base Frei, Antarctica, three hours each way, and returned reporting a fine time, including six hours walking about on the ice, much as the penguins. They had a wonderful change of pace and certainly deserved it […]
Barely two days following my three friends’ departure, a massive high pressure center moves in over southern Patagona, pushing out the nasty low that had besieged us for so long and had brought with it rain, sleet and cold and the Jack Plague that made us all so miserable. […]
Phil: After saying fond farewells to my good friends, I and the good ship Indigo begin making our way through the Chilean archipelago’s canals, headed north to Puerto Montt. Along the way, we are accompanied by the ever present rain, cold, wind and more rain, its climate closely resembling that of the Inside Passage in Alaska. […]
In the more or less attractive town of Puerto Montt, I take one blue sky day to wander about its public market area. There, stalls of fresh and smoked fish, mostly salmon, clams, scallops, and a variety of other seafoods, stand side by side, their owners hawking in a friendly but insistent manner. Other stalls are stuffed with local made woolens of every description, jewjaws and gimcracks, dust collectors mostly. […]
For reasons that would bore you and pain me, the extensive refit work on Indigo that was scheduled to take two months instead consumed eight. But as the work wound its way to conclusion, I invaded Chile in the belief–wrong, as it turned out–that my proximity would speed things along. […]
Little did I know upon checking in at the nondescript Villa del Rio hotel, that my stay in Valdivia would be one of the most enjoyable times of the entire voyage. As luck would have it, one of Indigo’s new crew members, Tomas Miranda, not only is from Chile but has extended family living in Valdivia. […]
After an easy two day cruise, Indigo arrives at the beautiful coastal vacation city of Vina del Mar, meaning vinyard by the sea. Its high coastal hills, eucalyptus and pine trees and balmy climate remind me of Monterey, California, though its culture is more that of Miami Beach. […]
When Indigo first arrived in Vina del Mar, it became apparent that some crew changes were necessary. This decision led to the hiring of Capt. John Watson and his wife Fiona. John is a veteran of twenty years as an officer in Her Majesty’s Royal Navy distinguishing himself as a superb leader and navigator. […]