Travel with Indigo

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. But its scenery is even more dramatic. We wander through a geologic maze of granitic upheaval, scoured by glaciers, decorated by lava flows and interwoven by the sea. Each mile is a wonderland of discovery. Snow laden peaks off in the distance stand guard over igneous blobs, some carpeted in primeval forest, some bare as the day they rose above the sea. Waterfalls abound, birds skitter and wheel in the chilled air and impassable thickets clothe the shoreline. Adding to this weird and wondrous place is the surprising fact, related to you earlier, that nary a soul intrudes upon our serenity. No habitation of any kind, no trekkers or campers, no RV’s (because no roads or even pathways), and very few vessels appear to disrupt our sublime experience. Day follows day, rain, cold and wind always our fellow traveler.

Each evening, Captain Toby finds a quiet anchorage with waterfall or glacier as our vista. He and the crew of Kyle (Lost) and Kyle (Found), mate and engineer, tie off the stern to trees on shore using stout lines brought along for the purpose. These, with both anchors set off the bow, protect us from getting blown into the rocks by the sudden bursts of wind exploding off the mountains that surround us. Not once in our travels was our safety threatened, thanks to the good work of the crew.

Up one special fjord we approached closely to a mammoth glacier, 2.5 miles wide across its face, and watched as enormous bergs calved from the overhangs.

At a northerly point in our passage, the protection of the Chilean canals ends and we are required to pass into the Pacific Ocean for a way toward our destination of Puerto Montt. Before entering the ocean, Captain Toby kindly anchors in a quiet cove while dinner is served. Thereafter, just past nightfall, we pass from the calm into the somewhat disturbed Pacific Ocean and are promptly greeted by a BLAM! Just after dark, Indigo is struck on her starboard side by something, most likely a floating log. The collision is enough to roust me from my cabin to inquire what the heck we hit. We don’t know, but in the morning, the starboard stabilizer is wrecked, twisted around its stainless steel shaft like so much play dough. For the rest of our ocean passage, we are without any stabilizers, the port side version having failed earlier due to electronic gremlins.

Our next port of call is the malodorous and unsightly town of Quellon, otherwise a fine place to vacation. It is a principal fishing port and its purpose in life is evident and dominant. This is no place for the vacationing tourist and, it is safe to say, none of us is saddened by our departure form it.

Puerto Montt, the northern terminus of Chile’s inside passage, is a port town with several decent marinas, one of which we tie up to. It is the first proper marina we have encountered since Buenos Aires, with floating docks, wi-fi service, and other services we had at one time come to expect. It is also the first time we encounter other yachts, though these are Chilean, most from Santiago.

Since arriving in this northern end of the Chilean canals, we have been impressed with the shore line. Verdant hills rise up from the calm waterways; well-tended farms, forests and tidy communities line the horizon. The countryside is much like that of Tuscany or Nova Scotia or even Austria with a seaside, though its beauty quickly fades the closer one gets to the towns.

I won’t dwell here on the eco-wonder that dominates this part of the world; there is too much on the web and in guide books. Suffice to say that we are in the equivalent of Yellowstone, Glacier Bay and Yosemite Parks rolled into one. Nearby is the world’s largest privately owned park, owned by an American who sold his interest in the clothing company Esprit and bought up the land to preserve it. He bought well. The place is one of the world’s finest eco-wonderlands. One day for lunch I traveled to Puerto Varas, sited on Chile’s largest lake, and stared across the lake at two volcanoes, both clothed in snow and ice, one perfectly conical, much like Mount Fuji in Japan. And this is but a tiny part of what this part of Chile has to offer. When I return to Indigo after the refit work is complete, in about late May, I’ll rent a car and tour all of this and then report to you first-hand.

Tomorrow, March 21, Indigo leaves Puerto Montt and travels in the ocean to Valdivia, where we have contracted to get our refit work done, a process that will take nearly two months. To supervise the work and act as interpreter, we have hired Roberto, the pilot who served on Indigo from Punta del Este to Buenos Aires. He and the two Kyles and stewardess Tonya have a considerable list of projects they need to complete before the Pacific leg begins about early June or so. In the meantime, Captain Toby and Chef Geraldine will travel to Australia to get married and have a fine honeymoon. We wish them well.