Three Days at Sea

Tuesday 2nd February

Checked out for the second time and took my bag up to the bus station where check-in was quick and simple; the receptionist attached a tag to my bag and gave me a combined baggage tag and boarding pass. "Come back at eight forty five this evening. Dinner tonight is not included". Walked down Avenida Espagna towards the Museum of Fauna shown on my map, with the hope that I might find a cafe on the way. But no cafe and no museum. It's definitely not where it is shown on the map. Went all around the block and all I could find was a church and a disused, red-painted building that showed no signs of ever having been a museum.  After giving up on the museum, headed down to the shore where I found a pleasant cafe where I could sit outside and get a great view of the shore, sea and backdrop of mountains. The scrambled eggs and bacon were good but served with four slices of lightly toasted but completely desiccated bread. But the view made up for it.

Walked back along the shore to a small harbour, full of fishing boats, where I saw the Eden, the ship I am joining this evening, coming in. Which suggests it has lost another 2-3 hours on its schedule. 

Navimag Ship coming into Port

Navimag Ship "Eden"

Headed back towards town and went into one of the many pharmacies to buy some mosquito repellent. So many people in Britain get sentimental and nostalgic for small independent shops in the high street, forgetting how inefficient they were. In Chile they still have them, the butcher, the baker and the pharmacies. Although, to be fair, the pharmacies mostly seem to be chains. I looked for mosquito repellent in the supermarket but couldn't find any. Looked on the open shelves in a few pharmacies and couldn't find any there either. Spanish is a friendly language and mosquito repellent translates as “repelente de mosquitos”. Waited behind a couple who seemed to be buying half the pharmacy and then when I got to the assistant she tells me I need a ticket from the machine. Yes it's quite visible when she points to it but it never dawned on me that there would be a ticket queuing system in a shop. So I get my ticket, No33, now noticing the display telling me she is serving ticket 30. Not too bad. But then the people in front of me decide they want to buy other things, or they want to compare prices, so it is a fair wait. When it gets to my turn I ask her for the “repelente de mosquitos” which, to my amazement, she understands, and she goes to a shelf and brings forth two options. Now it is my turn to read the labels to check if they contain DEET, since the travel doctor in Singapore warned me that DEET is the only effective repellent, and compare the prices and sizes of the two options. I have been waiting 20 minutes for my moment in the sun so I don't want to be rushed. Eventually I pay my money and get my spray but wouldn't it be so much easier and efficient if I could just find what I wanted on the shelves, compare prices and contents, choose what I wanted and take it to the cash desk?

The pharmacy is close to the town square which is nicely laid out with park benches where I feel like sitting down. Sometimes I wonder what qualifications you need to be an urban planner. The park benches are solidly built out of wood and concrete and probably cost a lot. But they are all in the sun! Can't imagine many people sit on them in the winter and I have already found out how easy it is to get burnt here. Obviously everyone else thinks the same since the benches are empty. Fortunately there are many trees in the square and under most of them are people sitting or lying on the grass. So I find an unpopulated tree and relax under it.

For dinner went to “Santolla Meson de Mar”, which I had noticed earlier and is built,mostly, out of shipping containers. Had an excellent conger eel steak with crisp mixed vegetables and glass of pinot noir, followed by a Chilean bread pudding which I was not so impressed by; prefer the English version. The interior design is studiedly casual and uses lots of low wattage, tungsten filament bulbs with free-standing filaments about 40 mm long. Looking at the bulb nearest to my table I noticed that the filaments seem to be dancing in tune with the music. And this was before drinking a drop of the wine!

Restaurant Built out of Containers

Returned to the bus station for the 8.45 rendezvous, chatting to J & V, originally from England but now retired and living on a boat in Greece. It was after 9.30 when the bus came, and then it wasn't big enough for everyone, but I managed to get on the first one, driving down past the hotel where I had been staying and onto the cargo deck of the ship. I was allocated my cabin, No 518, but the door wouldn't lock so I was moved to 525. It isn't luxurious but perfectly adequate, quite cosy in fact. Toilets and showers are along the corridor and again look OK. But big shock: no bar! First time I have been on a ship which has a no alcohol rule! I did read that we were not supposed to bring alcohol on board but I imagined that was so that they could maximise their bar sales. Naturally on reading the prohibition I decided to smuggle a small bottle of rum on board, and a bottle of coke.  According to Percy, the purser, the no alcohol rule was introduced after some passengers got drunk and set fire to a cabin. But I would have thought a bar would enable drinking to be controlled better than having people smuggling stuff in and drinking it in their cabins. Might have been more sensible to ban matches and lighters!

Cosy Cabin

We had an introduction to the ship and our schedule; we are now due to sail at noon so that we can reach a particular narrow passage at 2pm when the current should be at a minimum. That was followed by a fairly perfunctory video safety briefing. Got chatting to four young women from Australia, Germany, Austria and Spain/Italy who are all following long adventurous journeys round the continent. About 11 everyone started dispersing to their cabins.

Wednesday 3^rd February

Slept well and was in the queue for breakfast on the dot at 8.30. Typical Chilean offering of bread, ham, cheese, and yoghurt. Percy gave us a briefing on the route we will be taking through narrow channels threading between the multitude of islands off the Chilean coast. Had a look round the ship and discovered that we have about 60 live cattle on board but happy to say we are not sharing sleeping or eating quarters. Cast off about 1230, heading south and we were soon in the narrow channels Percy had described. The scenery is wild, desolate and impressive, snow-capped mountains, rocky islets, water cascading down the hillsides. The weather is equally wild, patches of brilliant sunshine interspersed with black and grey clouds, occasional driving rain and always wind, ranging from normal stiff wind you might expect at sea and howling gales that threaten to blow your off your feet. Lunch reminded me of school dinners, hearty and filling would probably best describe it: vegetable soup, probably out of a catering pack, with lots of pearl barley, tinned sweetcorn and cabbage salad, pork and soggy mashed potatoes followed by jelly for desert.  Lots of interesting people on board. Found out that J&V made their money buying and doing up property in the UK, before retiring to live on a boat and travel the world. Met E from Minnesota who designs offices when he isn’t travelling and P from Poland who is on an extended holiday. I am amazed by how many people are able to indulge their desire to travel the world.

Bovine Companions

Casting Off

Goodbye Puerto Natales

Wild Landscape

Wild Landscape

Relaxing on the Sun Deck

Thursday 4^th February

What a difference a day makes! Brilliant sunshine and clear blue sky. The scenery as we pass through the narrow channels is beautiful. In the early morning we anchor off Puerto Eden a small community of about 80 people, according to Percy, whose only connection to the outside world is by sea. Lots of small boats come out to meet us to take on supplies for the settlement. At the same time a man is feeding the cows, which suggests that they have a future in their destination. Outside on the deck the main hazard today in sunburn! Started reading “Pocket Full of Rye” an Agatha Christie “whodunit”. In the afternoon we saw the spouts of some whales but nothing more exciting; no close encounters. Talking to D, a musician, artist, microlight pilot and instructor, who dresses like a pirate, originally from California but who bought a ranch and built a house in Oregon, who tells me how he and his “lady”, who teaches Zumba and gymnastics, have been begged by the people of Puerto Eden to stay for a while and pass on their expertise, but apparently Navimag want to charge them an additional full fare to stop off and re-join in a few weeks. They have been travelling for several months and are looking at the possibility of settling in Patagonia. He is a fascinating guy; am I the only person who finds his Jupiter sized ego hard to take? 

Puerto Eden

Boat coming to Pick up Supplies

Feeding Time

Mountains behind Puerto Eden

What a Difference a Day Makes

Wild Scenery but Pleasant Weather

One of the Narrow Channels

The “Capitán Leonidas”, ran aground in the 1960s
on the semi-sunken island of “Bajo Cotopaxi”.Story goes that it went aground on rocks in 1963, or possibly 1968,
when the captain tried to sink it to claim insurance. 

 Mid-afternoon we head out into the open ocean where there is a distinct swell and attendance at dinner is noticeably reduced, not that it was a great culinary experience, “spag bol” (spaghetti bolognaise) at its most basic level. After dinner chatting to E and S, from Queensland, who seems to have been everywhere. Before retiring for the night I decided to get a coke from the “bar” which I could see the man wasn’t happy about. OK it was 10pm and he wanted to close but it was only when he opened the glass door of the fridge that I saw the problem. The lower third of the fridge was full of cans of soft drinks, which may once have been stacked neatly but, probably thanks to the swell,  were now in a disorganised heap, which collapsed as he opened the door just a few inches to reach in for my Coke. As cans fell into the gap between the door and the cabinet the door was impossible to close. Open it any wider and the cans would come tumbling out. Reaching in through a few inch wide gap he valiantly tried to push the cans away from the door, and as fast as he pushed them back they rolled forwards. E, S and I watched for ten minutes, trying to resist laughing, as he struggled. None of us spoke enough Spanish to suggest to him to let the cans fall out and dump them somewhere else until morning. Eventually he managed to close the door and I paid my 1000 pesos for the Coke and the entertainment.

Friday 4^th February

Just a month since I left England and I am about where I expected to be, give or take a day; first time I have checked. Beautiful hot sunny day today, wearing tee shirt and shorts. Passed several snow-capped volcanoes but still no wildlife.

Clear Blue Sky again

Volcano

And another

Red Sky at Night

Finished “Pocket Full of Rye” and started “Tales from the Sofa” by Frank Skinner. In the afternoon went to Percy’s talk about the arrangements for disembarkation tomorrow morning at 8.15 and what there is to see in, and around, Puerto Montt. I admire his ability to be so enthusiastic when he must have given this talk dozens of times. He was particularly effusive about Chiloe Island, which isn’t on my itinerary, but I can’t do everything. After dinner, decided it wasn’t tee shirt and shorts temperature any longer despite the bright sun and watched the sun go down over Chiloe Island. It’s definitely “red sky at night” so hope for good weather tomorrow.

Saturday 6th February

Early start, breakfast at 7.15. The ship was already being unloaded and reloaded. A major part of the cargo was big white bags of what I later learn was fish food for the salmon farms which are a huge industry here. I learnt more from this interesting article

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/04/chilean-fish-farms-and-the-tragedy-of-the-commons/#.VrbqX9IrLZs

Food for Fish Farms being Loaded

About 8.30 we got on the bus to take us from the port to the centre of Puerto Montt about a 20 minute journey. Found my way to Hotel Castellano but it looks like my reservation with booking.com failed to reach them. Eventually I got a room which is fine. As I was waiting for my room I saw that the two pretty French girls from the ship had arrived before me. 

Overall view of the journey

A memorable experience through the "fjords" of Patagonia, through a pristine wilderness. Thanks to the sunny, warm weather on two out of three days it was a brilliant journey. But Navimag fell below even modest expectations. I understand it's  a cargo ship and I didn't expect a luxury cruise but when a company charges sky high prices then I do expect a bit of effort. The meals were totally unimaginative, portions were generous but just two alternating varieties of salad, a bowl of catering pack soup and a chunk of  overcooked meat with mashed or boiled potatoes and a piece of fruit isn't appetising. Nor are toilets that don't work. The no alcohol rule and lack of a bar or suitable lounge to congregate didn't help people to get to know each other.

I hope some day another company offers a more passenger friendly service but I guess it comes down to hard economics.

PS Roger confirmed my suspicions about the French origins of the Eden.