Puerto Williams

The Mikalvi Yacht Club in Puerto Williams
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DAY TEN - THURSDAY 13/12/2007

Not such an early start, but we left Caleta Olla in glorious sunshine and loads of it - amazing, I think this is the first day where it has been this warm, a few days ago we were in a freezing blizzard and now were are sunbathing.

It really is the end of the world

The passage along the Beagle Channel was very flat and we spent most if sunbathing on the deck. It was even warm enough to necessitate sunscreen, 11 degrees for most of the day with a maximum about 12 degrees! It is strange to think that at home we would be nestled up inside with the heating on, but down here we are sitting around on deck wearing T-shirts!

Scott sunbathing
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We arrived at Puerto Williams in the late afternoon, moored up to the Mikalvi.  There are quite a few other boats here, all obviously getting ready to go down to the ice or just returning.  Everybody seems to know each other, sort of an inbred community these yachties.  The Mikalvi is an old boat that has sort of become a mooring for people.  Inside there are some showers (we could get any hot water) and a bar.

We headed into town for a walk and attempted to buy some salad produce, stumbling across a huge supermarket, but eventually figured out it was for Armada personnel only, so we couldn't buy anything there, and the other supermarkets in town did not have any salad stuff for us.

This was the scenery all along the trip today
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The town is basically a base for the Chilean Armada so the houses etc all have the same look and feel, it was all quite depressing but then this place in winter must be very hard going and isolated.

So we headed back to the boat, had a drink with Charlie and Amanda, had lovely showers and settled down for a romantic night as the others had headed into town, they arrived back early, so it became a pizza night. Scott, Bear, Jordan and Holly headed over to the Mikalvi bar for a few Pisco Sours, stumbling home very early the next morning.

Berge Viking in the Christmas spirit
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DAY 11 - 14/12/2007 (FRIDAY)

We didn't get up early as Scott isn't feeling too flash (apparently it has nothing to do with the drinks last night), his stomach has finally decided to start playing up after the boat diet of bread dna chocolate.

We did up our diary and sorted our photos before heading to the local internet cafe to check emails and update the blog page.  Cant believe there is an internet here and Bear even managed to get Wi-Fi, we are after all at the end of the world.

We managed to buy some salad stuff today as obviously the supply boat had been in and the shops were full of stuff, so we headed back to the boat with our supplies.

The weather is sunny and once you are out of the wind it actually feels quite warm.  We sat in the sun on the boat for a while and decided to take a walk on the road along the bay out to the ecoenvironment park.  We stopped along the way at the Army Battery park.  There were loads of fungus on the trees which are really interesting, kind of orange golf ball shapes.  The walk was nice and interesting and warm, plus it was good to stretch our legs.

We got back to the boat in the afternoon and vegged out.  We cant venture too far as we were awaiting clearance to leave Puerto Williams and head to Ushuaia tomorrow.

We had a final group dinner with Charlie and Amanda after getting clearance to leave.