Planning is not as easy as it used to be!

”Blogg more often” “What are you doing?” “Where are you?” “What’s the plans?” The questions have been many lately. I wish some times that blogging or showing off pictures would be as easy or inspiring as just waking up in the morning. But truth is, there is really not that much to say. We barely have done nothing these past tree months. Winter is coming, we’ve been preparing both physically and mentally for a winter in a boat that never was made to spend winters with cold down towards the minus 10-20... but being stuck in Puerto Williams, a small town with most necessities far from being available it is little we’ve could have done. Knitting was a big thing for a while. Until we all felt satisfied (or got bored of it...). The rest was then a little up to time to show how it was really about to go down.

Even cows seem to be enjoying the calm and warm winter days down here!

The one thing that really got my full attention however is the latter. “What’s the plan?”. Where to go and how? When? I knew already that the season to leave were getting over slowly but steady. The short winter days and risk of really cold weather was not really inspiring either to get somewhere else. And to be fair, Covid-19 were still playing a major role in anyone’s plans to get anywhere. We were pretty well off down here anyways. We could move around more or less freely. Food shopping and occasional wine shopping could be done all days around. No major pandemic chaos within the small island of Navarino (where Puerto Williams is locates). So we were, after all, pretty well of considering so many other locations where regulations been much, much worse. At least what we’ve been able to grasp from far over an internet only working on occasional days. But we got an offer we really couldn’t refuse. A couple of friends on a neighboring boat invited us for a sail of 1-2 months around the southern islands. Cape Horn included. And as we pretty much anyways wouldn’t be able to do much these days we did not really hesitate to say YES!

We sat sail early and with a great start! Ready for new adventures!

We had a good two months enjoying the most southern tip of this great continent and got to get as close as one can get to that infamous cape. Cape Horn, during winter. We were also very lucky as we would be spending the better part of the winter in a boat that really is built for this kind of cold. (About 10 cm of isolation instead of Colon's 0 cm... easy math there, right? Warm... cold... warm... cold...)

That my friends were the first sights we had of the infamous Cape Horn, picture taken from a neighboring island!

The other side of the same island were very much more inviting and pleasant to lay your eyes on!

But hey, sailing around that little rock, in the middle of winter was not much worse than you can see on the picture. Checked that one off quite "easily" (At least sailing wise....)

Unfortunately, coming back got us trapped in some kind of quarantine again. Which was not unexpected but we wished it would not happen as we more or less been self quarantined a much longer period then anyone else here in Puerto Williams. But then again. Authorities is authorities... 14 days have once again passed in my second quarantine in Puerto Williams. Last time when we got the word of 14 days it ended up at 17 days. So we’ll just have to wait and see. Not like there is any stress anywhere else at the moment.

So close to home, but still so far away!

But it has given us some time to reflect over the current “covid-19 new world or cruising”. A world where we normally could just point at a chart/map/globe and set sail to get there. Nowadays this seem like a dream, even as it might been a little exaggerated. This is how our plans and thoughts are going at the moment. We still aim for the pacific. That’s where the plan was all along. Getting there and enjoy those coconuts and beaches and not use all clothes in the wardrobe just to survive. But.... covid-19 might have other plans for us. I’ve tried my incredible paint skills to give some further insight to the options as well. You’re welcome! Options 1) we fly home, come back another day! An option which is not even the slightest of an option due to many things. The risk of not getting back to the boat within any time soon is one, the cost of leaving a boat down here is perhaps much less than anywhere else. But still, a cost. Option 2) we sail straight home, nonstop. Like “most” boats from the Caribbean did at the end of the season there. Problem is that the route home from here versus the Caribbean is that we have approx 3 times longer. Probably about 100 days on open sea. Even if we could find some occasional stops we would most likely not be let ashore anyways.... so, I move this option to the “not likely”-pile Option 3) We move on as planned towards the pacific. Which is most likely. But with quite a few “bumps” in the “road”. First of all. Getting to Polynesia from here means we need to go through the canals of Chilean Patagonia. Which most likely will be AMAZING(!) but will keep us long from any kind of updates of the outside world for at least 2-4 months. That’s how long time we expect this to take before we even leave Chile. A lot can change. Most likely for the better. But Polynesia just got struck with 71 new cases in 4 days so it wouldn’t surprise me if that closes down. Even if it doesn’t and we actually get there. There is no other island group in the pacific that is open for tourism at the moment. Polynesia is not the cheapest place to get stuck either. But they have coconuts. Wonder how long we could live out of those though.... Option 4) we go east (complete opposite way than planned!) There are other routes possible from here. Maybe not as logic, but still more than possible. If we head east. We could aim for South Africa. It is a long passage in rougher weather but more than doable. From there however, there are not many more options. The Indian oceans interesting points of entry are all closed. Madagascar, Seychelles, Maldives and the rest of the East coast of Africa. But from these the Suez Canal is open for transit and would let us come back to Europe. Unfortunately, without Any other options along this route it is long and not really that interesting as South Africa, except the cape of good hope, mainly, for me, have been considered only a transit location between Indian Ocean and south Atlantic.

But who knows, time might change and more opens up! Option 5) northern sea route It is still an possible "extension of option 3" but still with other possible ways there as well. Like the US west coast. Going via Hawaii and then further north to Alaska and over Russia to Norway. But this would require some administrative work with Russians and it seem that this option would most likely take us on another cold route and most likely the quickest route back home. But the officials and work to get permits are exhausting. Not only for Russia. But even the US would be tricky to obtain VISA. But still on the table... So that is pretty much it. No option really stands out like a clear and obvious route. But then again. With the world in its state today, I didn’t really expect anything else either.

And yeah, for the Chileans to let us go they now require "ok" from receiving country that we can go there. Each destination are so far away we doubt that anyone can tell anyone else anything for sure. So indeed. Interesting times!

This is a bird....

This is the old library boat... Have seen better days for sure!

We have some smaller fixes and upgrades on Colon to be done. Some ideas have grown after spending some times on another boat which has been very well figured out and some other stuff that has just been on the to-do list for way too long. Not really any point of postponing it any longer. Can’t claim it on good weather opportunities to sail no more!

Pumping our the old drinking water in change for some new spring water, straight from the icy mountains! Fresh! Yeah, that is Teo by the way. He is french. Still a good guy though!

I’ll try to keep in touch for some while now. But as soon as we set sail again I have a vague feeling we might be out of internet for quite some time! Over and out! Quarantined Ludvig

(Or actually, we pretty much just been accepted back to the country. All official works been done, put a long spear of a testing thing through our skulls to check for Corona so as soon as that comes back negative (that's the right way to say we don't have it right? If not please use positive instead!) we are good to be back in Puerto Williams! Small steps. But steps nonetheless... Just another 17 days before that happened. I'm beginning to sense a pattern here! )