De tour, re tour or just touring....?

"I want to see mountains again, Gandalf. Mountains!" - Bilbo Baggins on his 111th birthday

There isn't really much of that quote that really fits in... I can see now after thinking about it. It was however the feeling I got after a long time spent in Valdivia waiting for weather windows, better situations and the eagerness to move forward. I can't really say that I'm that short to feel like a hobbit. Or that hairy feet. Or that old. I can't even see that Igor reminds of Gandalf at all. However, that was pretty much the wording i said to Igor before he said i should just come down for a couple of weeks to Puerto Williams, again, to hang out. That wasn't to hard to persuade me with. So i decided to stay for four months....

Well...I can't say that the four months was planned. But once you get down to this magical place it is easy to get lost in both time as well as in the spaces of "why did i actually leave" in the first place? Something that really went around my head more than once. Then those incredible winds comes and you kind of get a feeling of why. Even though they rarely even come that often to remove all the good times and all the incredible things you get to do.

It´s been partially hard, at least for me to really explain the amazement of this part of the world to anyone. It is so far from where everyone even considers sailing to. People tend to think the sailing long and far are directly linked to palm trees and coconut drinks. So did maybe I as well... for a time. Then this place came along. It has more been conversations of "when are you moving on?", "When will you finally get some warmth?", "Poor you just getting trapped in the middle of nowhere!". But to be honest, i haven't really tried that hard either. It hasn't really been in my vocabulary to explain the amazement of this place. The absolute wilderness, the rawness and the most fascinating places you get to see, be at or even eyeballing at, time in and time out. It's been an amazing journey again. It will most likely be the same for many more times to come. I hope to come back here very soon again. It is the first place I've really sailed to where I've felt I still want to spend more time at, as well as having a hard time leaving. Mentally. Not only physically because that has also seem to have had it's impact of course. Covid, Mast issues, etc. etc. Either way. Special place indeed.

Either way, I'm overstayed my VISA for almost a year. The boats papers are not in order at all. I guess it is time to make some moves to clear out all uncertainties and take it from there.

Why Return then? Well. We've got to go around for so much more during these four months than i could ever think we would do. We've done short trips, around Navarino island for fishing. We've gone short trips in the Beagle strait for Beaver hunting missions (Successful as well as less successfully). We've gone as far up as Punta arenas and moving through Magellan strait, west and then returning east. Returning down to Puerto Williams took us past some magical and special places I couldn't wrap my head around at all.

" Why is this island here in Patagonia? It shouldn't be here!" I've just said time after time to Igor while we journeyed out to far and hard to get to spots. Igor just smiled at it and continued to climbing up a steep wall or crawling through penguin tunnels in the bushes. Things he just do I guess.

But four months is just four months I guess... Back in Valdivia now. Trying to acclimatize myself to be back home. Working and doing boat work i obviously have postponed for almost nine months. It feels good having had a small vacation and clear my mind a little before trying to get further. Permission granted to Polynesia, again, so I guess i have my bearing and course plotted out. Just waiting for crew to arrive. All well within January here.

Wow. That was just a long text for absolutely nothing, right? Yeah well, I'll throw in some pictures instead. Focus on them!

I'll try to stay in touch....

Ludvig