End (?) of the end of the world....

I named this dolphins in the sunset #3945957. Not because i have that many, but because it probably exist that many. But still...

I was nervous. I couldn't really understand why I haven't heard from my father with the regular weather updates in a while. Did my credit on the satellite phone run out? It had happened before. It didn't make sense this time though. I could still obtain my own update. Which normally costed a handful of credits and were more Than often wrong. My dad have completely different ways of checking the weather which normally tend to be quite accurate. But not a word. Not a word in weeks when I think of it. I hoped nothing seriously have happened to him. But then again, others had the contact info, they should have contacted me if so were the case. But even them hadn't responded to any of my messages. Bad connection perhaps? It was getting frustrating and I was getting a little worried.

"Don't worry about it" my friend kept on saying. "There is most likely a perfectly sound explanation". But even him looked stressed at the entire situation.

We've been cruising along the Patagonian channels for months. Battling the wind, rain and cold. It's taken much longer than we anticipated when we left Puerto Williams, a small town, or rather a settlement, in the southern most tip of Chile. "The most southern city in the world" they called it. We knew that it would take us a considerable amount of time, so we've stocked up on absolutely everything. The boat barely floated when we left. Which normally would have given me some scare, but this time is was good. We had enough supplies to last us for months and months. We would take our time. See as much as possible, do what we wanted to do in this vast unexplored area of the world.

There was just that hanging feeling of that something was not alright. It had started already when we passed another small settlement a couple of weeks back. Puerto eden, we've had good hopes of getting some additional supplies here. Vegetables and water was high on the list. I couldn't even remember how long ago I had a mouthful of fresh and tasty apples. Or an orange. Only thinking about it got my mouth to water to the brink of drooling. But they hadn't let us ashore. Not at all. Not even anchor in the vicinity of the settlement. Something we had expected with the pandemic all around us. But it wasn't just the fact that we weren't allowed ashore. Or that we weren't allowed to anchor outside of the town. It was their way of telling us. But at the same time, my friends spanish is close to non existing and mine is just a little more than so. Almost to the level of angry did they sound when we asked. Was it so? Angry was the wrong word. We couldn't quite put our fingers on the entire situation. At the time we hadn't given it much thought. I'm not sure if my friend ever did. The languages over our short range radios are not always easy to understand or comprehend. But something had felt off.

"Fucking Spanish man, I can't handle their way of not taking any responsibilities" he frowned. "Can't wait until we get somewhere warmer and with people actually caring".

But I couldn't agree. Up until this point all the armada stations we've met had been okay to deal with. But before this, it haven't really been any contact in a while. For how long I couldn't remember. But something was not right in that little place named after gods garden. We've just taken their information, or response rather, or whatever we could understand, which wasn't much and continued north.

Even though we were two onboard, I've started to feel lonely. We've been out of contact with the world longer than I ever been before. I could feel both of us was really getting sick of the wilderness, like it was time for some civilization again. Even if my friend had the courtesy of always saying what was needed these times I've felt the longing of a fresh water shower, some internet and talk to other people. But I couldn't stop feeling that something was wrong, I could feel even he had a tingling feeling that something was off. Not with me or us. But overall. But What was happening? Probably nothing, but at the same time, now of all the times was when we needed help with wind and weather, we've got none. None at all.

Last email must have been almost a month ago. It had contained the usual. Wind is going to be strong, stay somewhere safe. Family is okay, sister got the virus, but it was day 12 now and still no strong symptoms. All looked okay, nothing to worry about. The pandemic is still booming away in Europe. Virus seem to have mutated, not as many people are dying anymore but more are getting infected. The same type of messages we've got for months. When are they getting those vaccines out? They've talked about it for years now. Starting to get ridiculous, really. But then again, like my mom said once, mutation of these kind of viruses seem inevitable, nothing would like their hosts to die. Made sense to me, and seem that was what the virus was doing anyways. Guessing, keeping up with the mutations can't make it easy for the vaccines to prove itself. Maybe there never would come a vaccine possible to keep up with the mutations?

But now, nothing. Not a single word. We've gotten far anyways. Much longer than we thought we would without the weather updates. But it had been rough. Some days had been so rough we've had to turn back, tail between our legs and try another day. We've used almost all our diesel struggling other days just to get a little further. Little by little we've made it. We've made it to Valdivia, it's taken us almost four months. We could see it on our GPS that we were drawing close. Close to getting the boat into a marina, take a long nice shower and have a nice cold beer. We couldn't wait. The sense of morale on the boat were increasing after all.

"Think if they've opened all restaurants. Just go there and get a nice meal and a cold beer!" I could see my friend mostly talking to him self, but still, I heard him and agreed. No more canned food, no more trying to get that rice and crushed tomatoes to feel luxurious. Just order from a menu, lean back and enjoy.

" Do you think we'll be let a shore?" He asked almost immediately after his first statement. "God, I hope so. Hope they are not as they were in Eden". I looked at him, and I wished with all of my heart that what he said would become true. But I still had that tingling feeling that something were wrong. The more I thought about it the more I sensed it. Believe me, I tried getting those thought away, but I couldn't. I've must have been so introvert those final days and I could see it in my friends eyes as well. That he felt pity for me, or that he was seriously concerned. Or was it that he was just getting sick of my constant blabbering about it.

"Oy, snap out of it!" He said. Almost angry he sounded. I knew he wasn't. He was just sick of me not really talking or giving him any sort of response. But I couldn't shake it. And the closer we came to Valdivia, the more that feeling inside me grew. Like a hunger growing stronger and stronger only without anything you can do about it.

"We should be able to see the lights now, right?" He said while stretching his head to see better. I nodded in response. We should, but we didn't.

"Maybe bad visibility, that's it!" He kept his constant optimism. I smiled at this, not because I believed what he said, but just for the optimism of him. I was glad he was with me right now. It would have been awful otherwise. But he was wrong. So terribly wrong.

"Should we call them on the radio?" He asked. I looked ahead, it took some time before I would give an answer. He had enough time to sigh twice before I spoke.

"They are not going to reply. I'm not sure if anyone can anymore..."

All of it had started to come together now. I've felt the pieces of puzzle were there. He looked at me like I was going crazy. I could almost sense a bit of anger grow within him, but at last I think his optimism died and he started to realize as well. Realize what I've sensed for a long time but just only now realized. I've pointed a head. We've come close. Or at least closer. He once again stretched his head and looked. Looked towards what could have been a dark horizon. But it wasn't. It was a dark skyline of a dark city.

"Power went out in the entire town?" He asked. He asked no one, he knew I couldn't know more than him. But I saw it in his eyes that he didn't believe in it. One or two apartments, what we could see were lit. Some lights along the streets were still on. But it looked like a dark abandoned city. The closer we came the more abandoned the city felt. Almost no lights. No cars and no other boats. There was no movements at all. Complete silence. Even the wind that swept us here were dying down. Time felt like it was frozen. Nothing was going on at all...

"Something is terribly wrong her. Maybe even everywhere..." and as I said it, I finally understood the communication in that small settlement. They were not angry. They were afraid...

Yeah... Got carried away again. Sorry about it. But always had these kind of feelings when out of reach of everyone - what if? Normally maybe the zombie apocalypse is not the normal ones. WW3? But then again... We would most likely see the fireworks working up the horizons if that would be the case..

What would you do in case of a Zombie apocalypse?

Anyways, should we get down to it? The real stuff.. What ever it is you guys really are waiting for? Pictures? Nah! That is in the bottom. Can't deal with the sorting of text and stuff. Keeping it easy i feel... Just scroll down, or not. Up to you. You already clicked the link. I'm satisfied already!

We’ve spent around 45 days in quarantine (in two rounds!) in the same place. Puerto Williams. Puerto Williams is further south then the “southern most town in the world” - Ushuaia. But to call it town is to really give it a lot of credit. We’ve spent around 6 months in Puerto Williams.

We blamed it all on covid-19 but deep inside we all knew that was not true. Truth is that we went here, way too, late in the season. We’ve missed the window to get to the pacific. Either the reason, the winter here, as far south you can get, a view points distance from Cape Horn, has been cold, windy, snowy, cold, interesting, amazing, cold and so much more than I think I can ever imaging explain to everyone. The people, the environment, the cold, the rural experience of a real, untouched part of the world. Did I mention it has been quite cold? 🥶

Uncharted is a term I normally use for “more remote than remote”. But in this case it is more that. It is really uncharted. Meaning, a lot of places, routes, locations. Is absolutely without naval charts. The charts that exists are normally not very good. If even existing. It is not uncommon to have the charts saying 0-50 meters depth. Makes for easy planning, right? This is truly “the end of the world”

So how does one get around down here?

You keep an eye out for kelp, good indication there is less water there. You keep a close eye on the barometer and allway consider the worst possible scenario of all weather updates. You find shelter, and then more shelter. When you’ve found shelter, you do it even more protected. You setup all lines possible to keep out of harms way (in our case it was not unusual to setup 4x 100m lines to trees, rocks, bushes or anything possible to keep the boat from moving while those crazy winds comes along)! You go slowly!

The winds have never been in our favor until this point. Little did we think it would be any different now when the prevailing winds are supposed to be straight in our faces all the way to our destination. We had to consider using the engine the entire way. Somewhat a mere 1000l of distance. Boat can handle about half of that. Meaning we got all possible extra “tanks” to fuel up more! ️

The trip were merely 1000 nm. A distance I would normally plan no longer than 7-10days...

It took us 1 month and a couple

Of days.... to reach half way. In puerto Eden now. Even smaller than Puerto Williams. So normally I would wait with this until "We made it" But we more or less don't have that much more of the channels until we start getting north and taking care of our problems... So I'll just post this now... So I can focus on what is ahead.. Great, ey? You are welcome!

But after all that uncharted and remote places. We’ve done it and we did it incredibly well considering the part on earth we’ve been “sailing”! Unfortunately not without incidents. Hydraulic rolling furler for the Genoa is locked and not working at all at this time. We realized today while drinking "Great you made it to another place"-drinks... We blown the electrical engine for the pump... shit. No way of solving it here... Great! Well well.. What is just another challange if not a challange?

I’m so glad I’ve had the chance to stay around, get to know amazing people. People normally come with a lot of knowledge and information. There are so many people spending so much time in these parts of the world that we really felt confident setting sail towards something completely, utterly unknown. Not just for us, but for most! ⁉️

A real special Thanks feel like it is in order here. Igor on Kotik really helped us from the start and never seem to have swayed far from that helping side of his. From the first quarantine, helping us to get water and food, to amazing trips on his boat, showing us around, explaining how and what to think about down here. It’s been amazing and at the same time he got, at least my, motivation back after a lot of time just lingering about doing not so much....! THANK YOU! ️

Another one to Gean that through days of Working on our engine got it from a mere 5l/h consumption to what it seem like 3-3,5l/h. That is Golden! Sweet!

Aaaaand... no matter what the introduction might say my dad been great giving us information about weather. Not a very easy job on remote and in these parts. It has rarely been accurate (rarely is so cant Blame it on the old man!) but it was a crucial detail in getting here!

I’ve been colder than I ever thought I would bee. I’ve been more scared than watching the worst horror movies. I’ve been nervous more than my jaw muscles can handle. I’ve experienced more wind then I thought a boat could handle. I’ve been more tired, at many times, than a coffeinist in the morning. I’ve been more wet after all rain than taking a bath...

It has been raining every day... (except one actually....)

... but...

I’ve loved every minute of it. I’ve adored the magnificent views, I’ve been excited about the unknown, I’ve loved every second of going somewhere new here. Never truly knowing what would wait around the corner. Wind? Current? Another big crash on a rock? Sunshine? Mountain range?

I’ve even got to do all I wanted to do. Even as most of these things were not even on my mind until I got here. I’ve been catching king crabs until my hands were bleeding from all the peeling. I’ve fished both trout and salmon and making the freshest sushi you can imagine. I've got a hunters license (only usable in Chile though...) I’ve trapped mink. I’ve hunted beavers and got my long dream of pelt for a new hat (no reason not to make one just because the winter is over, right?). We’ve eaten the beavers and it’s been way over our expectations. Cape Horn and beyond! Fake Cape Horn likewise. We’ve been to places only a rare few ever been! I’ve been collecting Indian artifacts (even though maybe not allowed!) and we’ve gone to places few people ever been. We’ve seen places were the great early explorers sat their foot, Darwin, Cook, Romanche just to name a few (and then I really mean FEW!). And of course these amazing Chilean channels, Patagonia!!

I can’t seem to describe the whirlwind of feelings and experiences down here. But all good things must (unfortunately) come to an end. We’ve started the journey north. Towards the equator. It is with a lot of excitement but also incredible sadness. It has been so rough down here, but still I will really miss it. And I know this place, for some reason, will always call on me to come back! And I will be back one day! That’s for sure! ️

... But then maybe in a insulated boat that can keep the warmth.... or not in a boat at all... who knows?

Now the question is, where to next and how to get there without a head sail..?

Yeah... Promised pictures right? They are not very Good. You got through the text, the important stuff. Leave it here!

Great start. Almost sunny! Still cold though...

Morale held high the first day!

Great views!

First anchorage didn't even need an anchor... Caleta Cinco estrellas... No Beavers, but extremely protected!

Then the rain came... And it kept on coming for days and days. Days turned into months....

Just finding our places and slowly getting further and further north.. Here in Caleta Emelito

Caleta Putland for a small 12h break before jumping further...

Normally these guys are the only company we can expect... Barely any of these were on the route though...

But once and a while these small humpbacks are a nice sight...

And the great and powerful... makrills... Big frikking tunas!

... Man eating tunas!

There is always some sweet spot to avoid the wind and weather...

But some places are more protected than others....

Anchor plus 4 point shore lines normally do the job when those 50-60 knots of wind come over you!

A rare sight... Dead calm seas... Lasted for 43 minutes.. Great day!

Some of the places were incredibly spectacular!

Like this real indian summer cabin, still left untouched by the environment. Plastic and all were super early in patagonia... Insane!

Anyways, as soon as we know what is happeningyou will most likely know about it about 1-2 months after us. Just stay tuned! Or not. Not like you subscribe to this anyways....

Over and out,

Ludvig