7-11 April.....Three days at sea and a rough ride for someone

Thankfully, this was not the Navimag..................................


Lynne says...

Our highly anticipated departure was delayed due to bad weather and so we were stranded in Puerto Natales for yet another day. To give you an idea, Puerto Natales makes Nuneaton sound appealing and that's saying something (sorry John and Chez). The poor buggers who had already endured three days at sea were stranded in port and within sight of dry land but they weren't allowed off due to rough waters. There was also a terrible rumour circulating that I kept trying to ignore - the vessel we were supposed to sail on had been shipwrecked two weeks previously and we were on the standby.

The guidebooks all promise that the most popular ways to travel through Patagonian Chile is via ship. Road connections in this part of the world are few and far between and a 60 hour trip on a bus didn´t appeal to either of us. Instead, three days sailing amongst islands, fjords, peninsulas and glaciers promised to be a much more comfortable option.

Years ago, travellers had no option but to bargain for a passage on cargo ships that plied the waters between Puerto Natales and Puerto Montt. Realising they were on to a good thing, Navimag, the only company that sails this particular part of the world, converted two of their ships to take foot passengers. It was an immediate success despite the basic conditions.

We were fairly limited to what we could actually do to pass the time and spent the next three days playing cards, reading and hanging out with fellow gringos over pisco sour and beer. Every now and again we would troop outside into the drizzle and watch Patagonian Chile pass us by. Unfortunately, the weather was shocking so all we saw were the vague outlines of islands in the distance. My particular highlight was the sight of a whale fin in the distance - or was it just a particularly high wave?

On day two, conversation turned to the forthcoming crossing of the Golfo de Penas, a stretch of rough water that would take around 12 hours to navigate. Despite preparing himself with seasickness tablets, Matt didn´t take long to succumb to the motion of the sea and fairly quickly lost his lunch over the side of the boat. Not many people made it for dinner that evening.

After three days the boredom had really started to set in and the routine felt a bit like being inside a prison. Meals were at set times, prison style, and the food matched the weather outside - completely unremarkable. I learnt two new card games and the ability to stare into space for hours on end.

The saving grace were the people. Fellow gringo travellers made the voyage seem almost bearable, so many thanks to our ubercool cabin mates from Amsterdam Martin and Mandy, solo wine buff Adam from Leeds and fellow marrieds, Paul and Joanne from Shepherd's Bush - what would we have done without them? Probably jumped into the ice cold water no doubt. Either that or we would have started talking to the farm animals outside.

It certainly was a memorable experience but due to the unending grey clouds it had nothing to do with the promised spectacular fjords, peninsulas and islands. Nevertheless, we´d met some great people and it was definitely better than catching the bus.