I flew out of Puerto Williams on Monday, February 20, and arrived at my home on Bainbridge Island, WA, on February 22. It happens to be colder here right now than it was in Antarctica! I’m not sure how long I will be home but several weeks for sure. I have a list of things to bring back to the boat and a tall stack of mail to go through. Being that time of year, I have tax returns to prepare and file (I’ve done my own for many years), and a few other time-sensitive things that need attention.

The next leg of my voyage is from Puerto Williams north through the canals and fjords of Patagonia to Puerto Montt which will be my departure point for crossing the Pacific. The scenery along this route is apparently spectacular – I remember flying over part of it when I flew my plane a couple of times between Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas. In my initial naivete about the area and the sailing conditions I assumed I could sail this solo with many anchorages along the way. Having now spent a fair amount of time in Puerto Williams and discussing it with very seasoned sailors in this region I came to the conclusion that doing this trip solo was an unwise thing to do. Although people have done it solo, the experienced sailors I talked to wouldn’t try it solo themselves. There are many narrow anchorages where shorelines are needed to secure the boat. Setting shorelines solo is a challenge, something I’ve done before, but in settled weather with no real wind to push the boat out of position once I leave it in the dinghy to connect one or two lines to the shore to stabilize the boat’s position.

The weather conditions along this route are also particularly unfavorable this time of year with very volatile, gusty, wet weather and mostly headwinds so very little sailing and about 90% motoring. I’ve expressed before how I dislike running the engine.

Taking all these factors into account, I decided I’m not going to try to do this solo. With that decision made, I further decided to hire a crew to take Phywave to Puerto Montt, a crew with many years of experience doing Antarctica charters and sailing the waters of Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia. They will take Phywave to Puerto Montt while I am home for a break. That crew is scheduled to come to Puerto Williams soon to pick up Phywave in Puerto Williams.

This decision means I won’t be able to claim sailing around the world solo because I will miss crossing a few degrees of longitude (roughly between 67.62 degrees and 72.93 degrees west) which I can perhaps cross at the end my voyage by sailing across the Caribbean to Panama en route to the Pacific Northwest. That part of my voyage is a long ways off so many things could affect it in the meantime. As with flying, sailing around the world means crossing all the longitude lines (meridians), and for some, crossing the equator twice.

Of course, my real objective as expressed on this website is sailing solo to 7 continents. Having a crew take the boat along an inshore route from Puerto Williams and Puerto Montt in South America doesn’t compromise that goal. I have now sailed solo to 4 continents with 3 to go – Australia, Asia, and North America. I left from North America so I can’t yet count that one until I’ve sailed there from someplace else. There’s nothing official about any of this so I’m pretty much deciding myself what it means to sail solo to 7 continents. It’s a great adventure regardless of how it’s described.

To celebrate my successful but difficult solo voyage to Antarctica, I baked this cake in the little gas oven on the boat. I plan to invite the boat neighbors I’ve gotten to know to come over and share it.

I’ve returned from my voyage to Antarctica, my sailboat Phywave now safely tied up at Micalvi in Puerto Williams.  I’m pretty sure I’m the first person to both fly and sail solo to Antarctica.

The voyage south to Antarctica was relatively smooth sailing, taking about 4 days to reach Deception Island. The voyage back north across the Drake Passage was brutal. With an obvious storm system in place, I had the bad idea of sailing slow and west to get around it as it moved off to the east.   Others experienced Antarctica sailors advising me on weather also thought this would work.  Well, the system stalled and was followed by a large area of 5 to 6 meter high seas.  For a few days I tried to hang south of it but eventually had to start moving north to avoid getting caught by the next weather system moving in from the west.  The route map shows the crazy path my boat took.  The worst moment was when the furling line on my genoa headsail snapped in 30+ kt winds, causing the entire sail to roll out and send the boat ripping along at high speed, essentially out of control.  After contemplating various ways to get to sail down, I was able to climb out on the violently bouncing bow, frigid seawater splashing over me, and attach a new line to the furler and get the sail rolled back in. I think I earned my sailing stripes with that one.

Later I’ll post some photos I took during my week in Antarctica.