I arrived in Puerto Williams on Monday morning, January 9, after anchoring twice on my way west through the Beagle Channel after passing south through Le Maire Strait. I’ve been busy full time all week and haven’t had a chance to create a post until now.
The fundamental work of preparing for the next sailing leg is really difficult in Puerto Williams because there really isn’t a port. The Micalvi Yacht Club is situated at a (deliberately) sunken military ship in a channel of the river. There are no docks or pontoons to tie to so you must tie to another boat, called “rafting” in the boating world. Boats here are routinely rafted 6 or 7 deep which means if you’re in the outside position, to get to shore you have to climb over 6 other boats – a real pain. Unless your boat is at the end of the raft, you also have other people climbing over your boat all the time which certainly limits privacy.
Now consider that the only way to get diesel fuel is to take your fuel cans (jerry cans) to a gas station 0.5 miles away, fill them up, and take them back to Micalvi. At that point you have to climb over all the boats again with the heavy fuel cans to get them to your boat. In a word, it’s ridiculous, but everyone seems to accept this way of doing things. If you’re lucky, someone with a dinghy in the water will take your heavy cans back to your boat so you don’t have to climb over the string of rafted boats.
There is a hand truck at the club that people use to carry the full fuel cans 0.5 miles from the gas station to Micalvi. Being in the “no expense spared” mode, I went to the tourist office and asked if there was anyone in PW who would rent me a car or truck. Yup, a couple of people. The next morning Fernando shows up at Micalvi with a beat-up old truck with a few problems he explains. I hand him some cash, he gives me the keys, away I go. No paperwork. Now I was more in my element driving around a little remote foreign town in a funky old truck. I transported my full fuel cans from the gas station back to Micalvi easily, and did the same for other boaters facing the same problem. I was also able to line up a dinghy at Micalvi to transport the fuel cans back to the stern of my boat so I didn’t have to carry them across the string of rafted boats. Given I was in the middle of a raft of boats I really couldn’t get my own dinghy in the water very easily.
Getting provisions from two modest local supermercados (Simon & Simon and Sotito) is a similar hassle though what you carry back to your boat is not nearly as heavy as the full fuel cans. It still took several trips from the truck to my boat, climbing over all the other boats in between mine and shore.
Long ago someone should have come up with a plan to add finger docks of some sort to solve the problem. Maybe somebody did and they never implemented it. Anyway, given the rafting situation this really is a poor place to bring your boat if you just intend to get fuel, provisions, and do Chile entry paperwork. As I saw other boats do, they get fuel and provisions in Ushuaia then come to PW only for the entry paperwork. They’re tied up at Micalvi for maybe half a day then leave.
Others avoid the Micalvi hassle by anchoring in the river nearby. This is more exposed to the weather and means a trip in the dinghy anytime you want to do something in town but you don’t have to climb over other boats and have privacy.
The famous sailor’s bar in the Micalvi ship closed some time ago – nobody could really tell me when with certainty. I was looking forward to a pisco sour in the bar when I arrived, and the good times of hanging out with other sailors and that camaraderie. Sadly, that scene, still described in the Tierra del Fuego cruising guides, is long gone and with it one of the reasons to endure the hassles of rafting at Micalvi. I was invited to a Argentine-style BBQ (asado) at the Cedena sailing school near Micalvi. It’s really a carnivore’s feast with all slow-roasted meat and a some potatoes.
It’s now Saturday afternoon. Fuel, provisions, water are all on board Phywave, finally. I even found a lavanderia to do my laundry. The weather forecast suggest going to Lennox Island Tuesday, anchor for the night, then set off across the Drake Passage on Wednesday. The Chilean Navy (Armada) will only issue the permit, actually a sailing itinerary called a “zarpe”, one day before departure so than means Monday I need to be back in the Navy’s office to do that – assuming the forecast is still workable.
Exactly how I get my boat out from the rafted string is a problem the denizens of Micalvi know well so I’ll ask them to handle it and they can just tell me what to do. I’ll probably move the boat Monday afternoon at high tide so Phywave is on the outside end of the raft, or in the outside row, and ready to leave by just throwing a few lines for a Tuesday morning departure.
