Heading North

Andy and Mags are moving North at a fine old rate. Follow their adventure in the map below, and read the latest story below the map.

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Puerto Bueno East coast of Canal Sarmiento
s 50.59.25
w 074.13.00

Another big miles day with fair weather even blue skies, white sails and to the north 'ice blink' a way in which the skies are lit up above large sheets of ice. We have made special miles today so as to have some time to explore the next area we are heading into.

And one i have been waiting to go to for years. It takes a little bit of effort to get into but ..

The following is what the pilot has to say:

Estero Peel ..estero peel is a 45 mile long inlet with four secondary arms that cut into cordillera penetrating deeply into the heart of the patagonian icecap (campo Hielo sur). This inlet leads into the wildest and least explored areas of Patagonia, the scenery is majestic on rare clear days with high peaks emerging from blue glaciers, and dark red slopes of granite alive with countless waterfalls.

Navigation Planning

Estero Peel requires time and patience.
The weather conditions are generally bad and many days and nights pass without a clear spell opening the views of the Andean peaks.The strong frontal winds that blow down the mountains can raise big waves in the channel, which is in many places full of ice. This streams, mainly out of estero Calvo. tends to choke the central and eastern part of it. 'Bergy bits' can attain very big dimensions and can often unexpectedly break, leaving invisible smaller bits in the silted waters nearby. Do not approach 'bergy bits' to closley. Also beware of smaller 'growlers' Which are sometimes very clear and are hidden in the choppy green waters.They could cause major damage to a boat made of GRP or wooden craft.....(luckily we are in concrete!)

The outflow of many rivers, glaciers,and waterfalls are important here, as the current is more or less continuously ebbing out aided by the prevailing winds. All these factors will make for a hard close hauled sail with many tacks between icebergs and growlers.
An alert bow watch is recommended.
Another difficulty is an almost complete lack of anchorages in the northern part. Consider that is is impossible to sail at night and that ice movments are erratic often closing passages that were open only minutes before.

Difficulties not withstanding, the scenery surrounding estero Peel and Calvo is spectacular even on a cloudy day. The Cerro Pieneta group over 2,400m towers like a fountain of ice over the dark waters and blue pinnacles; deep seracs, black peaks and white glaciers will be the reward for those willing to sail off the beaten path.

This is why we come

Posted by Andy at 11:57 EST | Comments (0)

Windy City

Zephyrus arrived into Puerto Natales seven nights ago under full and beautiful downwind filled sails, with the mountains now to the west keeping all that horrible rain at bay, whilst we flew over wave tops in sunlight and relative warmth.... Before heading up the channel to Natales.

We dropped anchor in front of the town on what we where to discover was probably the only calm night of the century. Basking in our cleverness and the great weather, we laid out damp clothes,and in the setting sunlight had a beer.

Later we rowed ashore on mirror calm waters after a meal and a couple more beers we were making our way back to the boat. All the while looking for something else, not sure quite what people,
company, talk other than our own...

But nothing until, resigned to a quiet night onboard, we arrived back at the dinghy to find six chillean lunatics surfing in two inches of water all of them stood in our wee row boat.

And so the night began you like Rum? yup! Ice? yup!

But where have you come from? Puerto Williams !how long has it taken you?
about three weeks!
In this boat (pointing at the dinghy!)
errrmm
You need more Rum...

We were looked after by some fun loving very funny lively people who took us to several bars,before deciding at 4am we should go dancing. Mag and i confessed we had no money and were told not to worry they lived there, we would be looked after.

We tumbled outside to a waiting taxi the six climbed in then promptly drove off leaving Mags and i stood in the middle of the road. As the taxi drove away all six waved just as sincerley as they had with
their smiles of welcome when we arrived. Bienvenido a Chile and dropped like two hot and broke potato's. Perfect, we giggled our way home.

The next day was a slow one with a fairly lazy morning followed by a pretty sedate afternoon wrapped up by an extremly relaxed evening. Only one thing had changed, the wind had picked up from the North West and was blowing (hard and frequently) the boat was now bucking like a wild horse. I was deeply unhappy and crawled miserably around the bildge whilst Mag's strolled around on deck like he was on the promenade.

So followed six days of fixing and resupply with just a bit more fixing. A lot of to-ing and fro-ing across the channel to escape bad weather which meant we were boat bound as it was over a mile away.
Even in the relative shelter of the North shore we recorded gusts of sixty knots. Turning the water and our anchorage into a pan of boiling rice.

And so bravely we sat and drank tea and did boat jobs...

I once said that; i had discoverd sailing has nothing what so ever to do with sailing,- Its all about fixing stuff in exotic ports!. A good friend of Mags, Pete McCrumb (who if nothing else has one of the
best names ever) and who has no desire what ever to go sailing has said of it

.. A series of fiddly jobs in a wobbly caravan.! Genius.

Our alternators and batteries had been playing up so a visit to the mechanics shop and a new alternator bought. But with a ever so slightly different casing, we spent the next two days
with a hack saw and a various files getting it to fit, new belts add infinitum.

We have met some great folk 'Alfredo' the electrician who came out to the boat and assured us that the heat in the new alternator was fine and that once our batteries had all been taken ashore to his house and put on charge for 24hours that we would be up and running and so it is and we are.
Alternator cool both banks charging loads of lights and plenty of tunes playing.

Mucha gracias Alfredo

'Roberto' who repaired our broken oar for two thousand pesos £2.00 and we had tipped him one of those. Then made us a lovely chopping board from 'Antarctic Beech' as a going away gift.

All the boys at the Indigo bar with a front room viewing out to Zephyrus, the bar is being just a few hundred meters away, they have been able to follow our every move, including yours truly naked as the
day he was born happily soaping and pouring water around in the sunshine with not a care in the world. Not realizing they had a telescope set up for all and any in the bar to view the incredible waterfront vista!!! Once again it seems i have managed to show my a**e in public!

The brilliant family at the fruit shop of whom Mags is now officially a surrogate son. Secretly i think it was the daughter he was going back for and not another bag of spuds but who am i to argue. The boat has never seen so many nets full of peaches!

We upped anchor this morning at six. As i write we are motoring along and are now thirty miles further west under grey drizzle and low long clouds with incredible shafts of sunlight lighting patches on hillsides and mountain tops. We had a dolphin escort on the bow as we left port and cruised out under fishing fleet escort who where all heading out to work all of whom coming in close for a wave and a smile. Lovely lovely people.

And for us today remarkably in a place that is famed for west wind we are completly wind free... Engine on and full stick we should clear the worst miles by this evening Woohooo.

The final word goes to Natales and its folk after another trip ashore last night this time carrying the outboard motor between us we were stopped by some fluffy chillean hippy folk who had been watching us rowing back and forth all week and were intrigued. After a coffee and hellos and a catch up on our travels, the response was yes it sounds great but all this looks like a lot of hard work " well yes a bit" followed shortly by

Well would you like a hot tub........

So to the garden five hot tubs in total dotted around some under stars some under dome tents, followed by a eucalyptus massage....And a few hours later two smiley shiney boys rowed back, once more on mirror calm waters.

Since writing this morning we are now anchored in Calata Columbine, West coast of Estrecho Collingwood
South 51.53.35
West 073.42.15

Making good miles today and the rain has returned. Its good to be back.

Mucha suerte amigos y gracias para todo
Que tenga una buena vida

Feria viento

Andy y Mag

Posted by Andy at 11:26 EST | Comments (0)

Co2unter, again

so I'm being a guinea-pig for Andy Rankin again. Let's try:

loading...

hmmm... I think I prefer the CO2 Google Gadget as this number requires the author to say something somewhat accurate about what that number is. [It's average global CO2... going up and up and up...] Worth pointing out that it does actually go up and down on a seasonal basis, so this is the global average rather than the exact concentration.. and that the magnitude of the oscillation will vary slightly depending on how much greenery there is in your local area and hence how muich atmospheric "breathing" is going on. Wherever you are though, this number you're looking at is the average around which it will be oscillating.

Posted by Rhian at 17:34 EST | Comments (0)

Shades of Spray

Andy's send a couple of new updates. The longer one is written below the map (and also in the balloons). And you'll see that it's not only me struggling to plot them,- their own coordinates regularly end them up on theoretical land too. Well, I guess we have a rough idea of where they are anyway.

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Continue reading "Shades of Spray"

Posted by Andy at 11:54 EST | Comments (0)

CO2 counter

My clever friend Andy Rankin not only sells eco-useful stuff for boats, but is apparently very bored at the moment on a base in Antarctica (poor thing), so he's made a clever CO2 counter and is working on a global warming-ometer next. I haven't figured how to get the pretty counter on my site, but the gadget link seems to work and gives you the general idea:

Posted by Rhian at 23:23 EST | Comments (0)

Andy and Mags Go On An Adventure

Here is a map that shows where they are and how they're getting on...
It's easier to read if you click on where it says 'View Larger Map' at the bottom... then if you click on the balloons, you get Andy's latest story too. I hope. Enjoy!
Rh.

View Larger Map

addendum,- no, Zeph can't fly, I'm just struggling to convert Andy's coordinates into something that resembles a position in the ocean. Working on it...

Posted by Andy at 10:21 EST | Comments (2)

New Year in Alaska

I'm in Alaska. I guess the snow makes me want to write again. I won't apologize for the long silence (to whom, anyway?!); writing without a desire to write seems a bit dumb. Plus, my day job has me working so much with the web that I can't really face it in my time off. I guess this blog will just remain an empty space until adventures start anew.

I'm in Alaska. I think I've always wanted to go to Alaska. Why Alaska.. and not northern Canada, Norway, Russia? Why Alaska? Because it's all in the north? Because it's friendly to people who want to move there? Because its miles away but culturally familiar? Because, despite being so damn big, you can still talk about it like it's one place? I don't know, but I do remember driving my skidoo to the runway from base in Antarctica and thinking, man, I wish I could live somewhere like this forever... do you think it might be like this in Alaska?

I actually spent midwinter and christmas in California and indulged myself in the approaching difference in climate.

Happy Midwinter:

Happy New Year:

I hate to admit it at the age of 33, but this was the first time I had ever set off fireworks. And here's the boy I learnt it all from (and his Mum):

These photos were taken by my host, Matt Nolan, who, with his family, really has gone out of his way to show me the best of arctic winter. And soon you, too, can see this as though [almost] there through the eyes of his interactive panoramic photos. Watch this space and there might soon even be a panoramic of the aftermath of the fireworks...

Posted by Rhian at 8:33 EST | Comments (0)

Travel

June 2nd, 2007

I'm on a train from Washington DC to New York, plugged in, wifi-ed up, I just need a latte to complete the picture. This is one of the first job trips I've come on that I strongly resisted. I'm teetering on the verge of becoming one of Them. Those terrible people who jet around the world, burning up our carbon resources, and complain about it. I promised myself that when that day came, I would change my job, or how I do my job. Not just pay for more expensive accommodation and flashy trains with plugs and internet. Though it is true, I can get through an awful lot of emails in transit, just as long as my laptop battery lasts. I flew Virgin Atlantic here, located four empty seats near the back to sprawl across, watched Blood Diamond, and spent the remaining hours on my computer. Thinking about Africa and the Poles, and the weird thing that they're both on this same planet, and most of us know nothing about both. I think I got through about 150 of the 300 awaiting emails in my INBOX. Delete, reply, respond, follow a ding dong, think. Yes, actually stop, and think, before replying. And reply properly. I cannot believe that email is helping increase our society's efficiency.. it's just making it faster and less careful, not producing a better product or answer.

The boat is still lovely, my haven, I knocked down a wall inside it last week. So satisfying. The creation of space. Is that what we need to do with our emails? Knock down some internal divisions, create a spacious room to think in out of three cluttered cupboards of unnecessary communications? My life has swung from one end of the spectrum (physically isolated, remote, peaceful, fulfilled) to the other (multi-tasking, multi-location, multi-conversation, multi communication, action action action. Or rather, meeting email meeting.) Weirdly, this is perceived to be a Good Thing. To be Making a Difference. While still Playing the Game.

I'm tired, I'm really tired, and the polar year has only just begun. There's so much going on, it's so exciting, there's so much enthusiasm. But I just can't keep up. So how do They do it? Those Bigwigs? The chief executives? The working mothers? The heads of state? What I'm involved in is such small fry, but it fills my hours and days. And I see the same in almost all my friends.. friends who have jobs they enjoy at least.. time consumption, inner tiredness, enthusiasm and committment balanced by a question mark about Life Priorities. Why does it have to be all or nothing? or does it?

The irony is, sitting on this train, laptop open, I opened this document to write a blog. But not this blog... the other one, the one that says how great my job is.

July 8th, 2007

in another hotel, on another continent, the same white sheets, the same shampoo, I actually had to think hard earlier to decipher what country I was in and thereby deduce tipping etiquette. I'm in Australia, Perth to be precise, and you don't tip here. Thank god; one less thing to get wrong.

Today's novelty, today's realisation of what I have become: the Business Traveller. I forfeited the price of one nights accommodation because my room was so disgustingly smoky; I changed hotels and demanded broadband and smoke-free; and the last of my firsts: I ordered room service. Sitting on my big bed eating asparagus soup and garlic bread off a tray, and proper china bowls (ie.not plastic take-away), the food was well worth AUS$3 extra for it to be delivered, the room was well worth the AUS$7 extra for all the perks of being nice. I never thought the day would come that I would rave about a Comfort Inn!

I have a month of meetings in Australia and New Zealand: Tourists in Tasmania, Students in Sydney, Science Teachers in Perth, IPY folk in Christchurch. Not so onomatopoeic at the end there. Los of birds with one stone, in this instance I do feel the ends justifies the carbon. Kind of. Talking of which, yesterday saw the Live Earth concerts around the world, Antarctica included. I had mixed feelings about the energy and wealth on show but on reflection, it did put a new twist on climate change into the news again, and get people talking. I logged onto the Live Earth webpage during the event and was mildly surprised (in a good way) about the options to make a difference: pledge to install two energy-saving lightbulbs and the site tells you the implications. I even went so far as to input my own details into the carbon calculator, flights, flights, more flights, and all.

The result dismayed me. Not because of the the huge number (which I was certainly expecting) but by the fact that even with visiting multiple countries in a month, my total carbon footprint was about the same as the average american. Ouch. This world is in trouble, it's true.

Posted by Rhian at 8:39 EST | Comments (0)

Flirt With The World

It's 9.50 pm on a Thursday evening. I wonder if it's ok to have my generator on. Am I the only one it is annoying or are my new neighbours cursing me? Is there city protocol for such things? Should I only burn smokeless fuel? What do I do with my ash? I just can't bring myself to put good, natural wood ash into a plastic bag for landfill but yesterday I was told it was horribly alkaline and bad for the river. Scatter it on the common perhaps? Pee on it to neutralise the pH? That may be a synergistic solution for all boaty waste conundrums...

I got a license! Yes, at last. After only ten months wait, I'm allowed to moor in Cambridge, anywhere in Cambridge. It's ace. I get woken by rowers. I can go to the pub and stumble home. I can carry my washing to a washing machine, either in a launderette or a home. I can light my fire and then go to the pub while the boat warms up. I can buy food at Sainsbury's on the way back from work. I can leave work late and get home early (relatively speaking). I can leave home early at get home late. And the burden is gone. The burden of potential. The concept of the commute. The weather-watching, temperature-guaging, procrastinating other eye. The only downside I've found so far is the complete lack of exercise I'm now getting. The 15 minute commute on my new lean, mean, no-friction machine (bought for the field) means I barely deserve my shower upon arrival!

I feel bad. I'll turn my gennie off.

Full batteries are great. Batteries charged, gennie off, the noises I hear now are a flickering fire and the hiss of gas heating my kettle. I am discovering the joys of hot water bottles. What spoilt generation do I come from that hot water bottles become a joy and discovery, rather than an occasional comfort, at the age of 32?!

The flickering fire, I love that too. It is my television screen; I can stare at it for hours, mind floating. Sitting on a sheepskin rug on an egyptian pouf, watching flames dance, thinking about nothing and everything. Wondering what I'm going to do next. Not with my life.. with my minutes. Go for a run? Make a cup of tea? Read? Write? Tidy up? Fix something? And so time progresses in front of the fire until one day I'll be happy doing nothing; doing that most important thing.

I had two fire dreams today. On one I was on an expedition with a family, flying between the poles, visiting scientists, visiting polar communities, sharing stories, observing and documenting the polar regions changing. Filming and broadcasting the whole experience and wondering if the trip was justifiable or gratuitous. Wondering what would happen if all people who cared about global warming stayed at home. If we didn't fly, didn't have children, didn't burn coal, didn't drive, use hospitals or eat meat. The global impact of aviation is comparable with the hospital industry. The climate impact of the automobile industry is the same as that of the meat industry. I hear statistics like this every day. I don't know how true they are but they're always from reasonably reliable sources, quick to provide back-up. If we arrogant few didn't burn any fossil fuels, but equally didn't engage with the global system, how much climate impact would that have in the long run? We might as well all kill ourselves and hope others will follow suit. Ok granted: facetious.

The kettle's boiling, time to pre-heat my bed.

In my second dream, I met the mac man. This is the lovely man I spoke with at length this morning on the phone. He was great. I didn't want to stop talking to him. He had a had a jordie lilt to his accent, a gentle manner, patience, kindness, a sweet temperament. At the end I admitted that I had never had such an enjoyable customer service experience before. He blushed audibly and we struggled to find excuses to stay on the line a little longer. And in my fire dream I met him. I'm not sure what it says about me, or society, that I'm flirting with a computer helpline.

It's been a good day for flirting though, there must be something in the air. Flirt with the World, and the World flirts back. I also phoned Orange today, bracing myself for the usual 38 minute wait, and got through almost immediately. The trick is to select all the options which say you want to quit your contract. Not only do you get connected within minutes (less than 5), but they'll also offer you every upgrade and perk going. So for the first time in a long time, I even love Orange today: they're going to give me a flash new phone and unlimited calls to any land-line in the UK from my mobile... quite handy if you live on a boat!

That's it. I have nothing left to say. This weekend I'm taking Nooksak back to the field, back to the moles and the constellations, the swans, the dawn chorus, the wood stack and friendly landowners, the country. While my city license and field moorings overlap I have two homes: one in the town, one in the country, about a two or three hour drive away by boat. How very middle-class.

Posted by Rhian at 9:20 EST | Comments (1)

Return to the Houseboat

I have just come back to Nooksak to light the fire. Made an appointment with my home, in fact, to warm her up. I'm not used to this kind of dependancy. Responsibility? Restriction? All self-imposed and effecting no-one but myself.. perhaps the term I seek is self-discipline.

There is no thermostat on a cast iron stove. It is either hot, or cold. And hot is good: it not only heats me, but also the water in the backboiler that heats the radiator at the other end of the boat. The backboiler is actually a miracle of basic physics. Beautiful physics. One box welded to the stove, two pipes, slanting upwards away from the stove, and a radiator far away. Stove gets hot, water gets hot, hot water rises, hot water goes up the up pipe, through the length of my boat, into the radiator. Cold water in radiator sinks, goes down the down pipe and back to the stove. Truly, it brings me joy every day.

Anyway, to get that water circulating, you need a roaring fire. Which means the living room roasts. You also, obviously, need water in the radiator system, which I duly fill and check every day for fear of losing the smallest iota of potential heat during my sleep. It seems I was over-zealous: at 2am I woke with rusty water pouring on my head as the radiator fill point, and overflow point, did exactly that. Thus I learn the lesson of thermal expansion.

So there I am, 2 am, rusty water teetering at the very level of the overflow jug. You know how water teeters? It was teetering. Ready to gush forth at the slightest wrong solution. I needed a siphon. I needed a tube. Where is my lab now?! (So much rubber tubing...) Okay, no tubing that I can think of. A cup? A bottle? A jug? A towel?

An egg cup. That was the wee hours solution and there I was, egg-cupping half a pint of water out of my overflow jug.

I am not, in the slightest, complaining about the heat. O no, every day I battle with my inadequacies as a fire builder. Every day sees me squatting in front of the stove, almost prayer like, egging it on (that's it for eggs, I promise). And every day, that sense of triumph when the flames finally dance.

My second day back I managed to keep the fire going continually for almost 24 hours. I came home to empty the stove and there were still red hot embers inside. What satisfaction when a log dropped on top bursts into flame! A word for the wise, however: don't empty hot ash into a plastic bag.

I am still a nervous boat dweller.

I walk on, along the plank, like a princess scared of water. And dropping her valuables in it. I jump at the slightest rustle or crackle. I don't like gas flowing when I'm not around. I shower at work to avoid fixing my own. And I am yet to move her, properly, on my own. To go through a LOCK. Only when I have overcome these challenges, will my home be my home.

It was Spider Season when I left in October. Big ones, little ones, behind the curtains, under pillows, sticky pockets of egg clusters in every crevice. I gained a new morning mantra: my head is a feather duster. My Head Is a Feather Duster. My Head Is a Feather Duster. It got me through the length of the boat every day.

Two and a half months of peace and neglect, however, seem to have done Nooksak little harm. The most amazing success is that my batteries were full when I returned. For this, I have my friend Andy Rankin from Midsummer Energy to thank. I love my solar panels... even in winter! (Yup, the step-by-step guide shows photos from when Nooksak got dressed in solar.)

There are, however, some noticeable changes. I'm not sure if they're due to time away, or new season. For one, the spiders are all but gone. There are a couple of flying fly things but that's about it in terms of critters. It's almost lonely.... but no, there is still life. Life in the form of Mould. I was worried for my clothes but they're weirdly fine. Instead, I found the green stuff around my stove, in the window ledges, on a plastic serving spoon, around the outside of a bottle of balsamic vinegar, and all over one backpack that was stored under my bed. But just one.. everything else under there seems fine! I don't entirely understand the selectivity, nor do I know how I should be avoiding it, so I guess I just deal with it as I see it.

What else? Oh yeah, wood swells. My bathroom door swolled. And I got stuck on the wrong side.

Posted by Rhian at 11:52 EST | Comments (1)

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