moored at the Ushuaia or Puerto
Williams yacht club.
We fill up our tanks and might be lucky
to get some fresh bread - we get our
'zarpe', our permission to head west -
if the weather allows.
We sail from Puerto Williams to the West and
sail past
Mejillones
harbor and Yagan Cemetary.
It is a very old Yagan Indian settlement.
A great many small bays unite here with landscapes
of unique beauty and we cruise within about 10 miles
from the City of
Ushuaia, Argentina.
During sailing you will have the opportunity to
see different expressions of fauna such as:
the world's largest birds, condors and albatross,
giant petrels, also penguins, wild geese and
ducks, large flightless "steamer ducks," seals,
and occasionally whales and orcas (Killer Whales).
On arriving at Port Navarino, you may disembark
and visit ancient Indian settlements, paddle,
hike or fish for salmon and trout.
[The 14 day combination
tour
goes directly to the glaciers
and Fjords of Tierra Del Fuego
before Cape Horn]
From Puerto Navarino we continue west
along the Beagle Channel to
the place
where
the
Beagle Channel divides into two branches
to the picturesque South Seas type refuge,
Pot
cove (Caleta Holla) located
at the foot of the
Holland
glacier on the Island of Tierra Del Fuego.
Here we take a 2 hour hike up to the glacier and lake through the woods.
We stay one or two nights at this beautiful cove.
We sail early again towards the West, to the Marvelous
Pia
fjord and Glaciers.
We will then navigate, continuing always westerly along the
Beagle Channel past the island of
Gordon
along the
northwest arm of the Beagle Channel to
Garibaldi
fjord.
During this trajectory we pass
Mount
Darwin and one
may appreciate a succession of glaciers located along
the Beagle Channel at close range. These glaciers are named
France,
Italy,
Germany, Spain and Romanche.
After Garibaldi, we sometimes have time to sail south to the
newly opened Southwest branch of the Beagle channel
See
http://www.victory-cruises.com/southwest_branch.html
Cape Horn via the Murray Channel
We then head back to Puerto Navarino to subsquently take the
Murray Channel to Cape Horn stopping at some out of
the way coves to stay overnight.
You may visit the Puerto Williams
Yagan
Indian museum
to see Indian artifacts and visit other points of interest.
You will have an early farewell lunch and then make your
final disembarkation from the "Victory" in order
to be transported to the airport for your return to
Punta Arenas and an optional tour of
Torres
Del Paine.
If time and weather permit, we will see even more
out of the way coves, lakes, forests and streams
that are not on the itinerary.
CAPE HORN
DAY ONE
Early in the morning we weigh anchor to sail
to Cape Horn by way of the Murray Channel on the West end of
Navarino island to the historic site where Darwin and Fitzroy sailed at
Wulaia.
From there we go south, past the island of Milne Edwards taking
advantage of the protection from the strong West winds.
We hug the coast of the peninsula Pasteur, and the
Peninsula Hardy on Hoste island to anchor overnight at
Orange bay close to where False Cape Horn lies.
Whoever arrived from the Pacific Ocean had to overcome
the danger represented by the "false Cabo de Hornos", as the
Chileans who own the area, call it.
This cape is sighted twenty miles ahead and, when surrounded
by big breakers and foamy waves that sometimes carry powered
snow along their crests, it may confuse the helmsman, some of
whom have tragically choosen the wrong route.
DAY TWO Wait for good weather in Historic Mission harbor
Orange Bay, where the French Romanche expedition stayed a year
during 1883-84. Exploring and hiking.
DAY THREE
In Port Maxwell, as everywhere in Tierra Del Fuego good
anchoring is assured by tying off to some stout trees or
rocks to anticipate a possible Williwaw!
This is a natural phenomenon which exists in here and is
a strong wind up to 100 knots that comes from a sudden
difference in atmospheric pressure and can be a spectacle
difficult to forget.
(Don't worry, there has never been any accident involving
tourists as, our native crew members are very well prepared)
See passenger's
testimonials.
The Arctic, Antarctica and Cape Horn 
