Category: Logbook

Before we can really set off, there are still a few things on the agenda: a last major shopping trip, re-stowing the same and the last fresh vegetables delivered. But above all the formalities, including customs and emigration procedures. We all have to appear in person at the immigration office at the port in the afternoon. The wait for the completed papers drags on, some of us use the time for a short nap. But at some point, after a final official check of every single face against the photo in our passports, we are free to leave Argentina.

From Argentina to Chile

The weather is uncomfortable for the first time, it is raining and there is a strong wind from the east. Piotr decides that we won’t set sail until around midnight, hopefully with the rain easing and the wind shifting to the west.

After dinner, everyone retires to their bunks to get a few more hours of sleep. And at two o’clock in the morning, the time has come. The sound of the engine starting and the hustle and bustle on deck wakes everyone up. Suddenly we are underway, the lights of Ushuaia slowly getting smaller and smaller in our wake. Even if it is only a first short trip to Puerto Williams, we have now cast off the lines. It is an emotional moment. Everyone is standing on deck, lost in thought. Two years, wishes and dreams come together in this one moment, and it’s not just the raindrops running down my cheeks.

Piotr and Woitek steer the Selma and us through the cold and wet first night, I wake up at around six in the morning to the slightly different sound of the engine. Up on deck I am greeted by blue skies and sunshine, the last mile to Puerto Williams and the Isla Navarinho lies ahead of us, behind us the rain of the night has left the higher elevations of the Argentinean mountain range magically sugared white. One or two of us gradually crawl out of the bunk. We tie up at a mooring buoy not far from Micalvi, next to two other boats, and after a coffee we heave the dinghy out of the forepeak onto the deck and get it ready to go ashore.

Emigration from Argentina is followed by immigration in Chile – another extensive and time-consuming procedure. We fill out our personal papers at the Micalvi Yacht Club, and Piotr is then on his way with all our papers and the ship’s papers. A good hour later, we are allowed to present ourselves again in person so that the official authorities can finally check that our passport photo matches the real one.

We’ve been on the Beagle Channel for almost a week now, all the team members have gradually arrived in Ushuaia and we’ve been complete since Tuesday.

What luck and how nice that everyone has actually landed here safe and sound, in good spirits and with a lot of anticipation in their fortunately complete luggage.

We moved into a large apartment together and explored the city and surrounding area from here.

Although the crew’s only meeting in Berlin was almost a year ago, we were able to pick up seamlessly where we left off. The first impression is confirmed: the chemistry is right.

The days fly by.

We hike together through lichen-covered jungle, enjoy fantastic views of the Beagle Channel and Ushuaia, share huge plates of carne asado, taste pisco sours and Patagonian beer. We decide to go on a day trip to the east, which turns into a wonderful day where one experience is more beautiful than the next.

We load the underwater drone, which has finally arrived after a month-long odyssey, into the car – there is more space in the apartment than on the Selma – to test it out. Unfortunately, after unpacking numerous boxes and cartons, it turns out that some of the accessories don’t fit the drone model. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to use the second, swiveling camera or a gripper to pick sediment samples or similar from the seabed. But after some puzzling, various downloads and updates, at least the rover is ready for use. A final test in the water is still pending.

We bring huge amounts of provisions onto the ship and stow everything on board, sorted thematically: vegetables and fruit in the cool forepeak, meat in the bilge surrounded by cold water, everything else in the depths of the Selma, under the benches, table and floorboards, between the backrests and the side of the ship, in cupboards, lockers and drawers. It is not easy to keep track of what is stowed where, but it can be said with certainty that even with double the travel time, we do not have to go hungry.

The mountaineering team (Alan, Karen, Jan, Christiane and Piotr) check a first part of the equipment – the pulka sleds are prepared, the two tents are set up and checked for completeness – the strong wind at the harbor gives us a tiny taste and some practice for more difficult conditions.

On Thursday evening we bring all our luggage on board and move into our berths: Alan and Peter get the quietest one amidships, Gerhard and Jan opt for the aft berth, the women move forward: Karen and Ursula to the starboard side, Unda and I into the port berth.

It will be our first evening together in the Selma mess, it feels good for the moment and whets our appetite for the many more to come. The next day, Friday, we are expecting Wojtek and Ewa (our co-skippers), and our departure from Argentina is also planned for Friday.

There are those magical days that are so perfect that you sometimes have to pinch yourself to check that you’re not dreaming. One such day for me was our first day in Ushuaia.

A first sunset together the evening before, the whole crew around a table celebrating the fact that we had arrived on time, each on a different route, but all at the agreed time and with all our expedition luggage included.

Mountains, trees and beavers

On the morning of 31.01.24, we set off on a wonderful little hike through a fairytale forest with green-bearded trees, along streams and beaver lakes (spotting two magnificent specimens) against the magical backdrop of the surrounding mountain landscape.

Alma Yagan

A 30km drive on a dirt road brought us even closer to the end of the world to Alma Yagan’s little hut, a wonderful place by the sea, so harmonious and peaceful that relaxing and gratefully enjoying life is the only option. Alma and her small team cook with love and dedication using local ingredients, wild herbs and gifts of the sea (fish, shellfish, seaweed, etc.) to create the most delicious dishes, magically served in shells. The bar for cooking on board is now challengingly high…😉)

Harberton Bay

A visit to Harberton Bay is the third highlight of the day. Only a few people live here, there is a small museum and a café. And there is Pablo with two huge piles of wood for the winter on the street, which he has started to throw into his garden behind the fence. A spontaneous team effort quickly moves both piles to their new place and Pablo takes us into his house, offering coffee, buttered cookies and stories of life out there. A wonderful conversation juggling between three languages, with lots of encounters also taking place between the words.

A box with skulls

Finally, we visit Juan’s taxidermy hut, marvel at whale baleen, various jaws of marine mammals and have the “smell” from the “skull box” in our noses for quite some time.

Here at last! Arrived in Tierra del Fuego. After a seemingly never-ending journey..

Ushuaia

The southernmost city in the world welcomes Gerhard and me (we met in Buenos Aires and were on the same plane) with a friendly mix of sun and clouds. Fortunately, our luggage is complete and we are greeted at the airport by Piotr, Karen and Jan – a warm welcome and reunion after nine months.

Ushuaia is not really beautiful, but the location is fantastic: the city lies on the Beagle Channel and grows up the adjacent hills, with an impressive mountain range just behind it. Opposite is the view of the Chilean peaks, rugged, jagged, sometimes still with a little snow here and there. 

You quickly get used to the grid system of the city, its buildings surprise with a very individual mix. Many of the houses are quite small, made of wood and sheet metal, simple, improvised, very individual. From the window of my accommodation for the first two nights, I have a sensational view of the city, the bay on the Beagle Channel and the harbor. Right down there is the Selma, which will be our home for the next seven weeks in a few days.

Cerro Susana

The next morning, I wake up to a sunny day. After breakfast together, we decide to hike up Cerro Susana, to the west of the city. Gerhard has rented us a car and is thankfully our driver. A short city tour first takes us to the western foothills of the city. The last few kilometers on dirt roads, the city thins out, with only a few remaining houses here and there. At some point the dirt road ends.. 

The ascent to Cerro Susana winds up the mountain on a small path, leading through wild jungle, green and lush, full of gnarled trees, often fallen over and covered in lichen. Orchids here and there and strange spherical orange shapes on the trees, a kind of parasite it seems. Later we read that it is a fungus called Indian bread. The higher we get, the sparser the vegetation and the more beautiful the view of the Beagle Channel and the town and the short airport runway on a small peninsula off the coast. 

Selma

In the evening, a first visit to the Selma at Club Nautico Afasyn on the jetty. The yachts are in the packet, I discover many familiar names that I have come across in the course of my search for a boat and skipper for this expedition – the Icebird, the Podorange, the Sonabia, even the Spirit of Sydney are here. I’m glad it turned out to be the Selma. She’s bright red and appealing, a beautiful boat, no frills, robust, pragmatic, just right for our plans. And although she looks small in the package on the pier, by my previous standards she’s also quite big.

I meet Piotr and the previous Polish crew, who are bustling in and around the boat, and we discuss the next few days and the things that need to be done, organized and discussed.

So now I’m actually on the way.

Started yesterday with countless good wishes, small practical gifts or talismans for the journey and said goodbye to my family and friends waving unexpectedly on the street. Thanks to the rail strike, which made the journey unpredictable, I even took a personal cab to the airport.

Now I’m sitting on a plane from São Paulo to Buenos Aires. Below me – hidden from my prying eyes by an airy blanket of clouds – Brazil passes by. I only catch a brief glimpse of the Atlantic coast. This is the second leg of the journey, after the first leg from Frankfurt to São Paulo, almost 12 hours of flying through the night. The third leg will then take me this afternoon from the Argentinian capital to Patagonia, to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, the place that claims to be the southernmost city in the world. A title that the smaller Puerto Williams, located on the south side of the Beagle Channel in Chile, also claims for itself. Be that as it may, both are generally regarded as the gateway to Antarctica. Voyages, nowadays often referred to as expedition cruises, regularly depart from here for the White Continent.

We want to go there too, with our sailing expedition Sailing SOUTH 2024.

After almost two years of planning and preparation, the time has finally come. What was for a long time a long way off and in the stars, for the first year it was not even clear whether it would even be possible to get such an undertaking off the ground, is now suddenly imminent. A dream, an idea has become reality.

It still seems a little unreal to me and it will probably only slowly sink in when I arrive at Fin del Mundo, at the end of the world, looking out over the harbor and the Beagle Channel, the starting point of our trip. Who knows – maybe even when we have cast off and the wind is whistling around my nose as we stand on deck, leaving the city behind us in our wake.

Fortunately, there is still a week left in Ushuaia to arrive, to get away from everyday life, to leave the tension of the last few weeks behind and to slowly immerse ourselves in the journey. The overture, so to speak, before the real adventure begins.
A week in which all the other crew members of the team will gradually arrive, in which we can explore Ushuaia and its surroundings a little, but above all organize the last things, check our equipment, do the shopping, provision and stow away, get together as a team and get our ship, the Selma, ready to cast off for our one and a half month journey to the Southern Ocean.