Cruising through the Fjords

We left Puerto Montt about a week ago. Since then, we have been sailing generally south and it feels like we are a lot farther away from Puerto Montt than just a few days. During these past few days, I have seen only five people: Porter, Big Jack, Daddy, Mama and me (when I look in the mirror). We have not seen many other people, and certainly no towns. We have sailed each day for 3-4 hours from place to place in the fjords.

Some of the places where we have anchored have had lots of waterfalls, running in and out of sight on the steep cliffs and slopes. Despite the steep terrain, trees and vegetation grow densely all along the fjords. Only the tops of some mountains do not have plants. Those parts are covered in snow. We have not seen snow in over a year and it makes me miss skiing.

In several places, we would anchor Sila twenty meters from shore and it would still be 25 meters deep. This is because the steep mountain continues being steep in the water so it gets deep fast. This is good for crabbing because it needs to be about 20 meters deep to catch the right kind of crab. We dropped the crab trap only with a cheese rind for bait at first. The next day, Porter and I went ashore at low tide and mashed up some mussels to put in the bait bottle. This time when we hauled up the trap, we found a small fish in the trap which we are now using as bait. We have not caught anything yet but I am hoping the dead fish will attract some crabs today.

All of this summed up creates an incredibly beautiful landscape. We have already seen lots of wildlife, including a big colony of sea lions and lots of different birds, but the landscape itself is spectacular. I am excited to continue sailing and cruising through the fjords, even though there are no towns and not many people. - JackRabbit