Cruising into Patagonia

Cruising into Patagonia on the Navimag Ferrry

Off with our friend Jessy

[Febrero 21-24, 2014] From Puerto Montt (end of Lakes Region in Chile) to Puerto Natales (jumping off point for Torres Del Paine) there are few options for travel: fly, bus through Argentina or take a cargo ship. We of course chose the cargo ship. 

Eli and the cargo

The Navimag Ferry offers a 4 day/3 night trip through the Chilean archipelago that leaves Puerto Montt once a week on a cargo ship that is outfitted with 2 floors of living space (bunk cabins, a dining hall, and a video room,) a guide and a kitchen crew. It was half cruise (meals included) and half ferry ride, but what we didn't realize was how lucky we were to get on the boat at all. Until one week before we left, the Navimag Ferry wasn't running. After switching boats they weren't able to open during their busy season until mid February. We were on the second voyage of the new- well, second hand- boat.

Sunset while still at the port

With no idea what the boat looked like, what the food would be like, or how smoothly everything would run, we set off with bags full of snacks, beer and wine to ensure four days of survival. We teamed up with our friend Jessy (from Quebec) and all three of us crammed into an itty bitty inner cabin to weather the next few days in very close, low class comfort. The next adventure was beginning and we were hoping for the best.

Lots of painting to do

Day 1: We boarded the boat in late afternoon. 5 hours later we departed. You have to dodge the trucks loading the ship's cargo to get to the access stairs.

The delay was due to one of the following:
- painting the word NAVIMAG on the side of the boat. When we arrived in port the boat only said NAVI.
- installing telecommunication cables to the front bridge. Seemed an important thing to do before departing.
- swapping out the French emergency signs with Spanish ones. The boat had a prior life in the French Caribbean and they didn't have time to turn it over yet.
- or just regular boat maintenance.

Day 2: After a pleasant nights sleep being rocked to bed, we woke up to the guide's wake up call announcing breakfast. It was otherwise pitch black in our bunk room and we could have slept all day. But since meals are a highlight (and only last one hour) you want to get up.  

We cruised all day in the northern Chilean archipelago. The mountains weren't spectacular but the scenery was nice and many people were out on the deck with binoculars looking for wildlife. We sailed through an area with Blue Whales and off in the distance could see their tails splashing.

At one point during the day, the boat stopped moving. We were stopped for about an hour and none of us on the deck could figure out why. We started milling about when all of a sudden there was a huge blast and black smoke came out of the chimney.

 The smoke continued and every so often there would be a loud 'poof' sound and a new eruption of jet black smoke would appear. The 'poofs' were soon coupled with a smoke ring that would launch into the air and give us a really nice show. I started to wonder if this was an SOS.

Finally the smoke cleared, the boat started moving and our show was over. A while later they told us on the overhead that there had been some shrimp caught in the engine and they were clearing the lines with these smoke blasts. They announced it as 'a school of crustaceans were jammed inside the water intake' and we thought that was a nice way to say you had a problem. Just another crustacean jam in the intake. Hey Eli, you o.k. over there? Yeah, just got myself into a little crustacean jam.

We were delayed again by a few hours, but it didn't matter. At this point we were well fed, had made a some friends and were enjoying the daytime deck reading and the nighttime star gazing. We were pretty happy to stay on that boat for a week.

Day 3: To pick up time the boat went out into the ocean earlier then it was scheduled to so we woke up to heavy rocking on Day 3. It was a down day where you tried to find something to do where the rocking wouldn't make you sick. Most of us just went back to bed.

Poor Jessy, in the middle of the night our room's bar (the night table) was growing more and more unsteady in the huge side to side sways of the boat. After one big dip our boxed wine flipped off the night stand and doused him in bed. We all immediately woke up but only Jessy had red wine covering his bed, clothes and back. The good sport- and guy- that he is, he pulled off his shirt, rolled over and went back to bed. We moved the rest of our belongings to the floor, removed the annoying rocking ladder from my bunk, and let ourselves all get rocked back into a deep sleep.

By the afternoon we were back in a protected channel and the rocking stopped. It was incredibly sunny and warm out on the deck so we continued our trend of doing absolutely nothing while watching the scenery pass by for the rest of the afternoon.

Day 4: After all of the delays this day was a complete gift. The boat was supposed to arrive in Puerto Natales on Day 4 early in the morning. We didn't arrive until 6 or so at night. As a result, we were awake to see the most spectacular scenery on our trip. All day long we passed glaciers and jagged mountain peaks, we went through narrow passages and saw beautiful blue bays and colorful vegetation. The weather was perfect, almost hot, and we sat on the deck with everyone else for the entire day.

Day 4 made this entire trip worth it (if it wasn't already). How lucky were we to get 4 days of great weather?! How lucky were we to slowly be sailing through Patagonia?! The scenery on this day made us so excited for what was to come.

We arrived in Puerto Natales just before dinner. The town looked quaint and much larger then I had been expecting. It took a while to disembark, due to the cargo again, but after a while we were able to leave. We said goodbye to friends, loaded up our bags and took our first steps back on solid ground after 4 days.

Full album link: https://plus.google.com/photos/109460435397456771231/albums/6001229518575050961?authkey=CITo_-qRtMeo8wE

Info for other travelers:
We couldn't book our tickets in advance, we actually booked them from a ticket office in Pucon. Most other travelers also booked them last minute. When the reservation line is busy it is because they are not picking up for foreign numbers so it is best to go through a travel agency in Chile and have them book the tickets for you. Our ticket price, lowest level shared cabin shared bathroom, was roughly $500 USD.