Circuito Ventisqueros (Around Isla Gordon)

One of the most spectacular areas of Tierra del Fuego is called the Circuito Ventisqueros, or in English, the glacier route. Fifty miles east of Puerto Williams, Chile, the Beagle Channel is split into two by Isla Gordon, Brazo Nordeste and Brazo Sudeste. It is about 40 miles from one end of the island to the other, and both channels are bordered by large glacier fields that reach down to the channels via the fjords that flow into them. During the Austral summer season it's not uncommon to find several cruising boats in an anchorage, but in the winter one can spend a month in the area and not encounter another boat, except one of the few Chilean fishing boats seeking crab.

Our friends, Chris and Anni Law, from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, joined us for a three-week trip into the Circuito Ventisqueros. We experienced the full range of weather; sunny and mild days, rain, sleet and heavy snow. A few of the possible anchorages were iced up, forcing us to find other shelter for the night(s). Tamara, being a steel boat, did allow us to break ice in a small anchorage, but when Mark discovered the amount of bottom paint lost in the process, it was decided to forego ice breaking into an anchorage unless absolutely necessary.

Caleta Olla was our first anchorage in Brazo Nordeste. Nancy and Chris rowed across the bay and hiked up a ridge of glacial moraine in a snowstorm in hopes of a peak at the Holandia Glacier. Visibility was poor, and after an hour of hiking they were about to turn back when the snow stopped, the clouds receded and they were finally rewarded with a view across the melt-water lake to the glacier. Five condors soared on the wind off the glacier and surrounding cliffs, disappearing over a ridge, to suddenly reappear directly overhead, hovering and glaring down, as if considering whether Nancy and Chris might make a tasty snack.

Bahia Yendegaia is the site of an old estancia founded by the Anglican priest Thomas Bridges. The cruising guides of the area mentioned that the guardian for the area hires horses. Nancy is always looking for an opportunity to go riding but no one was around the few days we were anchored in the bay. There were eight horses roaming about freely that appeared to belong to the caretaker. Chris and Anni were able to view their first guanacos grazing on the cliffs above the anchorage.

We were hoping that there would be opportunities for skiing but the terrain in most of the anchorages was too steep and the brush dense, denying acess to the slopes above. Yendegaia would have been a good place to ski but most of the snow that had fallen the week before had melted but it did allow good hiking.

We will be transiting the area again next March as we make our way north to Puerto Montt. We would like to visit a few of the anchorages we were unable to enter due to ice and get in some more hiking.