By Ferry to Isla Navarino

30 Hours on a Ferry — Punta Arenas to Puerto Williams via the Strait of Magellan and the Beagle Channel

I flew into Punta Arenas, picked up a rental car, and drove north to Torres del Paine National Park for a wonderful visit. Then I returned to the south, staying two nights each in Puerto Natales and Punta Arenas.

Punta Arenas was the furthest south I had ever been, but this next leg of my trip would take me even further south, to the town of Puerto Williams on Isla Navarino, in the archipelago south of Tierra del Fuego.

I would get there on an overnight ferry traveling from Punta Arenas, to the right of the word "MAXIMUM" on the below chart, to Puerto Williams on Isla Navarino, near the word "FEET". The scenery was spectacular, as you'll see in my pictures. The route is known as the Southern Cross Navigational Track.

1:1,000,000 aeronautical chart ONC T-18, from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. Initially published in 1965, revised in 1985, much of the elevation data for the southern tip of South America remained vague. The Brunswick Peninsula, with the word "FIGURES" on it, is the southernmost tip of the South American continent. Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego is indeed the Big Island of the Land of Fire. Its southwestern tip extends a short distance west of 72° W, beneath the "V" in "BELIEVED". We would have to travel south and then west to get around that point, then turn to travel roughly east along its southern coast to reach our destination. A brown line shows the border between Chile and Argentina, which controls the island east of 68° 37' E.

Overview of the Route

This is the Track Navegación Cruceros Australis or the Southern Cross Navigational Track connecting Punta Arenas to Isla Navarino.

We would depart from the Tres Puentes ferry terminal on the north edge of Punta Arenas, then travel south in Estrecho de Magallanes, or the Strait of Magellan. The outbound run is scheduled to leave at 1800 and our departure was delayed, so it was fully dark before long.

The route known as the Strait of Magellan turns to the west around the southern tip of Península de Brunswick, narrows significantly, and runs northwest to the Pacific. We would continue south through Seno Magdalena and Canal Magdelena, then turn west into Canal Cockburn.

The Cockburn Channel opens into the Southern Ocean, but you do not casually venture into that. The Southern Ocean circles Antarctica, blending into the southernmost reaches of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. The wind and waves can go around and around in a clockwise direction, west to east, roaring along with no landmass to dampen them. Waves twelve meters high are common.

So, the route turns around the westernmost tip of Tierra del Fuego to weave through some islands, keeping sheltered from waves and weather coming in off the Southern Ocean. That part of Tierra del Fuego is in Antártica Chilena Province, as is our destination and all the islands we will pass. The route crosses Bahía Desolada, or Desolate Bay, then runs through Canal Ballenero or the Whaling Channel. That connects to Canal Beagle, named for the HMS Beagle that brought Charles Darwin through this region during its 1831–1836 trip around the world.

1:1,000,000 aeronautical chart ONC T-18, from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin.

Map of Chile's Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region (from Wikipedia). Highlighted in red is Antártica Chilena Province. It is divided into two communes, Antártica Commune, Chile's wedge-shaped claim of the continent of Antarctica, and Cabo de Hornos Commune. Puerto Williams, the town of not quite 2,900 people that is my destination, is the administrative center of both the Province and its Commune.

The route continues to the east, past Isla Londonderry, Isla O'Brien, Isla Darwin, and Isla Gordon; then into Canal Beagle and past glaciers flowing down from Cordillera Darwin. It passes Ushuaia and reaches Puerto Williams.

1:1,000,000 aeronautical chart ONC T-18, from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin.

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Amazon 9563588495

The ship-tracking site marinetraffic.com can show you the current situation. Here's a screenshot from when I was writing this page, over five months after my trip. The small light orange-pink diamonds are navigational aids, ships are shown as arrowheads indicating current bearing. Cape Horn is the southern tip of the southernmost island shown here.

Planning Your Trip and Buying Your Ticket

The TABSA shipping company operates ferries throughout this region. Their website is tabsa.cl. The voyage runs once per week plus a second run every second week, and is scheduled for 30 hours in each direction.

The weekly outbound departure from Punta Arenas leaves at 1800 on Thursday and arrives at midnight on Friday night.

The weekly return trip leaves Puerto Williams at 1600 on Saturday, and arrives in Punta Arenas at 2200 on Sunday late evening.

The extra trip that runs every second week leaves Punta Arenas at 0100 on Monday, missing much of the great scenery in the dark, and leaves Puerto Williams at 1400 on Tuesday.

Breakfast, lunch, and two dinners are included in the ticket, which cost just US$ 79.50. I think that's a great deal for transport, a night's lodging, four meals, and fantastic scenery.

Chile uses a form of the traditional Spanish naming conventions. People have first and second surnames, generally the first surnames of their father and mother, respectively. Chileans never replace their surnames by their spouse's at marriage.

That meant that while I should be able to buy my ticket online, I couldn't complete the transaction without fully completing the registration form. So, Roberto Luiz Cromwell Lam set off for southern Chile with a valid ticket. If it became an issue, I would blame it on the peculiarities of the English spelling of "Robert Lewis" plus the inadequate format of my U.S. passport.

For the 1800 departure from Punta Arenas, passengers on foot need to be at the ferry terminal and checked in by 1600; people with a vehicle should be there by 1400. I had to check out of my hostal by 1100, so I took my bags and walked down to the Pub Colonial two blocks off Plaza de Armas for a long lunch.

At 1400 I summoned an Uber for the ten minute ride to the Tres Puentes ferry terminal. I showed my ticket and my passport, and all was in order. Roberto Luiz Cromwell Lam was ready to board!

The M/V Kawéskar would be my ride to Puerto Williams. It's a RORO or roll-on/roll-off ferry carrying vehicles on the lower deck and passengers above. Or ROPAX meaning roll-on/roll-off for vehicles plus passengers.

Notice the line of rectangular windows on the passenger deck, above the vehicle deck. At one point during my trip, heavy spray from high swells was reaching those windows, seven to eight meters above the water line.

Boarding the Ferry

Some of the vehicles had been loaded well in advance, but organizing the rest got hung up. They sent us foot passengers out across the ramp to be ready to board.

Once they determined that all the on-foot passengers were checked in and ready to board, they briefly halted the vehicle loading. All aboard!

We walked up the ramp for one last paperwork check and to store all large bags. All this was very familiar from riding ferries in Greece. Don't trip over the tie-down points!

Many vehicles were still waiting to be loaded on board.

I went in and found my seat and put down my yellow raincoat and my book and computer bag. The seats were nice, much more like train seats than airline seats.

When I bought my ticket, I selected my seat. The web site showed me a very narrow cabin with a single aisle, with two seats on one side and one on the other, maybe 24 seats in total. Then, in the week before departure from home, I received an email from TABSA saying that the vessel had been changed and here was my new seat assignment.

When I arrived in Puerto Williams, my innkeeper explained. The M/V Yaghan usually makes that run, but high winds had blown it onto some rocks and damaged it. He showed me a picture on his phone.

The Kawéskar, carrying a much higher ratio of passengers to vehicles, took over this route. The result was that we passengers were widely separated in our seats. I estimated that only about 15% of the nicely padded passenger seats were occupied. Meanwhile, the vehicle deck was as full as they could manage. I think that a few vehicles with reservations purchased closer to the departure date were pushed to the following week's run.

The seat backs had little fold-down trays for food and drink, like on an airliner. They also had large panels, the blue rectangles below the trays, that folded down as leg rests.

The vinyl seats were for the cheapest tickets on the shorter runs the Kawéskar usually made.

There were more vinyl seats forward along the centerline, where they and the tables made a dining area.

The galley served breakfast, lunch, and dinner at 0900, 1200, and 1800. There was cold water plus hot water for tea and instant coffee around the clock. The Patagonia Blend machine provided nicer coffee at meal times only.

The luxury seating area was forward along the port side. Nicer seats that reclined further, with padded leg rest panels. But, they were only available for Chilean nationals. Fair enough. My "semi-bed seat" was fine for a single overnight. I think that on the ferry usually used for this run, all seats are "bed seats" like this.

I went out on deck and watched the slow process of loading and tying down vehicles. The interior of the second deck above the vehicle deck was for crew only, with cabins, showers, and the cooking part of the galley. However, you could continue up another ladder to the open top deck around the window-lined wheelhouse.

The ferry beside us had loaded up and left, and now a vehicle-only ferry operated by Frasal had pulled in. That firm supports the aquaculture industry in southern Chile.

Before long it was time to go inside for dinner. Soup with a piece of bread, beef and puré de papas, an orange for dessert, and a glass of orange juice. When on a sea voyage, one must be careful to avoid scurvy by consuming plenty of vitamin C.

Back out on deck after dinner, I watched the end of the vehicle loading process. There was just a little space left at the base of the aft ramp, probably only the tiniest of cars could fit into there and, crucially, be securely tied down.

We finally pulled out, a little over two hours late, delayed further by extra work to ensure that the aft ramp was securely locked in place.

As far as I could tell, I was the only person on board who wasn't a native Spanish speaker. Most of the passengers were from Chile, a few seemed to be from Argentina.

One of the crew was good at English, and was very kind and helpful. He explained that they would simply run a little faster to finish a 30-hour trip in 28 hours. We would still arrive around midnight of the following evening. We ran at 20–21 km/h, about 11 knots, through most of the journey.

TABSA's vague descriptions of arrival times had me thinking that we were scheduled to arrive later, around 0600, and so my lodging reservation started a day late. He asked me where I was staying, and when I said Refugio Jemmy Button, he said, "Oh, Arturo's place! I know him, I'll send him a message and tell him that you're arriving tomorrow night."

South Through the Strait of Magellan

We were soon moving south past Punta Arenas.

The crew passed out blankets and pillows after we passed Punta Arenas. Only a few lights were visible along the shore of the peninsula south of Punta Arenas. We continued south into the night. I had a novel with me, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold, an excellent book to read while traveling by ship.

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Evelyn Waugh, its English author, published his first novel in 1928 and his last one in 1961. This was his next-to-last novel, published in 1957. It is extremely autobiographical, describing a mental breakdown he suffered in 1954.

Waugh was intensely private, and had only grudgingly agreed to a BBC interview in 1953. He had thought at the time that the interviewer was somewhat hostile toward him, and as time passed after the interview he became more obsessed with the idea that the BBC was still trying to do him harm.

In order to treat his various personal anxieties, he was consuming a mixture of chloral hydrate, bromide, and crème de menthe. The first two are sedatives and hypnotics that had been popular in the late 19th century and were still available over the counter. The last is a mint-flavored liqueur.

Waugh wanted a peaceful environment where he could resume writing, so he bought a ticket for a sea voyage to Colombo, Ceylon, today's Sri Lanka.

His auditory hallucinations began almost as soon as his ship pulled out. He heard sounds coming from the overhead of his cabin. Radio static at first, joined sequentially by barking dogs, frantic jazz music, and evangelical tent revivals.

His exploration of the deck above his and his pointed questioning of fellow passengers and the crew provided no explanation, although they contributed to his reputation on board. Then voices joined the clamor. They initially were talking about him, but then shifted to talking to him, criticizing him and taunting him.

Waugh wrote a stream of letters to his wife, describing all this. He gave the letters to the crew to be posted at the frequent port calls. Mrs Waugh, of course, became alarmed by these developments.

Waugh left the ship at Alexandria, Egypt, and flew to Colombo. However, the sinister taunting voices continued. Waugh concluded that a near-magical device developed by the BBC for nefarious purposes allowed his tormenters to communicate with him at great distances.

Once in Colombo, he checked into a hotel and continued sending frightening letters to his wife. She convinced a friend to accompany her to Ceylon to bring him home. But before they could leave, with no warning he suddenly appeared at home, having bought an air ticket back to London.

A friend who was a Jesuit priest, and thus quite authoritative to the Roman Catholic Waugh, finally convinced him to see Dr Eric Strauss, head of psychiatry at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital in London.

Waugh confessed his self-medication regimen, and Dr. Strauss immediately saw the problem (as anyone today should). He convinced Waugh to replace the chloral hydrate and bromide with paraldehyde, a slightly less hazardous central nervous system depressant, hypnotic, and sedative. The auditory hallucinations stopped almost immediately.

Chloral hydrate,
Cl₃C–CH(OH)₂

Paraldehyde,
2,4,6-Trimethyl-1,3,5-trioxane

The novel reports the actual details of Waugh's breakdown, simply changing the names of the people and the ship. SS Staffordshire becomes the SS Caliban, and so on. "Gilbert Pinfold" is Evelyn Waugh. The novel concludes with Pinfold — also an author of Waugh's approximate age, religion, and distaste for much of modern life — viewing the episode as a victory in his courageous battle against his personal demons. He then begins to write an account of his experience, titled "The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold".

Apropos of all this, TABSA has a strict and adamantly announced prohibition against bringing alcohol on board. They don't even bother to explicitly mention chloral hydrate, bromide, or paraldehyde nowadays.

Overnight Into Morning

The crew dimmed the lights on the passenger deck around 2200, and turned them almost completely off by 2300. Nothing was visible outside. Some lights on shore had been visible for the first two hours, but habitation stops about 40 kilometers south of Punta Arenas.

During the night we continued south, down Canal Magdalena, then turning west into Canal Cockburn. The large island of Tierra del Fuego has an extremely irregular coastline in its western area with narrow isthmuses. Determining whether a piece of land is a small island of its own or a piece of Tierra del Fuego becomes a puzzle similar to solving a maze. Península Brecknock is its westernmost tip. To reach Isla Navarino, we would have to go around that.

However, Canal Cockburn opens into the Southern Ocean. I was awakened around 0700 by high swells. There were also periodic bursts of a rattling sound, caused by heavy spray striking the large windows around the passenger deck. We were going only as far as we had to through Canal Cockburn. We soon turned 90° to port, to the southeast, going along the north shore of the island just below and to the right of "1700 (465)" on this chart. And wow, a radio mast extending 465 feet above the peak of a small island, to a total height of 1700 feet, in the Southern Ocean weather — that must be very sturdy.

From there we would go southeast through Paso Brecknock, then turn northeast at the final "K" in "BRECKNOCK" We would pass to the north of some islands to cross Bahía Desolada further from its opening, then enter Canal Ballenero and pass Isla O'Brien and Isla Darwin.

1:1,000,000 aeronautical chart ONC T-18, from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin.

By 0830 it was lighter and I was out on deck. We were in Paso Brecknock with Isla London to our south. The first part of the day was dark and wet, we saw the first small patches of blue sky about 1230.

Some water had come in around the aft ramp. Nothing to worry about, they assured us.

Back inside, people were stirring around.

We were still in Paso Brecknock, but soon would turn to the north so we could pass behind islands and be a little more protected from swells coming in through Bahía Desolada.

Charging points were limited, but then there was no cellular service here. WiFi on board was filtered so nothing but text messages via WhatsApp passed through.

GPS worked, of course, and my pictures got their latitude and longitude stored in the EXIF metadata. Google Maps did not work — unable to download map content, it only showed that we were in an endless light blue void.

Videos played on the large panels in the cabin, driven by Linux systems running OSMC. There were a few children's movies, but it was mostly science documentaries — astrophysics based on the latest work in the Atacama Desert, the geology and wildlife of Antarctica, pre-contact Rapa Nui, and so on.

Then breakfast was served. More orange juice means more vitamin C!

By 0915 we were approaching the turn back toward the southeast.

A rainbow appeared behind us as we were about to enter the passage on the north side of Isla Basket.

The cloud base rose somewhat, showing more of the mountains.

We needed to turn almost 90° to starboard and weave through those small islands between Isla Basket and yet another narrow peninsula off the main body of Tierra del Fuego.

That took us into Bahía Desolada, which opens into the Southern Ocean beyond the distant island seen here.

Soon after that, we went through higher swells that were coming in from the ocean. But not nearly as high as those earlier in the morning when we were going around the corner of an opening.

As we left Desolate Bay for Whaling Channel, Canal Ballenero, we began passing to the south of Parque Nacional Alberto de Agostini.

The clouds lowered again.

People took late-morning naps. I read more about Gilbert Pinfold's ordeal.

Then, lunch was served. Lentils with vegetables, soup and croutons, orange juice, and a cup of flan.

Sunlight broke through as we passed to the south of the small Isla del Medio and north of the much larger Isla Stewart in Canal Ballenero.

We passed to the north of Islas Londonderry, with its mountain peaks in the clouds.

The clouds lowered further as we continued east past Islas Londonderry.

Rounded glacial valleys had been carved into the south side of Isla O'Brien.

Looking to starboard, Islas Londonderry also had glacial valleys.

Into the Beagle Channel

The channel between Isla Londonderry and Isla O'Brien passed the small Isla Darwin, at the upper left of this map segment.

We would enter the north branch of the Beagle Channel, passing between Tierra del Fuego and Isla Gordon. You can see the tail end of the map's label for Cordillera Darwin, the Darwin Mountain Range. Several glaciers came down close to the shore, making for fantastic views.

Then we would continue east past Ushuaia to Puerto Williams.

Puerto Williams wasn't included on this chart compiled in 1965. The blue circle marked as GUARDIAMARINA ZAÑARTU/44 is the Chilean Navy and Coast Guard airport on a low peninsula to the northwest of town. At the time it had a single 1,340-meter (4400-foot) runway that has been extended to 1,440 meters.

1:1,000,000 aeronautical chart ONC T-18, from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin.

We exited the narrow channel between Isla Londonderry and Isla O'Brien.

That took us close to the small Isla Darwin.

The mountains stretched into the distance, looking back through Canal Pomar. It runs along the north side, the opposite side of Isla O'Brien that we had followed.

Cordillera Darwin came right down to the shoreline of the south coast of Tierra del Fuego. Two large ice fields up there feed glaciers flowing down in several directions.

I went to the top deck for even better views.

Here's the top-deck view forward, toward mid-channel Isla Chair.

I looked into the wheelhouse.

And to aft, our track past Isla Chair.

We were approaching some partially sun-lit mountains.

And soon, there they were in sunlight and rapidly moving clouds. Katabatic wind, from κατάβασις, results when a cold and thus high-density air mass flows down from an elevated area. The clouds the wind carried down were constantly moving.

Just before passing the fjord leading in to Glaciar Garibaldi, a thick layer of pack ice glowed blue.

Glaciar España almost reached the shore.

A branching fjord reaches into the cordillera to the east of Glaciar España.

The clouds and the views constantly change. The pictures immediately above and below were taken just two and a half minutes apart.

This is pretty far south in the Southern Hemisphere. This part of Isla Gordon, on the south side of the channel, faces the north and therefore gets much more sunlight than the slopes across the channel.

Notice the strange abrupt change in water color! We were crossing, at a shallow angle, an inflow of meltwater carrying glacial flour, very fine-grained silt that gave it a light greenish tint.

Looking ahead, there's that silty/fresh boundary further away.

Soon the two colors were still noticeable, but less distinct.

More people came up.

According to the EXIF metadata, I took the following picture at:
GPS Latitude : S 54d 55m 14.05s
GPS Longitude: W 69d 19m 39.98s
making this, probably, Glaciar Alemania.

This is Glaciar Italia.

Glaciar Italia reaches all the way to the waterline.

Glaciar Holanda extends down to the waterline opposite Punta Divide, where the north and south branches of the Beagle Channel split.

Suddenly it was the 1800 call for dinner. I always sat all the way forward.

Soup, bread, pollo y arroz, and yoghurt with fruit. Plus, of course, one last dose of orange juice. I had orange juice at every meal, and I did not develop scurvy. Make of that what you will.

Normally the ferry runs end to end with no stops. But we got a bonus diversion, pulling into a bay just before reaching the border. Through this area, the Tierra del Fuego shoreline and area inland had been Chilean. At 68° 37' E the north coast becomes Argentina.

There's a tiny almost-settlement at the Yendegaia boat ramp and ranger/carabinero station. There's also a construction company outpost here. They're working on a road connecting this far-flung point, right against the Argentinian border, with northern Chilean Tierra del Fuego.

It's 170 kilometers in a straight line north from here to the nearest paved road in Chilean Tierra del Fuego. My 2023 map showed that an unpaved road with many switchbacks on steep sections extended maybe 80% of the way down here. The current project aimed to complete the connection to here while improving what was already there in the north.

A few people walked off here, and a smaller number boarded. Some supply packages were carried off and loaded into the carabinero truck.

Soon we were back out in Canal Beagle and continuing east.

The sun set behind us.

Ushuaia, Argentina came into view. It's the largest city south of Punta Arenas, but the town of Puerto Williams, my destination, is further south yet.

There are arguments back and forth about the official population threshold distinguishing a "town" from a "city". But with 82,615 people in Ushuaia and only 2,874 in Puerto Williams, it seems clear to me that Argentina has the world's southernmost city while, further south, Chile has the world's southernmost town.

From there we had three hours remaining to reach Puerto Williams, that southernmost town in the world. There is also the settlement of Puerto Toro a little further south, down Isla Navarino's east coast, but it's a cluster of a few houses and two minimarts clustered around a ferry dock. A rough track leads inland to a point about 650 meters from the dock. There are some rough dirt or gravel lanes in the settlement. And that's it.

We spun around to pull in with the stern ramp. We were arriving at 2350, just as they originally planned. Arturo was waiting for me at his refugio a short distance along the waterfront road to the left from the ferry terminal. I had arrived.

Now I would check in to Arturo's refugio, and explore Puerto Williams and surrounding areas of Isla Navarino over the next four days.