Skipping the canal.

[powsmias]

hi all,
not as well versed in this as i want to be.. but it's gonna come around i hope. Don't see much talk on skipping the canal and going around chile and maybe hitting the galapogos on the way. is it time restraints mostly? done by mostly low budget sailors with nothing but time and curiosity? not interesting enough? magellan straits or the beagle channel probably not the most desirable cruiseing grounds but if not in a hurry, what's the problem? any thoughts?

[Shrew]

While clockwise would be the logical way to circumnavigate South America...

1) You're either going to beat against the Southern Equatorial from the Winward Islands until you make the corner around Brazil (Recife), OR pickup the Equatorial Counter and sail to Africa, coming back on the Southern Equatorial

2) The Southern Ocean is unforgiving.

3) You will be fighting the South Atlantic, South Pacific and Antarctic Circumpolar Currents rounding Cape Horn from Atlantic to Pacific.

If I recall the straight is where Slocum got beat back several times over a month trying to get into the Pacific.

4) That is a long stretch of remote land in both Argentina and Chile.

[sv Grateful]

Buy yourself a copy of Jimmy Cornell's "World Cruising Routes" which will be of immense help if you wish to understand which routes are feasible and which are lunacy.

[JPA Cate]

powsmias,

It is cold, especially if you are tropics acclimatized. Some people love Chile, and cruising the fjords there. It is a remote location. Very scary conditions in their winter. You can understand why Magellan risked the channels, but it is still very windy there, on occasion. Cruisers Forum has one member who keeps his boat there, El Pinguino. I'm sure he could tell you more about it.

Ann

[El Pinguino]

Lots of Quite a few yachts come down out of the Atlantic and through the Beagle every year and then carry on up to Pto Montt and onwards into the Pacific.

All comes down to whether you want to visit Brasil, Uruguay, Falkland Islands, and Chile or you just want to go through Panama....

As you say, time constraints may also be an issue.... it takes a while.....

All sorts of boats do it ... manned by all sorts of people....