OWNERS’ CLUBEvery month, you tell us
where you are on the
seven seas, what you can
see from your deck and
your top trip tipsMembers’
Logbook
Jack McClurg
Yacht: Marcato Year: 2006
Length: 141ft Location: Robinson Crusoe IslandYou’ve been doing some serious sea miles...
We have indeed. We left Fort Lauderdale in
November 2018 and headed to the Panama Canal.
Once through, we went on to explore Peru, Chile
and on down through the Patagonian fjords to
Punta Arenas and the Strait of Magellan. Right
now we’re at the remote Robinson Crusoe Island,
which is well off the beaten track. It’s 360 nautical
miles off the coast of Chile and shoots up 3,000ft
above sea level. The shores are really rocky and
there aren’t many good anchorages – just one on
the north coast and one on the south. The main
town’s population is around 1,000 and the main
income seems to be from lobster fishing. Next
stop is the Galápagos Islands
How much planning goes into a trip like that?
We started about a year in advance. The biggest
difficulties are a lack of good charting in most
areas and finding fuel, although that’s less ofa problem for us. As an example, between the
Pacific side of Panama and Puerto Montt in
southern Chile, which is a 3,000-nautical-mile
stretch of coastline, there are no marinas that
can handle us. The only marina on the Pacific
side of South America suitable for Marcato is
Marina Oxxean in Puerto Montt
Is it possible to pick out some highlights?
In the waterways of the Strait of Magellan
we didn’t see another human for days, nor
even any sign of humans. There was no debris,
broken boats or even airplanes overhead. The
ice-capped mountains released water that
cascaded down through hundreds or thousands
of streams and waterfalls. Our first encounters
with floating ice and glaciers will be remembered
for life. Mary and I even caught a lucky day and
played golf at the Chilean Navy course in Punta
Arenas, which is probably the most southerlycourse on the planet. Of course we can’t forget
the Antarctica day trip, which we got to by plane.
Setting foot on such a remote, alien place is
so surreal. We were able to interact with the
penguins and even got a very curious young
humpback whale to splash around our boat while
we were in the bay visiting a massive glacier.
I wouldn’t want to live there but it was a great
visit. I also did a boys’ fishing trip out of Puerto
Montt. We wore our arms out catching trout in the
rivers and trying to catch salmon that were not
co-operating. Being from Colorado I was a little
smug about the mountains. We live at 7,000ft
in the Rockies, so we know mountains! Well,
I was put in my place witnessing the permanently
ice-capped volcanoes and jagged peaks of the
Andes – just stunning. I had big expectations
about this excursion but the adventure has
been beyond my imaginationMAP JING ZHANGPHOTOGRAPHY: MIKE JONES 2016; LUXURY YACHT FILMS; COURTESY OF OWNERS55