Puerto Santa Elena, 23 december 2009. ON THE ROCKS !!!
Position: S 44*30'62 / W 65*21'20
After a relaxed sail of 140 miles in 25 hours we anchored in the bay of Puerto Santa Elena.
There was no living soul or any building to be seen. It looked very desolate, bu t we hoped to catch up with some sleep here in the lee of the land.
We anchored in 15 feet of water and pais out 80 meters of chain towards deeper water.
We went to sleep for a couple of hous and at 16.00 were rudely awakened by the terribhle sound of the boat scraping and bumping on rocks. The wind had turned and was blowing fiercely.
First we thought that the anchor had dragged. But that was not the case.
Because of the change in wind direction and the outgoing tide we weer lying more close to the rocks in very shallow water. The boat heeled over and the sounds were very frightening.
We had visions of a total shipwreck. After a while we decided to try to bring out a second anchor towards deeper water with the purpose to winch ourselves out of this horrible spot.
With the dinghy and the outboard I brought out a plow anchor on a line of 150 meter.
That was not an easy job in the howling wind and big waves but I succeeded.
After a lot of winching we were securely tied but unable to move. We were solidly stuck on the rocks. We could not do anything more and wait for the incoming tide which would raise the water level. Hoping the damage on the keel and the rudder would be only scratches we made dinner and waited till 22.00 . We were floating again, retrieved both anchors and anchored again on the other side of the bay in 45 feet of water.
The next morning we left for Caleta Horno.
