18 AND ALONE IN THE CHILEAN FJORDS
‘The first two-and-a-half weeks were fraught with tremendous storms, horizontal rain and sleet, funnelled winds and ‘bergy bits’, which were translucent lumps of ice, largely resembling at a distance, the crest of a wave, which made every breaking wave suspect. I had to be constantly looking out for hazards.’
It was a steep learning curve for 18-year-old Scottish skipper Loris Pattinson, who was sailing Aisling, a 50-year-old 31ft Rustler, solo through the maze of Chile’s fjords and channels.
It had not started out that way. Pattinson had answered an advert placed by Dan Stroud, who was looking for unpaid crew to help him sail the three-month voyage from the Argentinian resort of Ushuaia to Puerto Montt in southern Chile during the southern hemisphere summer. Having double-handed through the Tierra Del Fuego and Strait of Magellan to Puerto Edén, a family emergency meant Stroud had to fly home, leaving Pattinson
