The Navy

I am unsure whether these boys have a sense of irony, I certainly hope so. In the bible of cruising in Patagonia Giorggio says that Natales is a horrible place for any sort of personal yacht, motor or sail. There is no jetty, no peir, no marina for private yachts. However after a nice chat with the Armada guys (the navy) after they told us we could not be at their peir, they sort of just shut their mouths and let us stay there three nights.
Today is the 19th of May, two days and counting until el 21 de Mayo, the anniversary of a naval battle in which, like he explained to us as we stood in the white office, backs to the sea, Chile won against Peru and General Arturo Pratt (a national hero) died. This means that we have been surrounded by navy boats, the rumbling engines of grey and black boats, massive guns that move at 30kts through the water and can hardly be seen under the grey sky. All the boys on board are young, idealistic, brainwashed perhaps, very polite and nice. It seems they don´t fully understand what they are undertaking, what they participate in...
As the patrol boat that was docked next to us pulled away this afternoon, all the young boys wore lifejackets as they were politely given orders to cast off lines. As they steamed away into the mountains triumphant music blasted on their speakers, orchestral, battle music. I look over to Ian, we are on the deck and I look at his smiling face and say, I hope those boys have a sense of irony...
O no, this is serious stuff he says, they take this very seriously... He is right and on our port side there is a jetblack cruising gunboat also rehearsing presumable, and some bigshots are off the boat. The speakers blast tinny naval marches over the hoisted flags and the little white caps and all the boys march, they stop, they stand at attention, bayonnets in the air, they march, they stop, always looking forward, never to the side, looking down a tube to the boat, to the black and the flags, to the massive guns...

I think it was the bigshots, but as soon as that excersise started we were advised to leave the jetty. We checked in at the Armada office and were told by the innocent little boy that he would see if we could stay - we all agreed that something much more powerful must be watching over his shoulder... thankfully we have basically all our chores and errands done and are ready to leave early tomorrow morning.
I´ll be disembarking in Puerto Edén, a port on an island, a habited village connected to Chile only by the Navimag ferry from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales - there is no road connection nor airport... lets hope I don´t miss the boat!
until next time

and not to forget, more photos on www.flickr.com/photos/44544772@NO3/