Day 7 · December 26, 2027 · Punta Arenas, Chile
Shackleton’s men all came home alive. The ship that went and got them sailed from this harbor.
How Punta Arenas began
Punta Arenas sits on the north shore of the Strait of Magellan, near the bottom of Chile. An English navigator charted this spot in the 1600s and wrote “Sandy Point” on his map. Punta Arenas is that name in Spanish.
Chile founded the town in 1848 and declared it a free port in 1867 to pull people in. It worked.
Every ship going between the Atlantic and the Pacific came through this strait, and they all needed coal. Sheep arrived from the Falkland Islands in 1876, and the wool business made fortunes here.
After the Panama Canal opened in 1914, ships stopped coming. The mansions the wool families built are still standing around the main square.
The Yelcho and Shackleton’s rescue
In 1916, Ernest Shackleton had twenty-two men stranded on Elephant Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula. Three rescue attempts had already failed, turned back by pack ice.
The Chilean government gave him a small steamer called the Yelcho, with a crew and no charge. Her captain was Luis Pardo.
They left Punta Arenas on August 25. They reached the island on August 30, feeling through fog past stranded icebergs. Every man was alive.
The bow of the Yelcho stands on the waterfront in Punta Arenas today. The naval museum tells the rest.
You can walk to both from the pier.
Magellanic penguins on Isla Magdalena
Isla Magdalena sits in the middle of the strait. As many as 120,000 Magellanic penguins nest there between October and March.
Ferries take about an hour and a half each way, so this fills most of a port day. Book it long before you sail.
Patagonian lamb, and the wind
Patagonian lamb here goes on a metal cross beside an open fire and cooks for hours. Ask for cordero al palo.
Bring a windbreaker no matter what the forecast says. The wind off the strait blows hard most days.
Next stop: Ushuaia
Ushuaia. The last town before the Drake Passage.
