From the Archives – Sailing the Beagle Channel

When I first laid eyes on the S/V Victory I was in love. She was one of the coolest, pirates-of-the-carribean lookin’ wooden schooners I had ever laid eyes on, and she would be my home for the next few days. Having never spent the night on a sail boat I was very much looking forward to adventure ahead. Immediately upon seeing her for the first time I new somehow I had to convince the captain to let me climb the mast to capture some unique angles.

Forty-five feet up I began to wonder if I had made a mistake. The gentle rocking of the boat seemed mild on the deck, and I was a climber. How hard could it be? My lack of sailing experience hadn’t accounted for the fact that the motion would be amplified ten fold this high on the shrouds. Hanging on as I whipped back and forth, I looked down feeling less and less confident that the 350 lb deck hand I nicknamed “Tiny” and his pseudo hip belay would hold tight should I fall.  I replayed the conversation I had with the captain 30 minutes prior. “Climb at your own risk but be forewarned if you fall into the water you’ll likely die of hypothermia before I can drop sail and get back to you.” Gotta love Chile. In the US with that kind of risk I’d be lucky to convince the captain to let me stand on deck.

Two months prior to this, a random e-mail appeared in my inbox asking if I would be interested in covering the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race at the southern tip of South America. The S/V Victory was our means of transportation to a remote checkpoint along the Beagle Channel during the race. It was there the teams would exit the longest trekking section of the race in which they traversed a portion of the seldom visited Darwin Range. When I said “yes” to the assignment, I had no idea of the adventure that would ensue. Like the other journalist covering the race, I assumed my primary role was capturing the racers and their adventures, not having my own like sailing on the Beagle Channel. I guess that is probably one of my favorite things about life as a freelancer photographer: the constant unknown of what lies ahead.

Lessons Learned: Always trust your gut feeling about a particular situation no matter what obstacles you face. Immediately upon seeing the S/V Victory I knew I wanted to capture some unique angles of the adventure at hand. In addition to climbing the shrouds, I convinced the captain to let me crawl out on the bowsprit, and photograph the S/V Victory from it’s onboard zodiac. In the end, intuition served me well. Not only was I able to capture some great images but I ended up licensing one of the photos created to Patagonia for use in their 2008 global holiday catalogue and website.

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