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Alexander Selkirk was a Royal Navy officer who spent four years and four months as a lone castaway (1704–1709) after being marooned by his captain on the uninhabited Más a Tierra island. This was at his request as he believed the ship was unseaworthy. He had judged correctly as the ship soon foundered.

After his eventual rescue, his story was widely publicised and is believed to have been the inspiration for Danial Defoe’s fictional Robinson Crusoe. Más a Tierra was later renamed Robinson Crusoe Island by the Chilean Government.

The main (only) town is San Juan Bautista.

The picture below shows Bolette at anchor in the bay. However, what is not immediately apparent is that below the yellow marker on the left is the wreck of the German warship the Dresden. It had been pursued by three British ships, HMSs Glasgow, Kent and Orama from the battle of the Falkland Islands and, in March 1915, while under fire from all three, the captain scuttled his ship to save the surviving members of its crew.

The cliffs beside the harbour still show the scars of that battle including the four-inch canon projectile below that missed it’s target and became embedded in the rock face.

Whilst ashore I met Allie & Gordon, friends from the Atacama trip so we went and had a couple of beers and a lobster lunch.

Actually, they were large crayfish, but delicious all the same.

8th Feb 2025 – Alejandro Selkirk Island

The following morning, on Saturday we cruised around the Alejandro Selkirk island, named by the Chilean government in honour of Alexandra, but rather confusingly, not the actual island where he was marooned.

We were supposed to sail two miles from the island. However, as an indication of the remoteness of our location, our captain reported that although the charts showed a depth of 1000 meters, the ship’s sonar indicated a depth of only 50 meters as we approached. As a precaution, we maintained a distance of four miles from the island. (Of course, nobody complained)

Later (Tues 11th Feb): We are due to anchor off Easter Island at 7:30 am tomorrow morning. Although the weather should be good (27 degrees), they expect a slight sea swell, so conditions could prevent us from landing. They will assess the situation tomorrow but everyone hopes we will be able to get ashore to visit this fascinating and interesting island.

Also, after Easter Island we have our longest voyage in this remote part of the world, and we have been advised that we will be without an internet connection for extended periods over the next two weeks, so my reports may well be delayed.

As we sail directly west, the mornings have been getting noticeably darker. Sunrise was at 8:30 this morning. Our clocks will go back an hour tonight so we will be five hours behind GMT.

We cross the international dateline on 23rd Feb when we will lose a day and our clocks will become 12 hours ahead of BST. (Takes some thinking about doesn’t it?)