The Malvinas War veteran Nilo Navas completed a sailing trip from the city of Ushuaia to Cape Horn as a tribute to the General Belgrano Cruise.
“We successfully completed this trip with historical, cultural and sovereignty connotations,” said Navas aboard the Galileo sailboat11 meters long, which had set sail from the capital of Tierra del Fuego on January 9 with the purpose of reaching the southernmost point of the American continent where the Belgrano cruise ship spent three days during the war with Great Britain in 1982.
the journey
The man, one of the survivors of the sinking of the cruise ship, fulfilled his purpose during a trip that also included a tour of the Picton, Lennox and Newwhich motivated the border conflict with Chile in 1978, and by the Fuegian glaciers.
“The Belgrano cruise ship was positioned at Cape Horn on April 26, 27 and 28, 1982. We wanted to get there because of its historical connotation and also because it is a challenging and mythical site worldwide. We were able to cross it in the early morning of January 12, avoiding a strong storm of 60-knot winds,” he said. Navas to Télam, after his return to Tierra del Fuego.
He also mentioned that later they were in Puerto Toro, a Chilean town of fifteen people where there are still cannons and trenches derived from the 1978 conflict.
After returning to Puerto Williams, the Chilean town located in the Beagle Channel, the Galileo began a tour of the Fuegian glaciers.
“We were in places like Bahía Yendegaia, Hostes Island (where we had lunch with a local couple) and then in the spectacular glaciers of the area, such as the Romanche. We walked on peat, we sailed in a boat through the ice and in the sailboat we endured strong and changing winds”, recalled the veteran.
In turn, he highlighted the “spirit of the crew, strengthened by long hours on duty and coexistence on board.”
Navas concluded in this way his sixth nautical voyage on the Galileo.
Background
With the same boat belonging to the Malvinas Argentinas Foundation of Bahía Blanca, the also economics teacher and radio host In 2017, he made a trip to the site where a British submarine sank the Belgrano cruise ship outside the exclusion area, where an act of tribute was held to the 323 deceased.
A 2019 expedition served to create the “Heroes de Malvinas” thematic library at the San Juan de Salvamento lighthouse (or End of the World Lighthouse) on Isla de los Estados, another in 2020 took them to different national Antarctic bases and in 2021 they returned to the mythical archipelago where the Jules Verne book takes place to honor Commander Luis Piedrabuena.
The crew of the sailboat is made up of the “usual team” made up of Captain Andrés Antonini, boatswain Mario Monserrat and skipper and head of navigation Jorge “Jota” Patoco, to which in this case the navigator Ernesto Niedzwiecki was added.
However, the novelty of this trip is that for the first time two women joined: Verónica Varas and Cynthia Burna, both navigators from Buenos Aires.
“Our Argentine and Malvinas flags flew again at the ends of the world. The Galileo will remain in Ushuaia throughout the year, to carry out maintenance tasks and while we plan new adventures, always focused on the defense of our sovereignty”, concluded the navigator.
