Islas Juan Fernandez and the Legend of Robinson Crusoe
The Robinson Crusoe legend began in 1704 with the misadventure of Alexander Selkirk. The mariner, who ran away to sea as a boy, had risen in rank aboard the British privateer, Cinque Ports, prowling off South America in search of Spanish prey. Selkirk made the mistake of quarreling with his captain who promptly marooned the young man ashore on uninhabited Mas a Tierra, now known as Robinson Crusoe Island. Provided with a gun, powder, shot, axe, knife and food for a few days, the ship sailed away. It was Selkirk’s four years alone on the island that inspired Daniel Defoe to write what is considered the first British novel in 1719, Robinson Crusoe.
The volcanic Islas Juan Fernandez is the name of a group of three islands - Robinson Crusoe, Santa Clara, and Alejandro Selkirk - and a spattering of islets that lie about 400 miles west of Chile in the Pacific Ocean. The island group has an area of 56 square miles and a population of less than 1,000. The only industry is fishing and the islands' waters are well known for the lobsters caught there. An estimated 600 Spanish-speakers live on Robinson Crusoe, the largest island, named after its most famous celebrity. The islands were discovered in 1563 by the Spanish navigator Juan Fernandez who originally named them Mas a Tierra (closer to land) and Mas a Fuera (further away from land). He stopped briefly and put goats
ashore, as a future food source for shipwrecked sailors. It was a common practice of the time, but the goats, adaptable, voracious
and prolific, wrought ecological havoc.
Isla Robinson Crusoe - 33S38.38 / 78W49.53
We had tried three times in the past to sail to Juan Fernandez and for one reason or another, never made it; so this time we were determined to stop there. We left the calm, protected waters of Chiloe and sailed out into the Pacific via Canal Chacao. We were literally "spit" out at 8.5 knots on the ebbing tide. The passage of about 545 miles northwest took 4.5 days with variable winds and seas. We could see a faint outline of Robinson Crusoe
Island from about 30 miles out. We were getting close. We were sailing a broad reach to downwind at about 7-8 knots with the staysail and a reefed main in 25kts of wind. We arrived at Cumberland Bay, Robinson Crusoe Island with 35+ knot winds (williwaws) sweeping down the valley from the mountains into the anchorage. A father-son team from the Swiss catamaran, Jumbo, already in the anchorage arrived in their dinghy and offered help in retrieving lines for one of two free moorings available to visiting sailors. We tied up, tidied up and despite winds that grew to 40-50 knots, spent a relaxing evening (kind of).
The next day we headed to shore at mid-day to check in with the Capitania's office. Our next stop was CONAF to pay our park fees and get a trail map. At last, we'd arrived in the Archipelago Juan Fernandez. Robinson Crusoe Island, by the way, is 12 miles long, 4 miles across, 34 miles around and estimated to be 4 million years old. It was renamed Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966.
We needed some exercise so our first hike was an easy one to Fort Santa Barbara where rusting Spanish canons remain in place. If you strain your
eyes, you can see Nine of Cups in the anchorage. Our first real hike was to the Plazoleta del Yunque, considered an easy hike (not so easy for us) and recommended by a new local friend, Pedro. It was, of course, all "up". There was a lovely picnic/ campground at the trail's end and a self-guided
45-minute circuit walk on a easy path from the campground which afforded us the opportunity to see different flora than that in the town below.
The island's most famous celebrity, Alexander Selkirk, greets you at the head of the pier as you arrive in the island's little and only town of San Juan Bautista.
A portrait of Alexander Selkirk by Rosemary Sage with an attempt by the artist to render a picture of Selkirk as close in resemblance as possible as he is described in various articles.
The original title of Defoe’s book allegedly based on the experiences of Alexander Selkirk was "The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years, All Alone on an Uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River Oronoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men Perished but Himself. An Account of How He was at Last Strangely Delivered by Pyrates". WHEW!
Our next hike was to the Mirador de Selkirk, a moderate hike to the to the top of a 1,700-foot cliff now called Mirador (lookout) de Selkirk. This is where Selkirk climbed everyday and scanned the sea, hoping to spot a saving sail. His lonely vigil inspired British poet William Cowper to begin his poem about Selkirk's solitude with the famous line: "I am monarch of all I survey." Selkirk lived on the island for four years and four months, before two ships in need of fresh water, the Duke and Duchess, sailed in. A ship’s tender sent ashore for water returned with Selkirk, "a man," noted the ship’s captain dryly, "Cloth'd in Goat-Skins, who looked wilder than the first Owners of them."
An endangered species, the firecrown or more formally known as the Juan Fernandez hummingbird is endemic to the island, i.e. it’s found only here in the whole world. This species exhibits sexual dimorphism which means that there is a distinction in coloring between the male and female of the species. The male is bright red as you can see below and the female is green, white and metallic blue in color.
Isla Alejandro Selkirk
We departed Robinson Crusoe a week later with thoughts of arriving at Alejandro Selkirk... about 90 nm and an overnight passage in mid-morning. It was just about 0900 when we spotted the island, its peak enshrouded in a huge cloud. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating. Strong (25+knots) southeasterlies made the only anchorage on this open roadstead island untenable. Instead, we said goodbye to Islas Juan Fernandez and set sail for our next destination, Easter Island, 1600nm to the west.