Jan. 12 At Sea

There are nicknames for the waters in the latitudes of the lower southern hemisphere - the Roaring 40’s, the Fearsome 50’s and the Screaming 60’s. When we left Punta Arenas last night we were around 54 degrees south. With the low pressure fast approaching, the captain did not want to expose us to anything Fearsome.

We spent the night sheltering behind a large island in the fjords. There were a couple of times during the night when I woke up to the howling wind and a slight movement of the ship, but certainly nothing excessive.

We spent most of the day cruising through beautiful fjords covered with glaciers and waterfalls. Ships our size don’t usually traverse these waters as they go from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia without spending time sightseeing in between. Because we had rushed to Punta Arenas, we missed out on some scenic cruising at Brujo and Amalia Glaciers.

There were 2 Chilean pilots on board who had intimate knowledge of the fjords and they directed the captain to some amazing scenery. From what I understood, it was the first time a ship of our size had cruised these fjords. In his daily briefing, the captain informed us that the other cruise ship that was to be in Punta Arenas with us on Sunday was unable to disembark passengers. We are very happy that the captain was proactive and taking our comfort and safety into consideration. 

We saw the Hyatt and Dahlia Glaciers side by side. Black clouds hung low over the glaciers in contrast to the crisp white of the ice. Looking through my binoculars, I could see a lot of blue in the ice indicating that it was very old ice.



Waterfalls tumbled hundreds of feet from the glaciers. Some were putting out so much water that they appeared to be forming freshwater lakes that could be identified by the change in colour of the water at the base of the waterfall. 



We left the Agostino channel and sailed into the Martinez channel where we had sweeping views of the Sarmiento Glacier.


We certainly didn’t feel like we missed any sightseeing and it was a bonus to see areas that are not normally visited. 

Sunset 10:01 pm

You will notice that sunset times are getting earlier again as we head east. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Feb. 4 Home

It was wonderful to have another morning with nothing scheduled until 4 pm when we head to the airport. We had a leisurely breakfast and then went out for a walk. On our way out of the hotel we met another guest who had just had her phone stolen out of her hand as she was standing on a corner checking the GPS to figure out which way to turn. Someone came along on a bike and grabbed it. She hurried back to the hotel and was able to track its location using the Find My on her iPad. It was only a kilometre away, but likely never to be seen again.  I had been warned the day before by a local lady when I stopped to take a picture. She said, as best as I could understand her Portuguese, that they snatch phones out of tourists hands frequently. Having first hand knowledge of this petty theft made me feel uncomfortable.  We went for a short walk, keeping our phones out of sight, walking hand in hand with my cross body purse between us. We needed to go to a currency exchange to get mor...
Read more

Feb. 3 São Paulo

Image
We were up just before 4 am to get ready to head to the airport. Our driver met us at 4:45 am for a speedy, no traffic drive to the airport. We were checked in by 5:11 am for our 7:55 am flight. Our take off was delayed about 20 minutes while waiting for a last minute crew change.   It was an uneventful flight, but the problems started after we landed. We were seated in row 1 so we arrived quickly to the baggage area. It was weird that there were very few other passengers arriving and very few bags. One suitcase came and we waited and waited and the other did not show up.  We went to the counter and using Google Translate, our new best friend, we explained that one bag was missing. They told us to go back and wait. We did and still nothing. We have AirTags in our bags so we could see that is was at the airport, just not where it was supposed to be. Half an hour later, it finally arrived.  We went to our meeting point for the driver, but he was stuck in traffic. He sh...
Read more

Jan. 14 Cape Horn and Drake Passage

Image
8C Sunrise 5:05 Our alarm was set for 4:45 am to be sure that we took in all of the circumnavigation of Cape Horn. The seas were relatively calm and the sun was trying hard to make its appearance. When we rounded Cape Horn in 2016, the weather was significantly different. The winds were so strong that I had to hook my arm around the rail on the outside deck in order to stay on my feet. Today the front bow was opening for viewing with no worries of being blown away.  We were plenty early as it took us almost an hour to get to the Horn. The bow got very crowded and it was impossible to get close enough to the rail to get a photo. We moved to our secret spot on deck 9 forward of the fitness centre. Maybe not so secret, but it is a small area that few people have found. We were sheltered most of the time from the wind that increased as we circled the horn as well as the intermittent rain.  We approached the Horn from the north and got good views of the lighthouse and the Albatross...
Read more