After all the excitement of Cape Horn, the last few days have, in a way, been quite humdrum.
The journey to Punta Arenas has been up through the fjords of Chilean Tierra del Fuego, with glaciers and waterfalls all over the place. Spectacular scenery. At one point the ship entered a side fjord, to take us up close to a very large glacier. Its runabout was launched, to collect some ice for whisky on the rocks. The ice is thought to be thousands of years old, possibly up to a million. No-one was absolutely sure, as different ages were bandied about. Nevertheless, it went very well with the lowland single malt whisky it was served with!
Nearing Punta Arenas, great excitement was to be had as we stopped by an island with penguins. It was a small island, and they were small penguins. Though they could be seen clearly through binoculars, the distance made photographing them(even on maximum zoom) difficult. Close examination of those shots that were taken and then blown up, do show that we captured them for posterity!
Punta Arenas is a bit of a ghost town. Originally a coaling and resupply point, the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 rather killed that trade and it has not really recovered. There is a free port area, to try to boast matters, and it is the 'capital' of Chilean Patagonia. Because Ian was not one hundred percent, we did not do much, apart from a general stroll into the city, admire the principal buildings, take photo of Christ surrounded by icebergs, which can be found in the cathedral, and change some money. It was not very pleasant weather, very windy, cold and with occasional rain showers. The best trip seems to have been to a penguin colony, but even then most of the comments were half hearted. The most excited person was our cabin stewardess. Two of her passengers, discovering that she had never seen a penguin in its real habitat, got permission for her to go with them on this excursion. When she came back, to say she was ecstatic was to say the least. She is tiny, and everyone, including crewmates, helped to kit her out with cold wet weather clthing and a suitable camera. We could not help with the clothing, as we are bit! larger than her. It was so nice to see her positive happy reaction.
Having left Punta Arenas, we are now working our way north. We started in the Magellan straits, ansd should have gone out into the Pacific early this morning, around 5 o'clock. However, the wind has picked up again, to about 60 knots, so we are now cruising the fjords, where it is only about 30 knots!. Still outstanding screnery, with more glaciers and waterfalls all around.
Next stop is Puerto Chacabuca, weather permitting. It is a tender port, and if the swell is too much, we cannpot land. We have three of these tender port5s coming up so it will be interesting to see what happens.
Watch this space.