Around the Horn in 80 days.

[puppycanducruise]

I'm really enjoying your cruise.

Hope the seas aren't too rough for you.

 

[rafinmd]

6 hours ago, sierrafloridacruiser said:

Roy, thank you for the review of Puerto Chacabuco and your excursion. Will be there soon, and looking forward to it. The rough seas are giving me a little anxiety. Have never experienced rough seas in the ocean before and hoping it’s not bothersome for us!

I think you'll be fine.  This seems to be considerably rougher than normal.  The Symphony should have candied ginger at the exit to the dining room after dinner.  If they don't, then ask the Maitre'd about it.  It should be good in rough seas.

Denise, I was well rocked to sleep.

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Thank you Debbie, Jacqui, puppycanducruise, and anyone I'm forgetting (with the old Cruise Critic I used to be able to look down below a post and see posts from the prior page, but no more and I must try and rely on my memory.

 

Day P25, Tuesday, January 29, 2019, Strait of Magellan

The seas turned quite rough about 10PM Sunday and stayed that way overnight.  I left my cabin about 5:45 and walked for a half hour inside the ship.  I did go by all the exterior doors and all the obvious ones were roped off.  The only ones not roped off were the forward ones on deck 9 and the ones to the lido pool area.  I did not see exterior stairways roped off so in theory I could have gone out the deck 9 forward stairs and down the stairs to the lower promenade deck but had no intention of doing so.  I could also have gone up the exterior stairs to the jogging track on deck 12 but the doors from the deck 12 stair lobby were roped off so I assumed that was also unwise.  I did see one guy walking on deck 12.

It was clear that the crew had battened things down overnight.  The sanitizer dispenser at the lido and menu board were tied to a pillar.

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When I went back down the stairs to the dining room I also found all the ice buckets arranged on their sides.

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Things did calm down a bit around breakfast time and the ropes blocking the doors were replaced by caution signs.  I walked most of the way around the ship, from the forward stairs to the bow and then back to the aft exterior stairs.  I was planning to climb those stairs to the lido anyway and as I approached the starboard stairs a big wind gust came up and I retreated to the calmer port stairs.  I did take my french toast out on the pool deck where there was wind protection from the glass sides.

There were relatively few things of interest on the program and I spent quite a bit of time on my computer.  The guest on the morning coffee chat was Jason Lyle Black.  I lingered at the end of the talk and asked if he had had any talks with Crystal.  Sadly, I just missed his performance in May, getting off the ship at the end of April.  I think he would be a great fit there as a regular performer, both with his usual show and also possibly for an afternoon performance.

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At 10 Craig Franklin had a presentation on penguins.  It was very well attended and I was lucky to find a seat after arriving late from the coffee chat.

I went out on deck about 11:30 to listen for Captain Jeroen's noon update and found things had really calmed down, and we were in a pretty narrow sheltered water, somewhat reminiscent of Alaska's Inland Passage.  I ended up walking another 5 laps for a total of 6 before getting lunch.

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By noon we were passing quite a pretty waterfall on our starboard side.  I learned in the Captain's update that behind that waterfall there were gale force winds.  He indicated that we were only doing about 12 knots to stay in the sheltered waters as long as possible but that we would need to go into the open Pacific for several hours in the evening.   After the Captain finished Linda announced that the show for late seating guests would be moved from 10PM to 6:30, partly because of the sea conditions, and partly because scenic cruising will start about 6AM Tuesday.

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Noel Miller had an afternoon presentation of Poets and Chile.

 

Kathi again joined us at table 19.  Conditions started out calm but sometimes foggy and the seas increased gradually as we dined.

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We split evenly on entrees, half getting the Macaroni and Lobster and the other half Prime Rib.

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After returning to my room I opened my curtains for a while.  On occasion I felt like I was looking up at some of the waves.

The featured entertainment was a repeat performance by the Divas of Motown.  I skipped the show but went up to the Explorers Lounge for a while for a bit of time with Adagio.

My parting shot will be kind of a mixed message, partly to be careful of what you do, and also mistakes can have interesting results.  While walking the morning we were in Castro the sun produced some great colors perhaps 45 minutes before sunrise.  I decided it was pretty enough I didn't really need to return for an actual sunrise photo.  As I was going through my photos that evening it became clear I should really have checked what I shot and it was too late then to retake it.  Lesson learned (I hope) but somehow I think some of the beauty still comes through the horrible implementation.

Roy

 

[cat shepard]

An abstract sunset. Gorgeous.

 

 Hope it isn’t too rough tonight.

Edited January 29, 2019 by cat shepard
Clarification

[DeeniEncinitas]

Surrealism is what I see in your photo Roy! I love the sunrise pic.

Strait of Magellan seems to be a very rough ride through there.

Have you had to take anything just in case of the ruff weather at times. I’d be on

drugs of some kind. Have a good evening. Look forward to more.

Denise😊

 

 

 

 

 

[rafinmd]

Oops, I was literally getting ahead of myself.  That should have been January 28 and just "At Sea".  Strait of Magellan is later today.

 

Roy

[Krazy Kruizers]

Roy -- you need more sleep.

 

I know what you mean about reading through posts -- I really liked the old style of CC where once you started to write your post, you could look down and see all the posts below what you are typing.

 

Hope you will soon have all calm weather -- not just a few hours.

 

I knew you selected the prime rib for dinner.

 

Great pictures.  I have done that a few times -- didn't check to see what something actually looked like until it was too late.

[puppycanducruise]

Hope you get calmer seas.  Be careful walking around.

Looking forward to reading more.

[rafinmd]

Thanks puppycanducruise and Krazy Kruizers.  Fortunately, I have pretty good sea legs.  It's now almost 11AM local time and we've finished our glacier viewing.  We were supposed to enter the Sarmiento channel for more scenic viewing at 10 but it hasn't happened yet.  By Marine traffic I think it may happen soon but am not sure yet.  We've had rain and the TV now says 47F and 44 knot winds.  Heather should start commentary when we enter the channel and if so I'll head for either the lido or Crow's Nest.

 

Roy

[DeeniEncinitas]

No worries at all that you got ahead of yourself.

Have a good sea day! Hope you can get a lot of walking in and 

have a great day!

Denise😊

[rafinmd]

Day P25, Tuesday, January 29, 2019, Strait of Magellan

This was a day destined to be a night owl's nightmare.  There were several scenic areas to be covered but the primary one came at 6AM.  When I woke at 5 it was pitch black and I expected to be on deck a lot so I stayed in my cabin until almost 6.  I had the bridge channel on so I would hear any commentary when it occurred.

I was on deck pretty much at first light and when I stepped onto the deck there was a high waterfall directly in front of me.  I had just snapped a photo as Heather started speaking.

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There was nothing to see ahead of us as I rounded the bow the first time but by the second lap Brujo Glacier was clearly visible in the distance.  After 6 laps I headed up to deck 12 for a better view.  This should have been my first visit to Brujo but is actually the second.  On the Zaandam 2 years ago our scenic cruising should have been the Sarmiento Canal but that was cancelled due to the weather and we went to Brujo instead.  I was surprised to find that one of my photos was a close match to a view from that trip and the glacier has not really changed a lot in the intervening 22 months.

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Brujo is calving quite a bit and there was a lot of brash coming out to meet us at the ship which was a mile from the glacier at the closest approach.

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We turned and left Brujo about 6:45.  

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Our itinerary indicated we would visit a glacier, either Brujo or Amalia and enter the Sarmiento Canal at 10.  I walked a few more laps and then returned to my cabin to warm up.  I just happened to look up at the bow camera on TV and saw another glacier ahead of us.  We visited BOTH the Brujo and Amalia glaciers.  The Amalia is quite a bit different than the Brujo with a secondary river to the right and a sandbar which traps the brash near the glacier.

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The weather was not great.  The fjords we were in sometimes gave us some protection and at other times acted like a wind tunnel and it was raining intermittently.  I had decided I would do my best to get my walk in and kept walking as we viewed the glacier.  A complication came up when the crew sent a tender up to the glacier and that blocked a portion of the starboard side of the promenade deck.  When the wind permitted I detoured through the dining room annex and the Ocean Bar and where the winds were REALLY strong up the aft stairs and inside the length of the ship to the "front porch".  When I finished walking I had completed 4 ½ miles on the lower promenade deck and another half mile on the deck 12 jogging track finishing just as the tender returned to the ship.

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The walk was quite chilly and I went up to the lido for coffee.  The tender crew had retrieved a block of glacier ice and put it on display.  We left Amalia a little after 10.   Our latitude at the glaciers was about equivalent to the Northern part of Vancouver Island, a good 6 or 7 degrees closer to the equator than Tracy Arm.

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In his noon update Captain Jeroen indicated we were just entering the Sarmiento Canal.  It was drizzling and a bit foggy.  The lido had some of the baked macaroni and cheese that I like and I decided the weather would not keep me from going outside for lunch.  There was no problem finding a table.

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The Crows Nest was quite a popular place as we sailed down the Sarmiento Canal and approached the strait of Magellan.  The weather continued to be quite variable, from foggy to pretty clear and with strong winds that not a lot of people ventured out on deck.

My tablemates attended a "Taste of Chile" special dinner in the Pinnacle Grill and I opted for the lido, especially after seeing roast turkey on the menu.  As I started to eat a very prominent rainbow appeared over the aft port side.

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We entered the Strait of Magellan about 7 with Heather providing some commentary.  The strait starts out quite wide but at spots is about a mile wide.  That sounds like a lot but the winds and the currents can be pretty tricky.  Even today the navigators must pay close attention but in the days of sail powered ships the dangers were palpable.  The wind is also quite strong and I could see a noticeable list to port.  I left the Crows Nest while the strait was still very wide.

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I delayed desert (Ice cream with toppings) until after leaving the Crows Nest.

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The featured entertainment was the Prinsendam Singers and Dancers in "Dance", originally scheduled for one of the nights where the seas had been very rough.  My eyelids were getting very heavy and missed much of the dancing but the singers are great.  I think one of the male singers may have been under the weather as only one was on stage.

 

My parting shot--I'm starting to feel our southern position pretty quickly; I believe the day today is a good half hour longer than yesterday.  I will not see many more sunrises or sunsets before we return from Antarctica.

 

Roy

 

[ski ww]

Really enjoy reading your posts. Brings back memories, we did circumnavigation of South America going east to west with some different ports on the west coast.

Allan

[Krazy Kruizers]

How wonderful you got to see so many waterfalls, glaciers and even a rainbow!!

 

Wonderful report with great pictures.

[puppycanducruise]

Wonderful report and pictures.

[cat shepard]

What a spectacular rainbow!

[TiogaCruiser]

Enjoying your blog.

Coincidentally I’ve been working on my videos from March for this area the past few days so your posts are especially lively to me.

Your description of the weather closely matches what we got. However, Captain took us to Amalia around 8:00 as a consolation and it was raining cats and dogs and the wind was howling when we got there.

[mocruzer]

Enjoying your blog and pictures.  Hopefully the seas will calm down soon for you.  

[DeeniEncinitas]

Roy, beautiful rainbow and the glaciers wow!!!

I will take that rainbow this morning with my coffee.

Chilly weather and live the pictures Roy!

Denise😊

 

[rafinmd]

Thank you everyone.  We just had a spectacular morning in Glacier Alley and are preparing for a muster drill to refresh us before we cross the Drake Passage.  Thankfully, this one will be indoors.

 

Day P26, Wednesday, January 30, 2019, Punta Arenas, Chile

Punta Arenas, along with Ushuaia, is reputed to be among the world's windiest cities.  This should have been my third visit there but the Crystal Symphony had to cancel our call there due to the wind; I was very lucky 2 years ago when the Zaandam had a rare calm day.  There are 2 places for cruise ships to dock in Punta Arenas.  In 2017 we were docked at a cargo terminal about 2 miles north of town but today it was right downtown with the city right at our stern.  I also think of Punta Arenas as Chile's Alaska, you can drive to Santiago, but to do so you must pass through Argentina.

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I was out on deck about 5:30 and we already had a couple of tugs coming out to meet us.  By the time I had walked 6 laps around the ship and gone to the lido for coffee we were at the dock and the sun was coming up over the cable layer Rene Descartes across the pier from us.

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There were a number of tours offered from "Sights of Punta Arenas" and "Punta Arenas on Foot" for $90 to an Antarctic Landing for $3.500.  I had done the walking tour last time and wanting something a bit different, "Magellan's Discovery" for $100.  The morning got off to a relaxed start; while we were docked well before 7 my tour didn't meet until 9:15.  While the terminal is right in town, it was a chilly, wind-blown quarter mile walk from the ship.

We headed north to our first stop, an open air museum.  The project of a single individual, the museum had replicas of 4 vessels important in the area history.

While Magellan is thought of as the first person to circumnavigate the globe, he didn't really do it.  He started with a fleet of 5  ships and about 200 people, with just one ship and fewer than 20 people returning to Spain.  Magellan himself got involved in a tribal dispute in the Philippines and died there.

The ship that made the full circumnavigation was the Victoria.  Her replica was the largest of the ships at the museum and like most was fully accessible.  We could wander the ship from the top deck down into the holds as much as our agility would permit.  I was fascinated by a "tween" deck, a space probably 4 feet high where I saw some hammocks people could sleep in.

 

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The other larger ship replica was the Beagle, the ship Darwin used in his explorations.  

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Our second major stop was the Maggiorino Borgatello Museum pretty near the center of town.  I was a bit surprised that on this tour we had quite a few people with very limited mobility (I would have expected them to be on the "Sights" tour) but our guide gave us a lot of time to explore on our own and I was able to look at most of the museum at my own pace.

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At the outdoor museum there was a replica of the lifeboat Shackleton had used to escape from Antarctica and in the Borgatello there was a model of the Chilean Coast Guard cutter that went and rescued his crew.

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Our third stop was a scenic overlook where we got a sweeping view of the Strait of Magellan.

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Our view from the overlook also included the Prinsendam sitting below us.

Of course there had to be a shopping stop and it was at the Plaza de Armas and the centerpiece was a monument to Magellan.  The Cathedral was right across the street.

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We returned to the terminal about 12:30.  I had brought a carton of milk and a cheese and cracker packet to stave off the hungaries, and went for a walk on the walkway along the Strait of Magellan coastline.  While of the walk I got a good look at the Renee Descartes.

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There were also a number of buoys at a spot on the walkway and what appeared to be an old railroad pier with the pilings, track, and a little bit of the decking remaining.

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I was about a half mile from the terminal when I turned around.  The fourth ship at the open air museum was the Ancud, a ship built in Chile which was used to explore the Strait of Magellan and claim the area for Chile.  There was a memorial to the Ancud where I turned back to the ship (getting caught in a surprise shower as well).

https://morethangetaways.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/ancud.jpg

I made a couple of coffee runs to the lido but it was a bit too chilly and windy to spend a lot of time outdoors.  The crew spent a good part of the day loading supplies and fuel on the ship.  We were all present at table 19 for dinner.  I liked the melon and pineapple entry as well as the pasta and cherry crisp.

 

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Sailaway was nominally at 8 although it was a few minutes after that when the last of the tours returned.  We sailed about 8:15 with no announcements from the bridge.  The featured entertainment was the movie "March of the Penguins"  Although I own it I haven't seen it in some time and caught most of it entering the showroom after sailaway, about 15 minutes into the movie.

 

My parting shot will be a wish for a Happy Birthday to Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands.  We are being encouraged on Thursday to wear some orange in her honor.

Roy

 

[travelnap]

Roy, Nice picture of the harbor there in Punta Arenas, with the Prinsendam the star of the picture.  Just so you feel a little warmer down there, yesterday the temperature here was -34F and the windchill was -58F.  I know it is summer there but it just feels a little weird being colder than both Alaska and Antarctica. 

[rafinmd]

1 hour ago, travelnap said:

Roy, Nice picture of the harbor there in Punta Arenas, with the Prinsendam the star of the picture.  Just so you feel a little warmer down there, yesterday the temperature here was -34F and the windchill was -58F.  I know it is summer there but it just feels a little weird being colder than both Alaska and Antarctica. 

That's cold!  Not in Antarctica yet but I don't expect that.  Not really bad here.  Noon temperature was 7/45 and warmer tomorrow in Ushuaia tomorrow 9/48.  I got out my parka for Captain's noon update and it was overkill; back to light layers.

 

Roy

[puppycanducruise]

Fabulous pictures.  I enjoy reading about your adventures.

Thanks again.

[dfish]

We weren't quite as cold as travelnap, but it was cold here yesterday and it is cold again today - 0 degrees with wind chills at -25.  When I was in Antarctica, it was warmer than back home.  I have a great picture of me in the hot tub on the aft deck as we cruised the Antarctic peninsula.

 

Thanks for doing this, Roy.  It brings back such great memories.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Great report.  Your excursion is the type that we like to do.

 

Pictures are all great except one.  The one for the view of the Straight of Magellan shows as 404 error for me.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Oh -- our temperatures -- yesterday we were at -3 with a wind chill of -27.  This morning when we got up it was -5  -- I don't yet if we got any lower than that.  Breaking all kinds of records.  The mid west is in worse shape than we are.