Tierra del Fuego, Cape Horn Cruise, Day 103

During the night we sailed through the Strait of Magellan and entered the Admiralty Fjord. One of the inlets off this fjord is Ainsworth Bay home to the Marinelli Glacier (part of the massive Darwin Mountain range ice field in Tierra del Fuego). Feel much better this morning, and after a delicious breakfast, Christi and I amble up to the Sky Lounge on the fourth (Cape Horn) deck in preparation for our first excursion.

We land on a rocky shore in Ainsworth Bay and our guide, Eduardo, begins his description of the area (part of Chile’s Alberto de Agostini National Park) in splendid English – yay! We wander through a false beech tree forest, resplendent with old man’s beard (a lichen) and beside pristine streams. The weather predictably switches between sun, showers, and snow. On the way back to the beach we see a huge elephant seal protecting a 6-week-old baby elephant seal. Apparently it’s unusual for a male to demonstrate such nurturing qualities. And because this is a luxury cruise we watch the elephant seals while drinking hot chocolate (me) and 20-year old whiskey with fresh 2,000 year-old ice (Christi).

Back on the boat it’s lunchtime followed by a lecture on wildlife in Tierra del Fuego. This precedes our afternoon excursion around Tucker Island, located at the entrance to Admiralty Fjord. It’s a tiny island with sheer cliffs that can be circled in the Zodiac in about 45 minutes, but it’s a major nesting site for skuas and cormorants. There’s also a small beach where magellanic penguins come ashore to breed.

In the odd moments between excursions and meals the crew even find time for a slideshow on Antarctica and the tale of the Carménère grape, which was thought to be extinct before being rediscovered in Chile. After dinner there’s a review of the day’s excursions followed by a presentation of the movie Winged Migration (shown on the third – Tierra del Fuego – deck in the Yamana lounge. The Yamana were the original inhabitants of the area, but have now largely died out). Stagger to bed exhausted near midnight. I never realized the luxury lifestyle could be so grueling.