With all that was happening yesterday, I forgot to mention that Christi and I still found time to visit the bridge which has an amazing 180o view, making the snow-capped channels look even more spectacular. Everything on the bridge is automated and spotlessly clean. Indeed, it takes only one officer and one crewman to steer the ship.
At 4 am this morning we temporarily leave the relative shelter of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, and are exposed to the full force of the mighty Pacific Ocean. I’m awoken not so much by the pitching and rolling of the boat, but by the clanking of the glasses, which are sliding over the floor. Later we enter the iconic Beagle channel named after the boat in which Charles Darwin sailed to the Galapagos Islands after Captain FitzRoy had completed surveying Tierra del Fuego. As our next excursion (to the Pia glacier) is not until this afternoon, the crew uses the morning to regale us with information on the flora of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego and an idiots guide to glaciology plus there’s a tour of the spotless engine room.
The weather has not been particularly co-operative these last few days and so it continues as we land at the Pia glacier viewpoint amid driving snow and low gray clouds. While we wait for the weather to clear hot chocolate and whiskey is again handed around and some passengers decide to build a snowman. It’s sods law that the weather improves dramatically after we return to the ship and I’m out on the deck frantically photographing the majesty of the Beagle channel, Pia glacier, and Darwin range.
The Pia glacier is but the start of our glacier experience today as we enter the evocative-sounding Glacier Alley, featuring the Romanche German, French, Italian, and Dutch glaciers. And as an added twist the staff in the Sky Lounge provide drinks and snack indicative of each country: sausages from Germany, champagne from France, wine and pizza from Italy, and lager and cheese from Holland. There are snow-storms chasing us and up ahead are reports of more bad weather, but we have a temporary window with which to enjoy these great views.
Tomorrow it’s Cape Horn and I’m drooling at the prospect of landing on this last piece of the Americas.
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart – a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching, laugh-wrenching story
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