Tuesday, 14 January, 204
It's been another relaxing day on the water as we have transited through the Canales Sarmiento (Sarmiento Canal) and stopped early this morning for about an hour at the huge Amalia Glacier at the foot of the Andes Mountains. It is about 2 miles wide at the base where it meets the ocean and about 175 feet high on the front face, with a beautiful turquoise aura through it. This glacier used to be much larger, but in the past 35 or so years it has receded 5 miles closer to the Andes. Once finished there, we continued our journey south for about 7 more hours until we entered a very narrow passage to gain entrance into the Straits of Magellan. This passage is quite shallow with a clearance of less than 5 feet below the hull. The width of the narrow passage is only 200 meters, or a little less than 600 feet. Not much clearance on the bottom or sides for a huge ship like this. In order to make a safe passage, the Captain had to slow the ship to less than 5 knots so it would rise up in the water high enough to clear the underlying hidden rocks. Shortly after our safe passage we encountered the rusted shipwreck of a very large freighter that apparently miscalculated and ended up foundering and is now half sunk. This occurred sometime in the late 1960's.
We're now heading southeast through the famed Straits of Magellan towards our destination of Punta Arenas Chile. This long narrow body of water was first discovered and charted by Ferdinand Magellan in the early 1520's and it provided early mariners and explorers a safer and shorter option than what had been the only known route prior to that time, around the dangerous and treacherous Cape Horn. We should arrive early tomorrow morning in Punta Arenas at about 6AM. After breakfast we will disembark and board our tour buses, then head for Otway Sound, the site of our first penguin encounter. The weather today has been quite cloudy and rainy, but the forecast for tomorrow is clear skies with temps in the upper 40's. We have been warned though that we should dress warmly because this area is known for its high winds.
This afternoon we were treated to another excellent lecture by Dr. Michael Wilcox. His subject today was "The man we all would have liked: Charles Darwin and the voyage of the Beagle." He has such an incredible way of telling history and making it so interesting and he is a pure pleasure to listen to. He has the ability to almost bring to life the character he is speaking of. What a treasure and what a bonus to have such a person on this cruise to fill in all the gaps of history as we transit through those areas where they actually occurred 100 to 500 years ago . And he has much more in store for us as we get nearer to Antarctica.
So, believe it or not, we ate again today!! I'll only tell you about the dinner though. It began with a fresh dish, then bacon and cheese soup, chilled blueberry soup, followed by the entree. Marla's was grilled trout and mine was sweet and sour chicken. Dessert consisted of one of my favorites, warm rhubarb crunch topped with vanilla ice cream, and Marla had passion fruit sorbet . We're actually looking forward to being off the ship all day tomorrow so we won't be tempted to eat so much. Eventually this will have to change, or else we're going to have to replace our wardrobes.
In the meantime, we're doing well, still a little bit under the weather with sinuses, but improving daily. Marla's ankle presents some issues but we're careful not to over work it or take any chances when we're walking. Her bad left knee hasn't been an issue. We'll continue to try to post daily updates as long as the satellite connection provides decent service. We love and miss you all.
Tom and Marla
It's been another relaxing day on the water as we have transited through the Canales Sarmiento (Sarmiento Canal) and stopped early this morning for about an hour at the huge Amalia Glacier at the foot of the Andes Mountains. It is about 2 miles wide at the base where it meets the ocean and about 175 feet high on the front face, with a beautiful turquoise aura through it. This glacier used to be much larger, but in the past 35 or so years it has receded 5 miles closer to the Andes. Once finished there, we continued our journey south for about 7 more hours until we entered a very narrow passage to gain entrance into the Straits of Magellan. This passage is quite shallow with a clearance of less than 5 feet below the hull. The width of the narrow passage is only 200 meters, or a little less than 600 feet. Not much clearance on the bottom or sides for a huge ship like this. In order to make a safe passage, the Captain had to slow the ship to less than 5 knots so it would rise up in the water high enough to clear the underlying hidden rocks. Shortly after our safe passage we encountered the rusted shipwreck of a very large freighter that apparently miscalculated and ended up foundering and is now half sunk. This occurred sometime in the late 1960's.
We're now heading southeast through the famed Straits of Magellan towards our destination of Punta Arenas Chile. This long narrow body of water was first discovered and charted by Ferdinand Magellan in the early 1520's and it provided early mariners and explorers a safer and shorter option than what had been the only known route prior to that time, around the dangerous and treacherous Cape Horn. We should arrive early tomorrow morning in Punta Arenas at about 6AM. After breakfast we will disembark and board our tour buses, then head for Otway Sound, the site of our first penguin encounter. The weather today has been quite cloudy and rainy, but the forecast for tomorrow is clear skies with temps in the upper 40's. We have been warned though that we should dress warmly because this area is known for its high winds.
This afternoon we were treated to another excellent lecture by Dr. Michael Wilcox. His subject today was "The man we all would have liked: Charles Darwin and the voyage of the Beagle." He has such an incredible way of telling history and making it so interesting and he is a pure pleasure to listen to. He has the ability to almost bring to life the character he is speaking of. What a treasure and what a bonus to have such a person on this cruise to fill in all the gaps of history as we transit through those areas where they actually occurred 100 to 500 years ago . And he has much more in store for us as we get nearer to Antarctica.
So, believe it or not, we ate again today!! I'll only tell you about the dinner though. It began with a fresh dish, then bacon and cheese soup, chilled blueberry soup, followed by the entree. Marla's was grilled trout and mine was sweet and sour chicken. Dessert consisted of one of my favorites, warm rhubarb crunch topped with vanilla ice cream, and Marla had passion fruit sorbet . We're actually looking forward to being off the ship all day tomorrow so we won't be tempted to eat so much. Eventually this will have to change, or else we're going to have to replace our wardrobes.
In the meantime, we're doing well, still a little bit under the weather with sinuses, but improving daily. Marla's ankle presents some issues but we're careful not to over work it or take any chances when we're walking. Her bad left knee hasn't been an issue. We'll continue to try to post daily updates as long as the satellite connection provides decent service. We love and miss you all.
Tom and Marla
Hey mom and dad, another great post and I love the pictures. Took me back to our Alaskan cruise pictures... looks cold. I have two things to point out... #1. Your pictures are posting HUGE, just a reminder that after you paste them in your post, click on them and select the medium size. Right now they are posting at original size which comes across bigger than your screen. Just take a sec a check the size on those before you post it. I have gone in an changed the size on the others.
ReplyDelete#2. Dr's advice for moms ankle. Stay on IBU 800 every 6 hours, it will help. Keep it wrapped and elevated when you have down time. If it doesn't improve, he is advising a little visit to the cruise Dr. just to make sure there isn't a missed diagnosis. He says to tell Mom to not be stubborn and take care of herself:)
We love you guys and have loved the posts and pictures. Miss you, can't wait to post a picture of your newest granddaughter... three days to go!
Love you both,
Juli