Blogs from Oceans and Seas - page 91

The captain wakes us this morning around 8 am once again. We have arrived during the night at Paradise Harbour, a natural shelter formed by two islands and the mainland. This location, delineated by mountains and glaciers on all sides and sheltered from stormy seas, must have seemed a relative paradise to whomever named it. It is a brilliant sunny day with wispy clouds, and the beauty of the surroundings once again takes our breath away. There are two research stations here: Brown Station, an Argentinian facility, and a Chilean station named for a Chilean president who was the first head of state to visit the Antarctic continent. Both stations have interesting histories. Brown Station is famous for having once been burned to the ground by a scientist who went crazy. The Chilean station stands on ... read more

We had a particularly good sleep last night, lulled by the gentle rolling of the ocean. We wake to a grey, overcast day. At breakfast, we enjoy the aerobatics of the petrels and albatrosses as they wheel and dive alongside the ship. We are clearly picking up more and more seabirds every day. And then it starts to snow outside! I ponder how interesting it is to have left the snow at home in the north and to travel so far south that it is snowing again. The morning is spent on a couple of interesting lectures, one on penguins in all their variety, and the other on Antarctic explorer Ernest Shakleton, another name I remember from stories I read as a boy. Among his adventures was being marooned with his crew on Elephant Island, which ... read more

Today and tomorrow the ship is heading due south from the Falkland Islands towards Antarctica. The sea is very calm today, to the great relief of a number of people on board who suffered badly on the two days that preceded our visit to the Falklands. Typical day at sea. Read, played some bridge, and attended several lectures on the Antarctic, one on the construction of a "traverse" (i.e., ice road) from McMurdo Station (which we will visit) to the geographic south pole, and a couple on the amazing story of the explorer Captain Robert Scott. As I believe I already mentioned, we have two brothers on board (David and Christopher Wilson) as naturalists whose great uncle, Ted Wilson, accompanied Scott and in fact died with him on his last expedition to the south pole. I ... read more

Everyone was up at O’Dark Hundred this morning as we streamed very slowly into the Torres del Paine National Park in southern Chile. Our goal was to sight Amalia Glacier, which we did about 0800. It was not nearly as spectacular as the glaciers we have seen in Alaskan waters, but the deep fjords running throughout the park reminded Steve of Milford Sound on the South Island of New Zealand. We did catch a few glimpses of sea lions basking on rocks in the foggy mist. The day is overcast with Force 8 winds and the temp in the high 40’s, so it is back to winter gear after a few weeks of blazing sunshine and warm temperatures. We remained the fjords until about 1500, when we hit the Pacific for one last shot (only about ... read more

About 0330 we transitioned from the inside passage out of Puerto Montt into the Pacific and got nailed by 20’ swells and 35-knot headwinds, which got us rocking and rolling again. In the Captain’s midwatch report he said this is “average” for these latitudes (now 46 degrees south). We are steaming in open ocean on a course of 192 degrees at 19.5 knots with the stabilizers out, and we will continue to get pounded until we hit the inside passage to the Gulf of Trinidad at 2330 tonight. Sunrise is now right at 0600, with sunset right about 2230, so we are headed toward the land of the midnight sun, southern style. We will tour Chilean fjords most of tomorrow, with a stop at Amalia Glacier. As it is Christmas the ship is in full regalia. ... read more