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Published: January 23rd 2015
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Thursday 22
nd January 2015
Adjectives like “awesome” and “amazing” are hackneyed and over-used, but they are needed here, to try to begin to describe the Amalia. We were amazed and struck with awe and wonder, at the magnificence of this work of Nature´s art. The only way to see it is by ship, and only a few cruise ships and expedition craft venture here. The weather is often so bad that the glacier can hardly be seen, so today was a rare experience. The sea was calm, the sky was cloudless and the sun rose to make the ice sparkle. Julio, our Spanish voyage lecturer, said that he had never before seen the Amalia so clearly. We are most fortunate and privileged people right now.
The Amalia Glacier lies 50 degrees south of the Equator, 1,425 nautical miles south from Valparaiso. The air temperature at 6 a.m. this morning, just after dawn, was 14 degrees, which is considered really warm for this latitude, a maximum summer temperature. The sky was blue and people started to gather on deck as we approached the end of the Heusser Pass towards the glacier. We could have stayed in
the cabin and seen it all from our balcony, but going on deck was much better, to experience the crowd´s shared anticipation, as we waited for the glacier to come into view around the final bend. It was a magnificent sight. Our captain held the ship by the glacier for an hour before turning slowly around to begin the exit from the pass, with views from the aft of the ship for a long time afterwards. Altogether, we were there for two hours, from first sighting at 6.30 a.m. until the glacier was finally lost from view around 8.30 a.m., when everyone hurried inside for breakfast! What a way to start the day!
Throughout the day, Golden Princess continued to navigate through the narrow waters of the Chilean fiords, passing through the Sarmiento Channel and the Garcia Dominguez Channel, then the Nelson Straight on out to the Pacific. It was hard to leave the ship’s rail; the scenery was so spectacular! By the time we got to the Nelson Straight, however, the visibility was so poor and the seas so rough that outside decks were closed (as were the swimming pools, even the indoor one) and the
movement of the sea could be felt, for the first time in days. The temperature took a dive as well! This sudden and dramatic change in the weather, not unusual this far south in the Pacific Ocean, made us even more aware of how fortunate we had been this morning at the glacier. That Inca Sun God had listened to our prayers and did us proud!
It stayed rough all afternoon, and so we retreated to the cosiness and warmth of our cabin. By this evening, the weather had cleared and we entered the Magellen Straits, to make our way towards our next port of call, Punta Arenas, where we shall dock tomorrow morning, Friday 23
rd January around 6 a.m. This will be our last day in Chile; on Saturday we shall be in Argentina, which will be the ninth country visited since we left our home in Spain last October, and the fifth in South America. So now we are having an early night because we have an early start again tomorrow, when we are hoping to see some Magellanic Penguins.
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