December 20, 2017

   During the night, you could feel the gentle rolling of the ship in our cabin, which should be one of the spots where the ships movement is felt the least.  We have not suffered any seasickness, but some passengers have.

   This morning the temperature was 11 C, mainly cloudy sky and a wind about 14 km/hour. The Pacific Ocean swells were between 2.5 and 3 meters with the wind blowing mist from the top of the white caps. We started with a three km walk on Deck 3, the promenade deck, since the dining room did not open until 8 a.m. We saw a rainbow in the distance, where it had been raining.  There were a group of people with telescopic lens cameras and binoculars watching for whales, albatross and other birds, out on the starboard side at the back of the ship. Our latitude position, this morning, was 47.24 degrees south of the equator.

    After breakfast, the ship left the Pacific Ocean to enter the Messier Strait. The waves were reduced to less than one meter, but we entered mist that made the shore blurry. The Zaandam was cruising through the Chilean Fjords, which are part of Patagonia, on the second of 12 days where we do not have a port stop. This year we have visited fjords in New Zealand, Norway and now Chile.   

   The presentation this morning started at 9 am with one on Earthquakes and Volcanos, at 10 am the shore excursions people gave a talk on upcoming excursion in the next ports. We skipped the first two presentations to walk round deck 3 and admire the fjord scenery. Then at 11 am, the next two ports – Puenta Arenas, Chile, and Ushuaia, Argentina, - were discussed, especially what to do and where to find free Wi-Fi.

    After lunch, it started to rain. At around 2 pm, the ship approached Captain Leonidas’s shipwreck on a sandbar.  There was a commentary to explain the reason why this ship was wrecked in 1963. It was a planned attempt to defraud an insurance company. Captain Leonidas’s ship was carrying a load of sugar. He sold the cargo in Argentina on the Black Market and planned to scuttle the ship in Chile and make an insurance claim.  The crew knew of the plan and were to share in the profits.  However, the place in the Messier Strait that the Captain Leonidas chose was at a sand bar and though the crew abandoned the ship, it did not sink, more than half a meter. The rusty superstructure was quite visible even in the rain today. The insurance claim was investigated and the captain and crew did not make the profit that they had planned.  The wreck is in the middle of the broad straight and it was possible to safely loop around the wreck, at a leisurely pace taking about 40 minutes.  Plenty of time for everyone to photograph the old ship.

    In his afternoon presentation about the importance of Latitude to navigation, Dr. Peter Carey noted that the definition of a fjord is a valley carved out by glaciers and filled with seawater along a coast that is affected by weather conditions caused by westerly winds. There are only five areas in the world where fjords exist – the west coasts of Alaska, Chile, New Zealand, Norway and Greenland. [We have sailed in the middle three fjord countries this year, Alaska in 2001 and Chile once before in 2012.  Only the fjords of Greenland are yet to be viewed.] Dr. Carey ended at 3:30 pm, just as the Tempanos Glacier in Iceberg Fjord, off the Messier Strait, came into view. For the 8 C weather, passengers donned coats, hats, scarves, mitts, cameras and binoculars to go out to the sheltered deck 3; onto the bow on deck 4 or out on decks 8 or 9 which were all open to the light rain; or just watch from the inside on decks 4, 5 or 8 or stay in their outward facing staterooms. There was a commentary during the hour spent by the glacier. Although raining, the captain maneuvered the ship so that the port side faced the glacier for 25 minutes, then the starboard side for another 25 minutes and then the back of the ship viewed the glacier before the ship proceeded out of Iceberg Fjord back to Messier Strait. There were several instances of pieces falling from the glacier into the water, called calving.  Even in the rain, the vivid blue of the crevices was visible.  Along the mountain sides small waterfalls were gushing down to the water. There will be more glaciers tomorrow in the Beagle Channel.

   It was still raining when we went to dinner. We ordered Seafood Deviled Eggs, Cheese tortilla and vegetable soup, then Sante Fe Salad and Parmesan crusted Chicken breast with mashed potatoes. For dessert, we ordered Crème Brûlée and Tocino del Cielo.

    The show this evening was a Tango show with songs and Argentine Tango dances.  The show was a pleasure to watch.

    The latitude position, at 10 pm, this evening was 49.04 degrees south, which is equivalent in North America to the Canadian/American border from Lake Superior to the Rocky Mountains.  The ship was leaving the Messier Strait, westward, via a waterway named Canal Fallos to return to the Pacific Ocean.  The ship is going around Wellington Island. The Zaandam captain warned that the waves could be over 4.5 meters in this section for about six hours, before the ship enters eastward back to the inside passage again via the Trinidad Channel.

Final step count for today 14,226