07 February 2010, wobbling back to South America.

Isla Robinson Crusoe is situated directly to the west of Valparaiso some 370 miles away. Hence our low speed run when going there. Still the ship moved due to the ocean swell. Going back to the mainland we are sailing on a SSE’ly course and have to travel a distance of just over 600 miles to reach Puerto Montt at the beginning of the Chilean Inside passage. Although we now had following winds, we had to go faster with the swell under angle and the Prinsendam showed that she can be quite lively at times. Still not every ocean crossing can be as smooth as a mirror and I did not receive any reports that guests were affected by it. For the American guests all focus seemed to be on the Super bowl and the merits of the one team or the other. For a non American like me it is impossible to try to comprehend this sport. First they have a conference about how to throw a ball and as soon as they get going somebody throws a yellow hand-kerchief on the pitch and everything stops again. So I leave them to it.

Still the Showroom at Sea has been changed into some sort of Sports area and the
whole thing will be shown on the big screen. No doubt they will have a great time. I will not join them as we will be entering the Chilean Inside passage tonight. The speed has been set for 0100 am. at the entrance tomorrow morning on request of the Chilean pilots. The first part is a narrow channel, called Canal de Chacao and here the currents can run up to 8 knots on a full moon with a channel width of less then half a mile at high tide. Thus the preference is to go through at slack or nearly slack tide when the current is the least. From this narrow spot it is another 70 miles to Puerto Montt which is located further inland and that means a slow and quiet ride for a 0630 anchor drop.

Going out we saw considerable wildlife with several whale sightings and all sorts of birds flying around the ship, but today it was much sparser. If there were whales they were hard to see among the wave crests and only a few birds circled around the ship. Maybe the wind and the waves put them off. I had expected more birds to try to hitch a ride with the ship as normally happens during ocean crossings but even that was not the case. This to the great relief of the chief officer as the birds normally leave a legacy before they fly off. As that legacy tends to be too acid for the railing varnish or the deck paint, if not wiped away directly, the chief tends to get quite excited about them.

Puerto Montt is located at the end of what I would call a fjord but what the Chileans call a Seno. The city itself lies against a high rim of hills and is thus protected from northerly winds, which blow quite often here. The trick is then to anchor as close under the shore as possible. Similar to Isla de Robinson Crusoe. In the same way the ship will be in the grip of wind and current while at the anchorage and thus it could be an interesting day again. However the weather forecast is correct, it looks it is going to be a reasonable day with moderate winds and a small chance of a shower.