10 February 2010, Scenic cruising and a bumpy road.

Our bumpy excursion in the Pacific Ocean continued well into the morning and the more the ship could be steered towards the South East, following the coast line, the more stable she became. The secondary (old) swell became less and less pronounced with the main swell coming more and more on the beam, the stabilizers could do a better job in keeping the ship calm. That is preventing it from rolling. The pitching is still something we have to live with, even when going as slow as possible. There are some studies and tests going on in Japan to find a technical solution for this un-voluntary up and down movement of the ship but I have not seen any practical solutions yet. No doubt cruise companies would be extremely interested. By mid day we were approaching the 2nd part of the Chilean passage and when we came in the shelter of the land it was all nice and quiet again. The wind remained; but was now nicely pushing in the back and giving us a knot of free speed.

The Chilean inside passage is very similar to the BC/Alaskan Inside passage except that the Pine trees are replaced by Leaf trees, called Lingae. (which means wood to start with.) Also on average the channels or fjords are less narrow then Chatham Strait in British Columbia or Gastineau Channel up in Juneau, as examples. The only difference is that there are many more inlets and channels than in the Alaskan Inside Passage as it is a much larger system. Chile is the longest and narrowest country in the world and its coast is very heavily indented by channels, fjords and bays. Our foray in this second section of the inside passage was through Fallos channel, a stretch of about 90 miles on an almost straight South Easterly course. There is another parallel channel more to the east called Messier but it has one very narrow part. Therefore the Chilean government has put a ship restriction on it of a maximum length of 180 meters and hence we have to take the wider one, as with a length of 204 meters we are disqualified for it.

By 6 pm. We exited this channel and were once again in the Pacific Ocean, to make a wide turn to the South so we could enter the 3rd part of the Inside passage starting with Trinidad channel. Not named after the island of Trinidad but after the holy Trinity. As most of this area was first surveyed by the Spanish, religious names abound everywhere. Although there is a fair sprinkling of very common British names as well. The Dutch were here also and we have Brabant Island, Barneveldt Island and a number of other names from the old country. I do not like to use the word “discovering” but prefer the word survey. Long before the Europeans came to this area, there was a local population here already but they did not make charts and hence very few of the local names were recorded for posterity.

So from 6 pm. until 10 pm. we rocked through the ocean ‘and I once again slowed the ship down to ensure the most comfortable ride possible. The 2nd underlying swell from last night was not noticeable any longer and that made the ships movement more predictable and easier to deal with. Not that it seemed to matter the guests very much. After a very rocky night not many had the need to sleep in as by 8 am the Lido was as busy for breakfast as normal. That is the way it should be. We are on a cruise but going through these areas the weather is so un-predictable that the emphasis should be on Exploring. It will be even more so when we reach Antarctica and later on the Amazon.

For the remainder of the night we sailed through the inside passage and early tomorrow morning we will visit Amalia Glacier which is tucked away at the end of an area that is christened with the two very Chilean names of Pitt and Peel. The weather will be changeable tomorrow; I just hope that the glacier field has enough of a local climate that it keeps the rain away.