11 February 2010; Sailing the Chilean Inside Passage.

Today we spend the full day in the Inside passage, starting this morning at 0800 with a visit to Amalia glacier. Halfway down the inside passage there is a large ice field on the top of the mountains and at various points it comes down as glaciers towards the water. The Amalia or Skue Glacier is one of those. Due to our scheduling, we had to be early here and so I had parked the Prinsendam a mile off the glacier by 8 am. Going closer was not really possible as there are no reliable soundings (always a reason to be concerned) and a rocky island is located in the middle of the glacier and also nobody knows exactly how far that extends. Thus I stayed the recommended mile away, which gives the best view anyway because when you come closer to glacier you only see the wall of ice. The perspective is then completely lost.

Although the wind was occasionally blustering around the edges of the fjord it was fairly sheltered in the area in front of the glacier. That gave us the chance to lower a tender to take some photos with the ship in front of a glacier.

The tender has been lowered in an ice free area and is now racing ahead of the Prinsendam which is slowly moving to it’s position of 1 mile off the Glacier rim.
The ships photographers had been asking for days already if it would be possible. As soon as something happens, the photographers want to make a picture of it and this was of course a prime chance. So while I was playing with the ship, the boat was lowered and raced ahead of us to the glacier for some ice shots and later on of the Prinsendam in front of the glacier.

The Prinsendam in front of Amalia glacier. By the ships imaging department.

By 9 am. It was time to move on again, as I had to make Grey channel in the afternoon and certainly before sunset as it is a day light passage (legal requirement, due to two 90o turns) Also it is the most scenic part of the cruise and thus you want to be there at a decent time.

The first stretch was through the Canal de Sarmiento, which is as straight as a ruler. The glacier that carved it 1000’s of years ago must not have liked angles. At the end there are a number of sharp turns to line the ship up for the entrance into Magellan Strait. When making those turns we come very close to the rocks while we are going through a buoyed channel.

Prinsendam’s Travel guide Frank Buckingham, our own walking encyclopdia.

This is very interesting to see, so we had our Information Guru and all knowing Travel Buddha Frank Buckingham on the bridge to explain it all. Frank has been everywhere, knows everything about anything there is to see and as he has been around for a very long time, no doubt has been involved in the creation of some of the land marks that we do see.

The wind remained strong all day long, courtesy of some more nasty weather outside and every time we made a turn, we got that wind full on the beam, for a few minutes, causing the ship to list slightly. As soon as the turn was made and we were back on a Southerly heading the wind pushed in the stern again and propelled us forward quite nicely. I estimate that the wind, that caused us so many problems yesterday, saved me running at least one engine today and that calculated into saving at least $3500 in fuel.

The wreck of the Santa Leonora. Clearly visible. In the Dutch language we say: Een schip op het strand is een baken in zee.

There is one sharp turn in this stretch where a wreck shows that not every ship and pilot always gets it right. The Santa Leonora (cargo ship from Grace Lines) did not turn quickly enough and ended in the 1960’s on one of the reefs in a rather spectacular way with the stern sticking out as a jagged rock. There was quite some legislation about this but it was not proven beyond doubt, whether it was the ship or the pilot who was to blame.

The Bridge team during the narrow passages. Quartermaster Muhadjir behind the wheel. Quartermaster Levi on the lookout. Partially visible The Chilean pilots Captain Morales and Captain Fernando. 3rd officer of the Watch Guido de Vries and me. (Doing what I do best, looking out of the window……….)

By 18.30 we entered Strait Magellan which runs from the SE to the NW and acts as a very nice funnel for any North Westerly Ocean wind. So for 45 minutes while we entered the Strait and turned to the South East we got it all full on the starboard beam again. As soon as we were heading into the channel, the wind came back on the stern and we nearly flew in the direction of Punta Arenas. Which was very handy as at the last moment Punta Arenas port control asked me to arrive earlier; this due to some muddle up with tugboat availability. Tugboats, that were also needed for another ship around the same time. Now with this wind, we went fast enough without having to put extra engines on lines to make the new ETA. Punta Arenas is normally very windy (50 to 60 knots is not unusual) and thus two tugboats are compulsory, even when there is no wind. And guess what, the weather forecast is indicating little or no wind and nobody is believing it.

Note: All fotos (except Prinsendam/glacier) by special reporter Lesley.