Today was of course Valentine’s days where the Ladies onboard receive a red rose from the ship as a present. However we all received a present by means of very good weather at Cape Horn. Most of the time it storms here, hence the notorious reputation of this place, but today we did not have more wind than a force four and the occasional shower with a bit of sleet. Good conditions indeed. The cruise schedule called for scenic cruising and the good weather gave a nice opportunity to do so. It just had to be early to be able to continue our voyage timely to Antarctica. Thus we arrived as early as possible and that was at daybreak. Sunrise was at 06.15 and at the same time the Prinsendam sailed at a mile distance past Cape Horn. Continue reading

From Punta Arenas we had to travel back the route that we had come in on and once out of the fjord sail South and East towards Ushuaia. There is the option to go North, but it is longer, more exposed to the open Ocean and we would miss the chance to look at the glaciers just to the West of Ushuaia. From a navigational point of view the north route is an easier option as the passages are much wider but there is not much to see. So we took the regular scenic route and during the night while all guests were happily asleep we sailed through some narrow passages with the most narrow one being less then 3000 feet wide but also a 1000 feet deep. These areas are very well marked by the Chilean Navy with buoys and light houses which is a real necessity as with foul weather the islands are not that well visible on the radar and the pilots rely on the strong lights to come in view on time, to make the next course change. By the early morning we were through and I had a chance to have a rest, leaving the scenic cruising past the glaciers under the supervision of the chief officer. Continue reading

This is a very peculiar port as it blows here most of the time. When in other ports the pilots start thinking about suspending all port movements, they gear here up for a normal days work. That made me a little bit of apprehensive to say the least about this port. With such windy circumstances you have to rely totally on the strength of the tugboats and the skill of the pilot and that is something I never really enjoy doing. I have no problem with letting them assist me in the best way possible but when it comes to more or less handing over as you do not know the strength of the tugboats nor understand the (local) language then it is reason to be very careful. Thus I was very happy to see when we approached Punta Arenas that the weather forecast was correct; there was very little wind, much to the surprise of the two pilots onboard that guide us through the Inside Passage. Continue reading

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. Continue reading

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. Continue reading

The Chilean town of Chacabuco lies tucked away at the end of a fjord and a fair distance from Puerto Montt and therefore we had an official arrival time of 10.00. This was our first full night inside the Chilean inside passage and I was quite happy with that as outside a whopper of a storm was building up. Building up very quickly, moving very quickly and being of great intensity. The weather map gave a wind indication of 60 knots or more and then you are talking hurricane force winds. Where we sailed it was windy, very windy, but nothing more than 35 knots, until around 3 am when we passed a side channel that was perpendicular to ours and directly in line with the open sea. It blew this storm force wind in with a sort of funnel effect increasing the wind velocity even more. So suddenly we had 70 knots of wind blowing around the ship. However there was no movement of the ship to accompany it as we were sailing in sheltered waters; only the howling of the wind around the ships superstructure gave away that is was extremely windy out there and of course the foam streaks on the water. 10 minutes later we had passed this side canal and everything was back to normal. Continue reading

The planning worked out as expected and by 0100 this morning we entered the Chilean Inside passage via Canal de Chacao. Not much of an issue in principle but I had to be on the bridge as the passage has one narrow point, near the town of Chacao. Here the navigable width of the channel goes down to about 3000 feet and currents can run up to 8 knots. Normally you go through at or near slack tide, when the current is predicted to be the least and hence our planning for 01.00 near the entrance. The Chilean fjords are not un-similar to the Canadian Inside passage when you leave Vancouver, with little villages dotted along the cliffs, interspersed with open grass area’s for farms. The town of Puerto Montt that we were visiting today is the district capital for this area and located about 70 miles past these narrows. That gave me the chance to catch another 2 hours of sleep before the fun and games of the day were starting. Continue reading

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. Continue reading

The weather turned out not to be as good as I had hoped for. A frontal system had peaked up a bit from the south going higher up (or to lower latitude in this case as we are in the Southern hemisphere) than expected and it brought the occasional rain shower with it. It also was responsible for a wind direction change to the North West which was less pleasant. To safely anchor in Cumberland Bay you need both South Westerly swell and South Westerly Wind to have a quiet anchorage. However as the Wind was more WNW than NNW I had high hopes that the anchorage would still be sufficiently in the lee to make a safe tender operation possible. Thus I was happy that I had already decided before in the initial cruise plan to arrive an hour and a half early to have time to sort it all out without giving Murphy a chance to get involved with the planning. Continue reading

With high hopes in my heart I woke up this morning to see what the weather looked like outside. It was very good. Exactly conforming to the weather forecast. The sun was shining, hardly any wind and only the long running swell was still very evident. There is normally an ocean swell running here but with the constant series of depressions moving by just to the south, the swell can be very pronounced here and it was. So we moved up and down on the swell and occasionally slammed on the waves when two waves merged and created one big wave. Still the sun was shining and the whales were playing around the ship and the pitching of the ship was a minor hindrance in relation to all the good weather. I hope the weather will hold for tomorrow as well when we are in Isla Robinson Crusoe. Continue reading