Feb. 17 and 18

Feb. 17 and 18 Cruising the Chilean Fjords. (I thought they spelled fjords with an “I” in place of a “j” down here but the map says fjords.)
It is 6:45 pm and for the past half hour I have been up on deck and am now looking out our cabin window at the Skua Glacier, also known as the Amalia Glacier. It is a tidewater glacier located in Bernardo O’Higgins National Park. From the Daily Program--
“It originates in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and from 1945 to 1986
Its terminus retreated four miles making it, along with the receding of
O’Higgins Glacier, the most dramatic retreat of glaciers of this ice field during that period of time.
I don’t know who Amalia was but the Skuas were a wealthy South American family who commissioned a yacht and sailed it to this glacier. Sometime in the late 20th century. It is very frustrating to have bits and pieces of stories but because of the exorbitant e-mail costs, not be willing to google them.
It’s been a quiet day. Lectures in the morning, bridge morning and afternoon and e-mail and blog catching up.
If you’re checking a map (you’ll need a detailed one of Patagonia and the Chilean Fiords) here’s where we have sailed. After leaving Ushuaia, we sailed westward on the Beagle Channel, around the north of Isle O’Brien, through Canal Ballenero, around the south side of Pla. Brecknock, westerly through the Cl. Cockburn to the southern end of Aracena, north up the Canal Magdallena. It was then northwest through Estrecho de Magallanes then north into the Cl Smith and generally northward to Is Esperanza.
For you navigators, directions are approximate.) In the next post I'll try to put in a picture of the chart we have posted on the ship.
Somewhere along the way we altered course to get up pretty close and personal to two more glaciers. Days are longer and we have enough light at dinner time to rush up from the table, run to a window or outside and snap away. Alan was outside for so long, one of the ladies at our table became worried and offered to have one of the men check the men’s room for him. He returned shortly thereafter, safe, sound and dry.
Because the Prinsendam has “soft” propellers, it cannot be backed out of the tight spots the Captain navigates but must be turned 360° and headed back the way we came. Those on the bridge are constantly monitoring the glaciers to make sure there are no great chunks of ice sliding off into our path. The colors in the glaciers are spectacular, all range of blues, with brown of rocks and soils thrown into the mix.
Both sides of all the channels are mountainous, (up to 1,500 feet) faced with sheer rock cliffs and GREEN trees. Some of the tops are snow covered and we’ve seen a few small waterfalls. It is quite a comparision to the pure ice, snow and rock we saw in Antarctica.
We continued up this inland water route until it was no more and we had to go out into the Pacific Ocean for about 6 hours. We popped in again between Isla Rivero and I. Isquiliac .
I have a note on a scrap of paper that at 4:50 pm on Feb. 18 we were at
48° 47.15S, 075° 00.18W. That didn’t agree with what I figured on the chart but who I am to argue with the captain. Besides, they don’t let us up on the bridge. At that time we had traveled 112,702.3 miles from Ft. Lauderdale.

Our route then took us south east to the little coastal town of Puerto Chacobuca.
As the port lecturer and shore excursion people kept tell us….there ain’t nothing there. And they were correct.