2/7, 2/8, 2/9 two sea days and Puerto Madryn

Buses lined up on the pier, picture taken from our balcony

Nice goodies at the tea

Full house for the tea

After leaving the Falkland Islands without being able to anchor we spent the day in heavy seas, welcome to the Atlantic!! About 1 am on the 8th we hit some very rough weather with winds in excess of 90 mph, needless to say it was a noisy, bouncy night.  We had all sorts of creaking and groaning in our room even though we had stuffed some folded paper in the door. Taking a morning shower was a bit of a challenge, the shower doors are three panels that sort of overlap but can slide independently, so while in the shower the doors kept sliding open and you were standing in a couple of inches of water that kept sloshing back and forth like a tidal wave, all the time hanging on to the grab bar with one hand.  We decided to have breakfast in the main dining room, Compass Rose because it is on deck five and there would not be as much movement as our usual dining choice on deck 11.  While eating all of a sudden the room sort of turned dark and I thought maybe the lights had gone out- wrong!  it was a huge wave that completly covered up the windows.  Quite an exciting morning but by the afternoon we had sailed out of the weather system.

While we were having dinner that evening in Prime 7 the captain made an announcement that we were cranking up the engines to get to the next port as soon as possible as we had another medical emergency.  We arrived in Puerto Madryn, Argentina, at 1am and the patient was evacuated to a hospital (that makes 6 so far that have had to leave the ship).

Our tour today was a 1.5 hour bus ride to the town of Gaiman that was founded by people from Wales around 1860.  The countryside is quite bleak with just low scrub bushes, but we did see some guanacos, which are members of the llama family.  We had a Welsh tea served in a tea room that was large enough to accomodate our four busses.  We were also entertained by a local choir that sang in both Welsh and Spanish.  The different sweets and sandwiches were nice but it was a long ride to have tea!

Feb 6 & 7 At sea and Port Stanley--not!

Monday was a sea day and this was the first day of really rough seas.  The swell was probably about 18 ft with high winds.  While at breakfast in La Veranda on deck 11 we had a strong swell come from the side and dishes, glassware and food fell to the floor.  It was hard to walk without staggering and bumping into things.  We had these same conditions most of the day.
We had dinner in Compass Rose with two of the entertainers, one of the female dancers and the male singer, it was a most enjoyable evening talking to these young people. 
This morning we came to the Falkland Islands and were supposed to anchor off of Port Stanley.  We dropped the anchor about 6:30 but because of the 45 knot winds the anchor would not hold on the sandy bottom.  We sailed away for about a half hour, turned around and went back to try again.  The wind had diminished but was supposed to build during the day so the captain made the decision to leave.  Everyone was very disappointed as this was the stop with the best site to see three types of penguins and most were going on the "penguin tours".  The tour directior is now rushing to plan some onboard activities to keep us all busy.

Islas de los Estados on Monday

Big crowd for the Super Bowl

Our brief view of Port Stanley

End of the World, Ushuaia, Argentina 2-5-12

We docked in Ushuaia, Argentina, at 8 am, the town is very picturesque being surrounded by the snow covered Andes.   It was bitterly cold and windy with snow flurries turning to rain later in the morning.  We had originally booked a four wheel drive excursion but had changed to what we thought would be a warmer tour that was mostly in a bus.  We went to the Tierra Del Fuego National Park.  There is little wild life and the trees are generally quite small.  The scenery was nice, but not spectacular, we did see a gray fox and a red fox, black necked swans and several families of Upland Geese. 
Ushuaia bills itself as the "End of the World".  Several smaller cruise ships leave from here to visit Antarctica during these "warmer" summer months.  The Pan American Highway ends here although it is just a dirt road.  We leave tonight and spend tomorrow at sea before reaching the Falkland Islands on Tuesday. 
Tonight there will be a big Super Bowl party in the theater with hamburgers, hot dogs, pop corn, etc.  We will not be there for the start of the party as our trivia partner, Michael, has arranged a special dinner of Peking duck for a small group.  This is the first time that we have taken part in a "special request" dinner and we are looking forward to the meal. 

Southernmost golf course in the world

Notice the distance to Alaska

Andes mountain above Ushuaia

Our special dinner group seated at Captain's table

I started writing this blog before dinner, but was unable to finish as the internet was down.  We have just finished our special dinner and it was excellent. 

Beagle Channel/Cape Horn 2-4-12

We entered the channel overnight passing through the "Avenue of the Glaciers" during the morning.  The glaciers come from the Darwin Ice Field on the island of Tierra Del Fuego.  The channel is a fjord much like we have experienced for the last several days.  We had fog, rain, hail, and snow during the morning.  Good thing it is summer here, high temp is mid 40's.

We passed Ushuaia, Argentina, (where we will return Sunday morning) as we make our way south to Cape Horn.  There are huge numbers of birds including albatross, terns, skuas, and giant petrols.  We also had a pod of whales near the ship.

First glacier of the day!

Just another glacier

Cape Horn

Rounding the horn

Our journey to Cape Horn was fantastic.  We had 75 knot winds, (90 mph), but luckily the swells were only about 20 feet in height.  The ship struggled in the wind but it was well worth it.  Tradition dictates that the ship sounds its horn, followed by a moment of silence in memory of those many sailors who perished rounding the cape. 

We arrive back in Ushuaia at 8:00 AM.  We are re-provisioning replacing the Chilean wines with ones from Argentina.  Tom is worried what wines we will have once we arrive in Brazil but hopes the scantilly clad girls on Ipenema and Copa Cabana beaches will make up for the drop in quality of wine.

Punta Arenas, Chile

Sadly, Punta Arenas is our last Chilean Port.  What a contrast this country is- from the dryest place on earth in the north, the Atacama desert, to glaciers in a myriad of fjords in the south.  Punta Arenas, on the strait of Magellan was once an important city before the Pamana Canal opened.  Today there are about 150,000 residents, mainly supporting the military, mining, petroleum, and sheep and cattle ranching. 
We visited a couple of museums and a huge cemetary, as well as the town square.  We really enjoyed Chile with its more European culture.  The weather here is cold and windy but we finally have blue skies.  Tierra Del Fuego can be seen across the straight.  Tonight we sail through the straight and all day Saturday through the Beagle channel to arrive on Sunday morning at our first port in Argentina, Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world.  After staying for the day we are acheduled to round Cape Horn and head to the Falkland Islands.  We are bracing for a couple of rough days as we leave the Pacific and head into the south Atlantic.

Magellan statue in the town square

Supposed to be good luck to touch or kiss the foot of indigenous person on base of statue

Scenic view of Punta Arenas

Municipal cemetary had many rows of shaped cypress trees

The Patagonia of Chile (and we assume Argentina) is unique.  A few thousand years ago it was covered in ice like Antarctica is today.  There were few indigenous people so the early settlers in 1800's  were Germans, British, Slavs and a mix of other Europeans.  All the indigenous people are now extinct.

Another day another glacier!

Skua Glacier

Party on forward deck

Veggie penguins

Fire and emergency crews on deck 12

Navy helicopter

Lifting the patient from pool deck

Feb 2.  We are traveling in the Chilean fjords again today after exiting into the pacific briefly last night.  Once again everything in the cabin had to be secured and the drawers still opened and closed with the swells.  Geologically this area is young, having been covered with glacial ice until recently.  The landscape is even more barren with sparse vegetation, waterfalls everywhere, and snow and ice covered peaks.  The weather continues to be cloudy and very cold, calling for panty hose under the jeans again today, it's a good thing that it's summer! 
Skua Glacier starts at 6,000 ft and ends at sea level and truly looks like a "river of ice" with three separate flows coming down the mountains.  The ship organized an event on the bow of deck 7 that is usually just for crew.  This was for Seven Seas Society gold and above members.  It was windy and cold but we had an enjoyable time seeing the glacial ice picked up yesterday as well as some great sculptures of penguins made from vegetables.  They served mulled wine and hot chocolate with your choice of alcohol.  They were also serving empanadas and cooking up fritters with apples or pineapple, quite yummy!
At about 8 am the Captain came over the speaker stating that we had a medical emergency and the Chilean navy was sending a helicopter to do an evacuation at about 9:15 and we were told to stay off our balconies and open decks on decks 11 and 12.  Many of the passengers were in the Observation Lounge viewing the Skua glacier and listening to the commentary of the lecturer Terry Breen.  We could see the fire crews had set out hoses and were in their full gear and there were crew members standing guard at all the doors that went to the open decks. By 9:30 nothing had happened and we were just holding place in front of the glacier.  The captain announced that the helicopter had  to go somewhere to refuel and was now expected at 10:30.  We were allowed back outside and the emergency teams went inside.  The poor patient that was to be evacuated was sitting in a wheel chair near the forward elevator on 12 this entire time.  Finally about 11:30 the crews came back out on deck 12 just behind the Observation lounge and started setting up again.  Pretty soon we heard the helicopter, they made several passes but the wind appeared to be too strong in that area so they rushed all the equipment and the patient down to the area of the pool deck near the serving area.  The helicopter sent down a man on a cable and the crew hooked up the litter with the patient and off he went.  Made for quite a bit of excitement.

February 1 Chilean Fjords

The captain warned us last evening that we would encounter 12 to 15 foot seas when we exited the fjords into the open sea at about 3 am.  It was very evident when the drawers in the closet started opening and closing on their own!  We had taken some precautions with stowing glassware, wine and booze bottles and stuff on the bathroom shelves so we had no casualties.  The rough condition continued this morning and we were 2 of only a few at breakfast in La Veranda at 8 am.  By 10 am the sea had calmed down as we got closer to the shore prior to going back into the fjords.  The waters of Golfo De Penas and south to Cape Horn are notoriously violent. 
By noon we were back in the fjords in calm waters.  This is an extremely remote area, the vegetation is stunted with little soil, mostly rock and little wildlife other than birds.  We passed an old shipwreck of a Greek freighter from 1968.  We then went up Iceberg Sound to visit Tempano Glacier.  The Silver Spirit was just coming out of the area and we passed closely with both ships sounding their horns several times.  The glacier was not as large as the one we saw yesterday but still impressive.  The ship sent out a small boat to the base of the glacier to retrieve a piece of ice for our Seven Seas Society party this evening with  the theme of "Fire and Ice". 

The Silver Spirit passing on starboard side

Base of Tempano Glacier

Our small boat retrieving piece of ice

Fire and Ice party decor complete with penguins and smoking volcano!

Tom with two of the entertainers, Laura and Yvonne

Tomorrow we will be cruising "Iceberg Alley", should be interesting, hope we have better weather!