The Captain has just announced that we are having to divert as there is someone aboard who needs urgent hospitalisation. She is aiming for Concepcion and it appears that a boat will come out to us to collect the patient. We are due in Valparaiso early tomorrow so the individual concerned must be very ill if he or she needs to be taken off now. Whether or not this diversion will delay our arrival tomorrow is not clear. Valparaiso marks the end of this leg of the World voyage and a large number of people are leaving the ship (and a similar number joining).
Amalia and Pio XI Glaciers, Chile
Many of the world’s glaciers are retreating. Amalia is located in the Bernardo O’Higgins (Could this be one of Brian Kelly’s relatives?) National Park on Chile’s Southern Patagonian coastline, and it has retreated nearly 5 miles over the last 50 years. Frankly it looked much the same as it was when we were here 7 years ago.
As we edged ever closer to the glacier at perhaps 2 or 3 knots (to avoid creating waves and damaging the wall of the glacier) we sailed through growlers and mini icebergs that had broken away. A small, fast rib was launched to take photos of the ship and to collect a small iceberg which was then brought aboard the QV and carved into a sculpture of the Queen.
The following day, after tracking through the fjords overnight, we arrived at the Pio XI Glacier, the largest in the southern hemisphere (ignoring Antarctica). It is advancing rapidly, unlike the majority of glaciers and is said to grow by 50 metres in height and length every day.
My research tells me that O’Higgins was a General and the first head of state of the Republic of Chile.
The glaciers and the fjords were magnificent but I fear that my photos do not do them justice.
Ushuaia and Punta Arenas
After our trip around Cape Horn we tracked north to the Beagle Channel and into Ushuaia where we spent Tuesday. It is a busy little community and the centre for Antarctic expeditions and fjord cruises. I could remember that the main street was parallel to the port but up a hill.
I managed to push Jane to the top only to find that a German lady who we know had collapsed in a shop we were about to enter. She was rushed off to hospital, but within hours she was back on the ship, apparently none the worse for the experience (except for the US$500 the hospital had extracted from her credit card). Imagine how much they would have taken had she been British!
We are not popular in Argentina. Large signs called Ushuaia the “Capital of the Malvinas” and other large official signs stated that the occupation of the Falklands by the British is illegal.
Our next call was to be Punta Arenas in Chile. Overnight we would cross the dividing line between the two countries (the middle of the Beagle Channel) which regularly causes delay. For those of you with maps we left Ushuaia in a westerly direction along the Beagle Channel as far as the Pacific and then nipped back into the fjords before turning directly north up the Magellan Strait. I will incorporate a copy of the map showing our route, which I have just been given.
We were at anchor off Punta Arenas which meant that Jane had to stay aboard. I went ashore in one of the tenders and Jane had her nails done. I wandered around the town, bumped into some of our chums from the ship, had an excellent coffee and free fast internet and returned to the ship to find that Jane was still having her nails done! I knew that we should have brought Hannah Maunsell with us!
For the next couple of days we are cruising in the fjords and will take in the Amalia Glacier and the Pio XI Glacier today and tomorrow.
Cabo de Hornos – Cape Horn
Last time we were at Cape Horn it was early evening – darkish, cold and windy. On that occasion we were sailing from the Pacific to the Atlantic, west to east and it was only during a lecture the day before that I heard that cruise ships rarely travel round Cape Horn by the obvious route around the bottom of the continent.
The winds and currents are considered to be too wild and changeable to risk the simple route. It was reported to me that for 200 days a year there are gale force winds and 50 foot waves in the region where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet and 130 days when fog and icebergs abound.
So I was resigned to the fact that on this occasion we would be using one of the other routes. Captain Inger Thorhauge managed to get the timing spot on despite the Argentinian authorities delaying our departure from Puerto Madryn by a couple of hours. She told us that we could expect to arrive at Cape Horn at about 1630 hours on Saturday and that she intended to travel round the island, on which Cape Horn sits, in an anti clockwise direction.
The bottom part of S America, Tierra del Fuego, is a vast island surrounded by hundreds of small islands. Cape Horn is on the southernmost of those small islands and there is a navigable channel round it.
The sea was calm and the sun was shining as we approached the Cape. We could see the lighthouse and the lighthouse keepers home alongside. He lives there with his family on a six month contract. We could also see the Cape Horn Monument which sits 1400 feet above the sea. The monument’s two triangular bronze halves form the outine of an albatross. It stands there in memory of all those who have lost their lives in the waters off Cape Horn. More than 1000 ships and at least 15,000 lives have been lost there.
We could see two people by the lighthouse and they waved a flag and then climbed down a set of wooden stairs to a small beach. At the same time a high speed rib left the ship and sped across to the beach to record the QV’s visit there. We left them there and carried on round the island eventually facing the rockface of the Horn itself. After about 2 hours in the vicinity and after collecting the crew of the rib, we set sail for the Beagle Channel and our next port, Ushuiai. It was a great spectacle and we were very lucky to be there on such a beautiful day.
Admiral The Right Honourable Baron West of Spithead
Last night we were less than 100 miles from the Falkland Islands. It was appropriate that in the major lecture yesterday that the former First Sea Lord should deliver it.
When I took my seat in the theatre the lady alongside pointed at Lord West, waiting at the side of the stage, and said to me “Thats my husband”. Presumably she was ensuring that I didn’t make any derogatory remarks! What me?!
I quickly ascertained that she grew up in Portsmouth (and knew people there we know including Jeremy Lear!) and that her father was a Solicitor in Portsmouth.
Lord West’s presentation was his perspective on the Falklands War. It was beautifully crafted, packed with anecdotes and just the right balance between humour and sensitivity for those who were killed or injured in the conflict which he described as a “bloody war”. He commanded the frigate HMS Ardent which was sunk by the Argentinians with a number of his men being killed.
Lord West is not the only inspirational speaker aboard. Richard Cowley delvered a lecture a few days ago on the famous 1939 Battle of the River Plate and today, as we approach Cape Horn, he talked about the 3 ways of crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific – round the Horn or through the Beagle Channel or the Magellan Strait.
The Captain has announced that we will circle Cape Horn anti clockwise (many do not realise that Cape Horn is an island) so we will party on the balcony of our friends the Wilsons from north of Aberdeen who are on the port side of the ship. My report on Cape Horn to follow!!