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We have had three days “at sea”, but land was nearly always in sight. We sailed through the Beagle channel, wove our way through a myriad of Chilean archipelagos, channels and into fjords.

We left Ushuaia (at the bottom) on the Beagle Channel west-bound, then weaved north and east, turning west again on Cockburn Channel and then winding west and north up to the ice field (in white on the map) and pulled into a fjord ending at the Pio XI glacier. We left the glacier and proceeded past numerous fjords, pulling out into the Pacific Ocean twice on our way to Puerto Montt at the top. Here is a more detailed track of our route to the glacier and back out again. Very narrow channels.

BTW, these route maps are from the Polarsteps (polarsteps.com) app that is tracking my entire journey using the phone’s GPS and can then display your actual journey on a map such as this. Very cool. Just told Polarsteps my start and end dates, and my planned itinerary. You can even share your trip with others.

Weather for these days at sea has been a bit rough, but probably expected this close to Antartica. We had rain, fog, wind, and mostly cloudy skies as the temperature has ranged from 40-50 degrees. As such, my photographs are a bit tame without sunlight to brighten and add contrast. Trust me though, the pictures can’t capture what we’ve seen.

The trip to Pio XI glacier was a pleasant surprise. If you have ever been to Glacier Bay in Alaska, this reminded me of that. The ship slowly moved into the fjord, with small icebergs getting more frequent as you got closer. When the ship got as close as it could, the captain slowly rotated the ship around so everyone got a front ahead view of the glacier. I estimate the glacier edge was probably at least a hundred feet high from the water, with probably another hundred below the waterline. It flows west from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, and at 41 miles long. It is the largest in the southern hemisphere outside of Antartica. Unlike most other glaciers, Pio XI is actually advancing. Here are few pictures. The first two are we approach the glacier and it turns right up to the ice field. Actually though, Pio XI in the last 50 years hit a mountain straight on (on left), and the glacier to then branched left and right (north and south in this case). You see the southern branch here. What was the same fjord is now trapped on the north side, forming a lake.

The last picture is from our balcony as the ship completes its rotation and prepares to pull away from the glacier.

Two nights in row, the ship pulled out into the open Pacific for a short period before ducking back into the inland channels. There’s a big low pressure system pounding lower Chile off shore and up to the Andes mountains. Seas were rough. The captain announced one night we had 18 foot waves. Outside decks were closed due to the rough seas most of two days. Here on the third day at sea, things are lot calmer and warmer, with promises of nicer weather in port tomorrow. I was finally able to get my walk around the promenade in today.

On the culinary note, here is what we can choose from for breakfast most mornings in the separate breakfast restaurant for suites. You may have to tap each picture to make it big enough to read.