I had no idea what to expect from this day. But sailing through the Beagle Channel has certainly been a highlight of our trip! It is mind-blowing. The day started with the usual procedures: put on your life jacket, sign out on a control board, slide into one of the Zodiac boats, prepare to get wet, land on a rocky ridge in now man's land, ....and stand back in amazement. Ahead of us lay the Pia glacier. And just as we arrived, a big chunk of ice broke off! What a smashing welcome :-) Fortunately the wave from the collapse didn't cause any trouble for those Zodiacs, that were still arriving. With the group complete, our guide Haron led us up to a lookout. We stayed there for at least one hour, listening to the glacier's captivating "music" of creaks and groans, soaking up this unique Patagonia experience. Our guides have all been incredibly enthusiastic about their work and knew about every detail. Many are actually PhD students. The only economic way to do research down here is by joining a cruise!
Back on board the Stella Australis, we continued our journey eastwards through the Beagle Channel. Did you know that half of Europe had it's own glacier down here?! They call it the glacier alley. And it's just highlight after highlight. Whenever a new glacier came into sight, the crew would serve us typical snacks, like brie at the (mingy) French glacier, olives for Italy (they got hold of the biggest and prettiest one), bitterballen for the Netherlands (glacier looks like a ski jump) and of course sausage and beer, when we passed the German glacier. Meanwhile it got dark outside. Water dripped from the icy plateaus all around us. In the twilight it seemed as if all those waterfalls were hanging in mid air, with no beginning nor end! Like an unreal scene of the Avatar movie. Alas, no pictures.
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On the command bridge: We've done some complex calculating and are now on target for Cape Horn!
