The Good the Bad and the Ugly

What a morning!!! Peterson Island and the sun make for unforgettable photo opportunities. We had booked a polar cruising adventure in an 8 man zodiac and we lucked out getting to do this excursion on the most beautiful day to date.. The viewing up close of some magnificent icebergs with the blue light reflecting through the berg crevasses was simply breathtaking as the brilliant white monsters would tower above us. Along with the stillness of the waters, it was simply an unbelievable experience as the zodiac would plow through the ice fields and ice flows. I was giddy with excitement and could hardly contain myself as we toured for approximately 2 hours. We got up close to seals basking on the ice flows and once again the whales were easy to spot due to their numbers and birds would tease us with the ease in which they glided overhead. It was amazing to experience the quiet when the driver would kill the motor to the zodiac and all the passengers would stop talking and just listen. I don’t want to bore you with too many pictures but it is so hard to explain the magnificence and grandeur of the experience.

After touring the island with another landing and spectacular views of the sound, it was time to start the journey back across the Drake Passage. This is where the bad and ugly come into play. Due to a huge storm and low weather depression forming near Cape Horn, we were forced to abandon the original routing and go to plan B and the long way back across this treacherous passage of water towards the Beagle Channel. It wasn’t long before we could feel the swells come into play and many fellow passengers ended up missing dinner and where it took us a day and a half to get across initially, it took us two days for the return journey. I literally had to hold onto my bed through the night as the ship rocked and rolled as I wondered how much more rolling the ship could handle before turning on its side. I was afraid to look out the window to see the height of the waves which later were reported as being 10 meters in height. I felt fine but did not even try venturing to the dining room for breakfast for fear of just loosing my balance. What an experience!!


























Comments

  1. Ze BloggerMarch 5, 2018 at 11:11 AM

    Sheesh ! Do these storms come up fast? Too bad you could'nt get some pix of those swells. I guess you would've had to be still for those. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. RachelMarch 5, 2018 at 11:25 AM

    Incroyable to say the least! Another one for the books!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Eric PritchardMarch 7, 2018 at 5:24 PM

    Wow....that's all I can say

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

MS Fram

MS Fram
Home Away From Home

Another Adventure

Another Adventure
On the Prowl

Iceberg

Iceberg
OOhh Iceberg Ahead!!

Penguins

Penguins
Quick March

Patagonia

Patagonia
Chill Out

Patagonia

Patagonia
Hiking Anyone?

Popular posts from this blog

A Whale of a Tail

Image
One of the activities we signed up for was sea kayaking. There was great demand to paddle but unfortunately not all got to participate. The water was as calm as a mill pond and the wind was nonexistent. Our guide said that in the eight years he had been guiding, he had never had a day like this. We could hear whales from every direction and see the spray from the blowholes all around us. It was surreal like it was from a western movie. The Indians (whales) were circling the wagon train (kayakers). Up close and personal, these gigantic humpback mammals kept their distance initially until a pod of three decided to make a game of it. I could see what was starting to evolve, so I was ready when the guide excitedly called all of us to gather together and hold onto one another’s kayak and form a pontoon formation. The three humpbacks were taking direct aim at us and started swimming in our direction. I could literally see the air bubbles right beside our kayak when three whales passed ...
Read more

Surprising and Sunny Santiago

Image
It was disappointing that the trip up the Chilean fjords did not meet our expectations but one cannot control the weather. We were warned previously that this was an expedition discovery tour and we would always be at the beck and call of the weather. We got ambushed in Puerto Natales by the wind and rain and were not able to make the return tender trip to the ship by the appointed hour and 120 of us were stranded and had to spend and extra seven hour stint on land before the winds decided to let up. Then because we had missed the high tide sailing time we were forced to wait in the region until early the next morning. The ramifications were such that we had to abandon plans to visit two of the stops on the itinerary but fortunately a third port was added. The weather continued to be overcast and wet so unfortunately what I was anticipating as being a highlight of sailing the fjords became an exercise of doing a lot of reading and waiting for the sun to appear. The add on...
Read more