December 2014
Well, that was exciting! For the first time in our experience a ship we were travelling on was involved in a med evac. As M and I were getting dressed for dinner the ship's Director announced that the upper decks would be entirely cleared in anticipation of a helicopter medical evacuation of a crew member. We don't know if it was a result of a tumble in the rough seas or an illness but a Chilean military chopper shortly made its appearance, circled the ship 4 or 5 times to size up the conditions, swooped in, picked the unfortunate individual up and was winging its way back to Punta Arenas.
We couldn't see if the chopper landed or hovered and lifted the patient into the helicopter, I suspect the latter. What I can say is it was efficient and way faster than I expected. Clearly the crew was practised. If you are wondering how they did this in heaving seas, they didn't. The ship pulled into one of the deep water fjords that serrate the Chilean coastline to get out of the wind & waves. We learned this morning the crew member is doing well in the hospital in Punta Arenas.
Margaret & I are constantly amazed and fascinated by the United Nations of races and nationalities on these ships - both crew & passengers. We went for afternoon tea the other day and just sitting at our table we counted (excluding English) 6 different languages being spoken around us. It would seem to me that no one nationality has a lock on who has the loudest voice. As my dad used to say, 'There's always one who must have learned to whisper in a sawmill'.
One of the young girls who has been our waitress a number of times is Russian. Her name is Nadezda. When she pronounced her name it sounded exotic and wonderful. After several attempts by Margaret & me she patiently suggested we call her Nadia. Turns out she is from the Ural Mountains area on the Volga River near the city of Pern - famous for yogurt and Kalashnikovs ! Interesting combination. We asked her if she had any advice for us if we were to visit her home region. She paused for a moment then said in all seriousness, "Don't eat the yogurt if it's more than 7 days old." Hilarious. No mention about the Kalashnikovs.
Sunrise and sunset in the Southern Hemisphere right now; 5:59 am and 9:40 pm
Nice.
'Blue water sailing' and 'iron bound coasts'
I have read these terms frequently in books and more or less knew what they meant. After this trip I GET it. Blue water sailing means deep water, no reefs and not near shore. An iron bound coast means the coastline is sheer rock, frequently dropping straight into the sea from mountainous heights. It would be a bad place to ship wreck because there is simply no where to land. That is basically all we have seen since Ushuaia 3 days ago. Particularly in the age of sail it is no wonder a trip around the Horn was so perilous.
Argentinians and Chileans love their statues. They wedge them into the tiniest corners and little neighbourhood parks frequently have multiple statues. The statues are mostly of men of course and conjure up images of politicians, and military or sports heroes. They also tend to name major streets after the date of a key event in their history. For example in Buenos Aires their big 16 lane roadway (widest avenue in the world) is called 9 de Julio Ave (July 9) and is named after their Independence Day in 1816. 9 de Julio in Argentina is as common as Main St is in North America.
Reminds me of that perceptive old rhyme;
'In all the parks, in all the cities
There are no statues of committees'
Seems pretty accurate to me.
One of the reasons Margaret and I were attracted to this trip was the coastline, particularly from Tierra del Fuego in the far south and up the east side of Chile. On a map it looks like the coast of Norway, all inlets and fjords. If you have the interest go to Google Earth and search under Tierra del Fuego and Laguna San Rafael. Zooming in will give you a good idea of how rugged and geologically fractured it is. The coast of Chile is a maze of fjords and inland passages. We are currently stopped at the Laguna San Rafael. This is a national park named for the San Rafael glacier and a declared Biosphere Reserve. This is a BIG glacier covering 3,832,400 acres and giving birth to 19 other glaciers. It is largely inaccessible other than from the sea.
One of the things that has surprised us is how little we have seen in the way of marine wildlife. Other than a few dolphins and lots of birds that's about it. I'm sure the lumpy seas we have experienced since the Falklands have something to do with that. Pretty tough to see whales in such uneven water. There have been lots of opportunities to see a wide variety of penguins (Kings, Magellenics, Rockhoppers etc) as well as seals and sea lions on shore excursions.
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Wow! Another med evac. That's 2 in 2 days. We have never even had one in all our other trips combined. This time it's a passenger and there was no accessibility to a helicopter or float plane. We have a medical team onboard so it must have been drastic and sudden, possibly a heart attack, because they immediately recalled the San Rafael Glacier catamaran tours and high balled full speed for the closest port. The announcement was made about 4:30 pm and we were in Puerto Chacabuco by midnight, about 8 hours ahead of schedule. No word as yet on how this person is doing. This was an unfortunate event for the patient and the passengers who missed their special glacier tour, but other passengers got to experience an amazing trip through beautiful mountainous fjords in the daylight hours that would have ordinarily occurred in the dark.
As we continue our voyage North up the Chilean coast the weather becomes more favourable. In the 4 days it took to travel from the Falkland Islands to Ushuaia, to Punta Arenas, and the head of the San Rafael Glacier fjord it was windy, cool, overcast, and frequently socked in - about 4 days. Right in character for the southern tip of South America. Today it's 20 C and clear blue skies - perfect for sailing through the inland passage that connects the coastal fjords. Spectacularly beautiful and that is no exaggeration.
Never Stop Exploring
M&H
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