Har, sailors we´re not, matey

The Navimag experience was an interesting one. There are many ways to get from central to southern Patagonia, but this seemed like it would be the most rewarding. It was that, but also pretty darn challenging at times. The good-size ferry made its way through endless fjords through a remote, completely unpopulated landscape -- for three and a half days! While the trip had it´s travails, as you´ll read below, it was a great way to travel (maybe just once) to the far reaches of the southern hempishphere. We met some very nice people, played lots of cards, and saw some amazing stuff.

The bow of the boat smashes down as the waves surge under it, producing an exciting spray many meters high that washes over the first deck (we are watching from the fifth deck). This was fun for the first hour of the open crossing, until the general wooziness of cresting 6 meter waves began to lose it's charm. After that, we took to our bunks like three-fourths of the rest of the ship, and spent the next 10 hours generally curled in the fetal position, while slowly sliding back and forth as the ship listed from side to side. The ship reached the protection of the fjords again by 2 a.m., and the worst was past. In the morning, while (not) eating breakfast, the ship's crew gave us the run-down on the open passage: the aforementioned 6 meter (that is almost 20 feet) waves, and seas that reached a 7 on the Beaufort scale of 1 - 12 (12 being the worst...is this the point at which the ship breaks in half? We are not sure, but we know a 7 feels ooogy, so a 12 must be pure hell.) I rated our own performance as a 3, on a scale of 1 to 5. Five = the people who needed an IV and tranquilizers to survive, 4= losing your lunch, 3= spending 10 hours in the fetal position (that's us), and 1 and 2 being those annoying people still reading, watching the movies, eating dinner (!!!), and being generally perky the next morning. But, since neither of us had ever done an open water crossing like this, we were both glad to know how our bodies react, so that next time we can take the drugs like everyone else!

Having fun, damn it. What amazed me most during the many times of wind and rain along the ferry route was the propensity of people (not just Michael and I) to continually venture forth from the warm common rooms of the ship onto the wind-swept deck, cameras in hand, and take pictures of more rainy vistas. In case anything had changed.

Glacier Pio XI, sweeping down to the fjords from the Hielo Sur (Southern Icefield). This icefield is the largest of any, outside Antartica. We knew we were getting closer to the glacier because the water changes color, from inky blue to milky blue-white, as more and more glacial flour pours in. That and the little icebergs that started to float past us.

Michael savors the calm as we pass through the English Narrows: at only 80 meters wide this is the narrowest passage of the journey. The waters were placid, dolpins were playing in the currents, and the sun was out. There is even a rainbow. It was as if the fjords were trying to make nice, given that it was our last day on board. It was still not enough to convince me to eat breakfast, or any food, until we were on land.

Survival: we are still standing as Puerto Natales, Chile, comes into view. The question now is--where in the hell are we? Looking out at the strange, wind swept, treeless landscape, we knew we had finally come to one of the far corners of the earth. While in Bariloche we kept remarking how similar it felt to the North Cascades. Now as we stood on the deck watching Natales come closer, we turned to each other and said as one, "We're not in the Cascades anymore!" Is this what Alaska is like? We have never seen anything like it. The ferry journey took us over 800 kilometers and 10 degrees of latitude south, to 52 degrees south. That is something different. We´ll tell you more about it as we explore.

Michael salutes our nemesis, I mean, the honorable S.S. Magellenas Navimag ferry, from the safety and solidity of dry ground as we disembark in Puerto Natales.