Skorpios III

We were awake early, but there is little to do on a small ship before breakfast, and breakfast did not begin until 7:45 a.m. The announcement came over the ship’s loudspeakers (with emphasis on loud). We are getting pretty tired of the frequent announcements, always beginning, “Amigas y amigos...,” that come over these speakers.

The breakfast menu included more German pastries, in addition to fruits, cereals, meats and cheeses. We are definitely well fed and watered! As we ate, the ship came to anchor in front of a huge glacier wall, the Amalia Glacier.

Shortly after breakfast, we were summoned to the lifeboat deck (“Amigas y amigos...”) to get our life jackets on, and then loaded into a pair of large Zodiacs — rubber-sided outboard boats, each holding 25-30 persons.

The boats shuttled a group to a small island in the bay for a short hike to observe the ice, then the boats returned for the rest of us.

On our way over, a very large chunk of ice calved off the glacier and into the water. The resulting wave gave us a bit of a ride, and we had to wait for the water to settle down before the driver could bring us to shore.

Once again, the photos don't do justice to the enormity and the subtle blue colors of these giant glaciers.

With everyone back on the ship, and the Zodiacs stowed again on the lifeboat deck, the captain navigated the whole ship very close to the face of the glacier. We were out on the bow, and it was a much more stupendous view than any we got to, from, or on the island.

The loudspeakers then summoned us once again to one of the bars where we were to get another lecture, this one about indigenous people in this part of the world, prior to the arrival of Europeans. Fortunately, the bartender was producing some fantastic hot chocolate with a squirt of rum, and the scenery was fabulous. This cruise would be fantastic if we could do away with the loudspeakers and the speeches.

After a huge lunch with plentiful wine, we immediately went back to the boat deck for life jackets and once again boarded the Zodiacs. The ship had sailed to El Brujo Glacier, a smaller but very active glacier that was now before us. We first visited a sort of grotto with waterfalls that was adjacent to the glacier, but only looked from the boat. We did not disembark because the passage was too narrow even for the boat to turn around.

The boat did deposit us on a rock very near to the glacier’s face. The crew even puts down rubber runners so that we old folks don’t lose our footing on the rocks. Even so, there are a few passengers who are so unsteady on their feet that they need quite a bit of help just walking around.

Photos just don’t do these glaciers justice. At this location, an island just down the fjord was swarming with bird — Antarctic Terns, we were told. We boated back to the ship, noting that we would have to wait a whole hour before Tea Time. How terrible to go so long without food! It doesn’t take long to get spoiled. But Tea was rather disappointing this time around, and we really weren’t all that hungry.

After Tea, we were summoned once again to the lifeboat deck. The crew doesn’t all turn out to help us with our life jackets anymore — by now, we all know the drill. This time we didn’t go to the Zodiacs, however. The company has a small “ice breaker” boat that they keep anchored in the Calvo Fjord. Some crew members took a Zodiac over to it, started it up, and brought it along side for us to board. Then we set out through a large ice field for about 2 and a half hours.

Most of the “icebergs” were not of Titanic size, but the sea was thick with them. Many were only a few inches to a foot above the waterline (and of course, quite a bit more below the water that we couldn’t see).

Several, however, rose a good 8 to 10 feet above the water line. The icebreaker did not attempt to push those aside, but we did park next to a particularly large one that came up to the rail of the boat, just for the photo opportunity. We also parked for a long time with the bow pushed up against a good sized waterfall, again for the photo op.

Along the way we were greeted by Imperial Cormorants, a Condor, a large group of noisy Sea Lions, and a couple of very playful Dolphins that followed for awhile. The Dolphins were nearly impossible to photograph because the would breach the surface so quickly and unexpectedly. I swear that they would show themselves on one side of the boat a couple times to get all of the photographers to move to that side, and then they would switch to the other side of the boat, just to watch everyone run to that side.

At one point the crew passed out drink glasses with the ship’s logo with a chuck of pure glacial ice in each. Then they announced that we would all toast our adventure with Scotch on the rocks. I was expecting rot-gut Scotch, but they poured 12-year-old Black Label, and they were pretty generous with the pour. Plus, we all got to keep the glass. They did make it home in one piece.

There was a bit of relaxation time before the late (for us, a little early for Chileans) 8:30 p.m. dinner. The meal was a very nice, four-course affair, this time mostly seafood. As always, there was plenty of wine with the meal, and our tour director, Carolina, entertained with more background on the ship and the family that owns it, as well as some of the celebrities that have been aboard for past cruises. It was after 10 p.m. when dinner ended. All of the Americans retired. The Chileans, and most other nationalities, were still having a good time.