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| Strait of Magellan - March 6, 2008 Positioned along the southern edges of the South American continent, this once-vital passageway is named for the Portuguese adventurer, Ferdinand Magellan, the first explorer to circumnavigate the globe. His chosen route around the continent in 1520 (shown with red arrows) though dangerous at times, proved to be the fastest and safest connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for sea-going commerce and exploration. Sheltered by mainland South America and the islands of the Tierra Del Fuego archipelago, this route was considered much safer than the Drake Passage, a more violent stretch of chaotic water between Antarctica and South America, one frequented by icebergs and plagued by gale-force winds. |
| Our good luck with the weather ran out last night. The sea go pretty rough and we woke up in the morning to wind, rain, and fog. It lasted that way all day, so we spent the day just wondering around the ship, going to lectures, and of course eating!! |
| Even though it was overcast and raining it was still warm enough to use the veranda. There wasn't much to see, but when we get home I have a funny story to tell about the mother and child "sea otters" I saw! Since the weather was not good we spent some time in the cabin and even ordered some room service for an afternoon snack. |
| For part of the day today the seas were reported at 7 to 9 feet. Big enough that walking around the ship was a little difficult. But we did get out and decided to take some pictures of the ship since there wasn't much to see outside. |
| They have a pretty nice library on the ship. It has a second story! This is the main floor and it's on the same deck we are so it's a short walk there. It's also one of the computer "hot spots" on the ship which makes it nice to get these pages published. I usually do the pages at night before bed and some times even walk down to the library and send them. |
| This is one of the many elevator lobbies on the ship. One of them is just a few doors from our cabin which makes it very easy to get around the ship (we learned our lesson on previous cruises about where to try and locate your cabin!). |
| Before dinner we met to have a drink in the "Constellation" lounge, our usual before dinner meeting place. It was getting late, but the fog finally lifted enough so I could take on picture of the Straits of Magellan. It's too bad this is all we will get to see of them. |
