Punta Arenas, Chile

So much history yesterday afternoon and today.  As we sailed towards Punta Arenas, we were bid farewell by the shipwreck of Santa Lenor, that was wrecked in March 1968 on Isabel Islands, in the Smyth Channel where her partially submerged wreck remains.  After much investigation, it was concluded that the accident was caused by “a momentary error of Chilean Pilot Ruiz in handling a turn in the Patagonian Channels of Chile”.  Although no lives were lost, the ship and cargo were beyond salvage.  We do not know what happened to Pilot Ruiz, although we suspect it wasn’t pretty.  We are very grateful that our captain appears to be much more adept at sailing!

This is the view from our room as we sailed away – calm waters, cloudy skies, snow capped mountains and a bit of fog.

We awoke Saturday morning at dock in Punta Arenas, Chile. The crew’s ability to dock and tie up so quietly without awakening us is impressive.  We went ashore for a tour, “A Voyage into the Past: Magellan’s Discovery.” We boarded a bus and went to the Nao Victoria Museum. The museum contains life-size replicas of Magellan’s ship, along with the Beagle which was Darwin’s ship, and the 23’ lifeboat that Shackleton used to get help when his crew were stranded.  We were able to climb aboard and around each of the ships.  They encourage you to touch everything and explore every part of the ships.

There were some hearty souls who braved these waters! Magellan’s 3-year expedition started from Spain with 5 ships and 200 men to circumnavigate the globe in search of new routes and spices.  Only this ship, the Nao Victoria, and 18 people completed the entire journey.  Some of the 172 quit the journey along the way, some died, and others were killed. There were 45 -50 people on this small ship, which is rather difficult to imagine as we walked on the boat. Mark feels comfortable that he could sail this ship.

Nao Victoria, Magellen’s surviving ship

What was most amazing was the 23’ lifeboat that Shackleton modified to sail 4,000 miles to get help for his men stranded on Elephant Island.  He chose six men to go with him on his boat modified by adding 2000 pounds of rock and gravel for ballast, and a canvas cover.  Look at this little boat – can you imagine being one of the six people sailing 4,000 miles of open ocean?  We sailed a 52-foot sailboat in the British Virgin Islands with one other couple and thought that was small!

There was also a life size replica of Darwin’s boat, the Beagle, that passed through here on his Galapagos trip. The Beagle, Darwin’s boat, seems huge in comparison to Shackleton’s little boat!

After an amazing tour through the museum, we went to the Cerro la Cruz viewpoint to get a magnificent view over the city and the Strait of Magellan.  Our guide told us that despite what we will hear in Ushuaia, Argentina, Punta Arenas is the southernmost city in the world.  The distinction, he said is that Punta Arenas is a city with 120,000 people, while Ushuaia is a community.  A case of International pride, we think.

The houses are painted bright colors because during the long, cold winters with only 4 hours of daylight, the bright colors are intended to cheer up the people.  Of course, you can only see the bright colors during the daylight, so we question how effective it is. 

Margo & Mark – Punta Arenas

You can also see the 4-mast ship, Count of Peebles, in the dock.

We ended our tour with a stop in the main square, Plaza de Armas, where legend has it that if you kiss or rub Magellan’s toe you will be granted good luck.  Margo chose to rub the toe because it seemed like kissing the toe might invite much too much opportunity for bad luck (like sickness from all the other people kissing and touching it.)  Mark neither rubbed nor kissed his toe because believes he has all the luck he needs (or he didn’t want to look silly rubbing the big guy’s toe in the middle of the square!)

We bid farewell to beautiful, and always windy, Punta Arenas and continue on to Ushuaia.  Ushuaia is the southern stepping-off point for Antarctica. 

As we prepare to depart Punta Arenas, the Captain announces, “As you can see it is quite windy.  But we will be inside the fjords most of the time.  There will be about 2 hours during the night, from 2:30 am to 4:30 am when we will be in open waters of Pacific Ocean.  Before you go to bed tonight I suggest you secure items in your cabin.”

But first we have dinner tonight at the famous Thomas Keller restaurant on Deck 8.  More on that tomorrow.