February 15 & 16, 2012

Today is the second day at sea in a row, as we cruise closer to the southern tip of Chile. This was a similar day to Wednesday, with breakfast in the dining room. Next, a lecture on the area we will see in the next few days as we approach the Strait of Magellan, the Beagle Channel and Cape Horn; followed by a presentation on the operation of the ship, the propulsion and the hull and the energy created for the operation of the hotel, food services and water treatment all up to US FDA standards.  We left early to go with our group for an 11 a.m. tour of the kitchens which employ 130 chefs and sous chefs plus assistants.  The Executive Chef also mentioned that there are 70 waiters and 70 assistant waiters for the two sittings of 1,000 people at dinner. The Executive Chef informed us that he starts to decide the menus and order the food six months in advance of the ship’s sailing date.

The sky was overcast in the morning, as we cruised an inside passage but, when we were several miles off shore the sun came out, but clouds lingered on the horizon. The waves got a bit higher, 1 to 2 meters. The predicted high was 16 C.

We hurried to lunch at noon so we could attend the Argentine Tango lesson, at 1 p.m. When the lesson ended, we worked our 45 minute walk into the schedule and 30 minutes in the casino which is only open when we are not in Chilean waters.  There was high tea at 3:30 but they did not use clotted cream, just whipped cream for the scones and strawberry jam.  I used time between tea and pre-dinner dancing to update this blog. We danced for ½ an hour before and after another gourmet dinner.  Then went to bed earlier at 10:30 p.m. to be ready for our morning tour at Punta Arenas.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Today is a day at sea still cruising south along the Chilean coast.  After a 45 minute walk under a cloudy sky which turned to a light rain, we had breakfast in the dining room and sat at a table with a couple from Vancouver and a couple from the Czech Republic.  After breakfast, we sat in deck chairs watched and photographed the islands of the passage go by, as we traveled west and entered the ocean. The water was calm in the passage but as we approached the ocean, a gentle swell was evident. When the ship turned from west to south into seas were 1 to 2 meters.

Later in the morning, we attended a presentation on the NASA Space shuttle program, followed by a talk on the volcanoes and glaciers of southern Chile. The high temperature was about 13 with a moderate sea (2 to 3 meter waves) in the late afternoon.  After lunch, we listened to a presentation about sea birds and took an Argentine Tango lesson, before going to our group’s first cocktail party of the cruise, followed by dinner and an evening of dancing.