November 21, 2024 - Agostini Fjord

November 21, 2024 – Thursday           Day 57 of this journey 

Chilean Glaciers – Agostini Fjord 

Lots and lots of photos today. 

Everyone is excited today. Most of all the Expedition Team. They absolutely love playing with all the toys. We are supposed to have zodiac landings near a glacier. 

We also have a SOB ride this morning with our landing scheduled for mid-afternoon. 

We are sailing in the fjords of Chile and are within the island of Tierra del Fuego. The terrain is like nothing we have ever seen. It seems like something out of science fiction. Amazing peaks with snow fields. Thousands of waterfalls. Jaw dropping beauty.

We reach the location for the planned landings and are met by katabatic winds of over 30 knots. That’s a new term for us. Katabatic winds are common in this area. Katabatic winds are most commonly found blowing out from the large and elevated ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland. The buildup of high-density cold air over the ice sheets and the elevation of the ice sheets brings into play enormous gravitational energy. Where these winds are concentrated into restricted areas in the coastal valleys, the winds can blow well over hurricane force. (That is from Wikipedia.) 

The net effect is that the landings are cancelled. The winds make it too dangerous to attempt. The ship is moved to a nearby location in front of a different glacier that will be excellent for the SOBs, zodiacs, and kayaks.

 

During our SOB ride, we learn that there are over 400 glaciers in this region. Many of them do not have names. We can see “hanging” glaciers all around us and benefit by the hundreds of waterfalls they create with the melting ice. There is a lot of sea ice in this bay as the glacier is constantly calving. We really enjoyed the SOB ride and return to the ship for lunch and a rest before our afternoon excursion in a zodiac.

The dashboard of the SOB

Russ and our pilot (we were lucky, we got the front row)

Our ship in the distance

Sea ice

The large chunk is probably the size of a house

The zodiac ride is pretty much a duplicate of the SOB, but you are down on the water rather than sitting up above the water. We were also able to get closer to the shore and the glacier. So it is a very different perspective.

We spotted this tiny red flower next to a waterfall

3 geese. We saw a lot of these next to this glacier

This looked like a hill of dirt 'til we got close.
Its ice covered with a little dirt.

With a cave forming

Another zodiac playing in the ice

Although this zodiac looks close to the glacier, it's not.
We all stay a respectable distance from the glacier.

During the Daily Briefing (which usually occurs about 5:15 pm.) the ship begins to move. Only we aren’t turning around to head out of the fjord, we are moving further into the fjord toward the glacier. The Captain brings the ship as close as he can so that we can all have another look. And for anyone who was unable to take one of the outings today; they get to see the glacier up close.

Although the day did not go as planned, it was a great day!