March 15 2023 - Pie XI or Bruggen Glacier and the English Passage

The Pie XI glacier, named in 1930 for the Pope of the time, is humongous. It has a surface area exceeding 1,200 km2 and is the largest of the glaciers making up the Southern Patagonian Ice Field which straddles the Southern Andes. This ice field is the third largest ice mass in the world. We sailed slowly across the face of Pie XI with mouths agape. Its alternative name, Bruggen, is in honour of German geologist, Juan Bruggen Messtorff who studied the geology of Chile for many years in the early 1900s. 

Pie XI - the front of this glacier was too wide for a panoramic shot. It was vast. 

This afternoon we were to navigate the English Passage which is one of the main Patagonian channels. It is an extremely narrow waterway with a width of just 180m – the pilot was an important addition in the bridge which, incidentally and not surprisingly, was off limits while we were navigating through the channel.  It was raining and windy as we navigated the Passage so very few people were out on deck choosing instead to cluster in the Observation lounge. Later we shuffled downstairs for a lecture.

We spent little time on the bridge of Le Boreal and this afternoon it was closed to passengers

This is what happens when you have too much time on your hands! I love the deck inverted in the rain drops - yes these are raindrops on the window of the Observation lounge.

Most days we had a lecture or at least a recap and many days they offered wildlife workshops out on deck with one of the team of naturalists. We were mainly looking for birds and marine mammals. Most of the lectures were on birds or geology. As a matter of interest the picture below shows the breeding spots for the cute striped Magellanic penguins. We had seen them further south and in the Subantarctic Islands but were astonished to learned that their breeding colonies extend quite a long way north on the South Amerian continent.

Lindsay saw a breeding on Saunders Island, Falkland Islands 

That night we ducked out into the open sea, the Pacific, for a little while before heading back into protected channels towards a remote fishing village.

It was the weeniest bit choppy that evening.