We had a great crossing from the Falkland Islands to Tierra del Fuego, "the uttermost place of the world", with fair winds, slight seas, and plenty of sunshine all day. This morning, the albatrosses showed us the way through the treacherous Le Maire Strait which separates rugged Staten Island from Tierra del Fuego…a place where many a ship has wrecked throughout the centuries because of strong winds and currents. We, however, had an easy time of it. And, in the late afternoon a few frisky dolphins led us into the eastern end of the Beagle Channel, named for the famous ship H.M.S. BEAGLE which cruised these waters under the command of Robert Fitzroy during its survey voyage of 1826 to 1830. Fitzroy returned here with the H.M.S. BEAGLE in 1831, along with a young naturalist named Charles Darwin, to complete the survey of South America.
We really feel like we have been following in the wake of that famous ship for the past several weeks. The Beagle Channel, which separates the great island of Tierra del Fuego from the Fuegian Archipelago, allows small ships to avoid the exposed waters around Cape Horn and enjoy relative safety away from wind and waves. Well, maybe not from the wind… after dinner we anchored off the little Chilean settlement of Puerto Williams to complete clearance procedures, but decided not to go ashore because strong gale force winds had developed over the last few hours!
