Today we were greeted by the first sun rays illuminating the ice of Bernal Glacier. National Geographic Orion has sailed into the Montañas Fiord, in which this glacier is located. After breakfast we started our operations to land and hike to the glacier’s terminus, where we could get face to face with ice that is several thousand years in age. We all had a memorable experience by spending the morning in front of this glacier.
Later, we started our navigation toward our next destination of Puerto Natales. However, we first had to pass through the White Narrows, a channel which had to be navigated at the right time, with slack tide. We deployed a Zodiac with our navigation officer onboard to check the conditions and confirm the tide, for once it starts to change, the current can have speeds exceeding 10 knots.
Before we started to sail into the narrow channel, we had the best leadership possible when a pod of three Peale’s dolphins escorted our watercraft from the front all the way through. Not much is known about these dolphins, except that they live exclusively in the southern waters of the Chilean fiords and Tierra del Fuego Island. Riding ahead of our ship’s bow, this wonderful trio gave us a greeting into the Última Esperanza Sound, where our destination port was.
At dusk our ship was docked, sitting calmly next to town, with all its guests, staff, and crew ready for the adventure ahead.
