Ken the cruiser

After a tasty dinner in the Reserve Dining Room, we headed back to the cabin to watch the last tenders bring passengers back to the ship. While waiting I found this interesting map and started wondering which route the Captain was going to take to get us to Ushuaia by around 10:30 am tomorrow morning. 🤔 We set sail around 6:45 pm. Then it was time to head to the theater to watch Kristina Wells provide her encore performance, A Tribute to the 70s Divas. Afterwards, we headed to the Explorers Lounge to watch the very funny game show called The Living Room Battle! 😂

All of the penguins I took photos of with “fur” are chicks that were probably hatched in early December I would imagine. This was the smallest one I took a picture of that was with one of its parents. They are pretty cute. 😁

What a fun excursion! Basically, the Magdalena Island Penguin Reserve is a rookery (nursery) for Magellanic penguins and Kelp Gulls. First we boarded the catamaran that would take us on a 90 minute ride to Magdalena Island. Initially, it was a tight squeeze until the Captain allowed us to go outside shortly after receiving the safety briefing. Punta Arenas is in the background, and as you will see, it turned out to be a beautiful day! 😁 Magdalena Island As we approached the island, there was a huge flock of Kelp Gulls flying around off the starboard side. These Magellanic penguins were members of the island’s greeting committee. Then came the Kelp Gulls, young and old as well as not even hatched yet! This is a juvenile Kelp Gull The first half of the 1 hour walk was walking up to the lighthouse. Out in the water, there is a kelp bed where sea lions were hanging around in waiting for the penguins to jump in the water while at the same time the Kelp Gulls were dive bombing them, trying to scare them away. Off in the distance is a large group of Imperial Cormorants all huddled together. These are Upland Geese we found hanging out behind the lighthouse. And now it’s time to head back down from the lighthouse back to the boat. As you can see, it turned out to be a beautiful day in the low 60s with very little wind on the island. On the way back, a few Commerson’s Dolphins wished us a fond farewell! 😁

Good morning from Punta Arenas! It was definitely breakfast time behind the ship for the local Kelp Gulls! 😂 Punta Arenas is a tender port. Looks like we will be wearing our coats today, but at least there is no rain in the forecast until later this evening! 😁 This is the penguin excursion we will be going on today!

It’s 10 pm here in the middle of summer, and I just looked out and saw snow on the mountains! I know, who knew!! 😂

Day 5 - Jan 24 - Punta Arenas, Chile I have to say we have been impressed with Starlink’s reliability so far, even with these slow speeds being encountered down in this part of the world.

We just entered the Strait of Magellan and calmer waters! Yay!! Next stop Punta Arenas tomorrow morning! 😁

Sounds like you had a great cruise! We thought about doing the “same itinerary” B2B, but opted for this 30-day combination so we could visit more unique ports, especially since we had done a similar Antarctica cruise with HAL 5 years ago. But we didn’t see Elephant Island on that cruise nor the A23a Iceberg, which we’re hoping to see both on this cruise. Plus we just got back from going on a Galapagos cruise in December, so there was that reason as well. 😁 I just checked Windy and on Jan 26 when we are supposed to stop by Cape Horn at 7 am before heading across Drake Passage, the wind forecast is looking pretty good! 🤞

This morning has been an interesting one. First we got up relatively early so we could go to breakfast before going to the first of three morning lectures at 9:15 am, and this was the view from our balcony. Then on the way to breakfast, I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the new “symbol” of someone that has been quarantined in their room. When we asked our steward, he said is for gastrointestinal issues. BTW it’s the only one we’ve seen on our floor so far, and hopefully it stays that way. 🤞 Then after the first two lectures, we decided to pass on the third and head back to the cabin to relax until it was lunchtime. And then there they were, a couple of Black-footed Albatross flying around the wake behind the ship. Yay, finally some wildlife to take pictures of! 😁 Then we decided to try one of our two free “Casual Dining” perks that come with the Plus package. For those interested, they do offer gluten-free pizza crusts, but not “dairy-free” cheese. It was OK, but we will probably pass on using them in the future as they got super busy after we arrived causing the service to become really slow. But on the bright side, we were sitting by the window and this was the 17’ wave action outside of Deck 5. Shortly after I took this picture, they entire window got completely washed by a huge wave! Here’s where we are currently at now, and the Captain said we will be entering the Strait of Magellan around 8 pm this evening. FWIW the blue line on the map in front of us was the route the Sapphire took on the previous cruise from BA to Valparaiso. And this is the weather and wave action we will be cruising through until we enter the Strait of Magellan. Fun times!! 😂

Thanks for that as I didn’t have a clue. 😁

Day 4 - Jan 23 - Sea Day 3 of 3 (4 enrichment programs today) Internet speeds this evening

This evening after another tasty dinner in the Reserve Dining Room, we headed to watch Divos with Erwin and Sergio. Then we were off to the Explorers Lounge to watch the hilarious Yes/No Game Show. Then it was back to the cabin to relax and ride the waves, which are in the 9 foot range now, but look to get a little worse as the evening progresses, as we still have a long way to go before arriving at Punta Arenas day after tomorrow.

Just heard from the Captain and we are going to stay the course and shoot for an on-time arrival at Punta Arenas day after tomorrow. If we would have altered course to go through the calmer waters in the fjords, an on-time arrival would probably not have been possible. On the local front, today we’re going to 2 more Antarctica lectures and a Ushuaia port talk. Definitely giving those gray cells a workout these past two days! 😂

Today, the wave levels are still up around 11 feet with what looks like a brief easing up just ahead of us before it starts getting rough again. We haven’t heard yet from the Capitan whether we will continue on course or opt for Plan B, but I would think that decision will be made in the next few hours. But at least the blue sky is trying to peak out after a cloudy start! 👍 For those interested there are 2469 passengers and 1050 crew onboard this cruise.

Just checked and Michael and Jhomel are the 2 bartenders at Good Spirits on this cruise and should both be onboard in March.

The highs have been in the low 60s outside (on our aft-facing balcony) so far. But that's without adding in the 40-50 mph wind chill factor I felt when I took that above photo yesterday of the wave smashing off the ship! 😂

Thanks! Here’s what I do since I never downloaded the app. 1. Do an internet search for “Sapphire Princess location”. 2. Click on the Cruise Mapper link - https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Sapphire-Princess-733 3. Click on the picture that has the circle around the ship where it’s currently located. It will bring up this more specific link. https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9228186 Hope this helps.

Day 3 - Jan 22 - Sea Day 2 of 3 Here is our current location at around 9:45 pm. The ship heading towards us is Serenade of the Seas. As far as the wave action goes, the current reading is around 12 feet. But on the bright side, the Captain said we are hopefully heading towards calmer seas tomorrow, as reflected by the lighter colors at the bottom of the page. However, if the wave action does not ease up, his Plan B is to head into the fjords where there are much calmer waters, and one might also imagine more awesome scenery to gaze upon as we continue to cruise towards Puerto Arenas. 😁 The internet speeds have also weakened a bit, but still acceptable. However, I would imagine some folks trying to stream movies right now might have a different opinion.

After a tasty dinner in the Reserve Dining Room, we headed to the 7:30 pm show called Nothin’ But Good Times starring Kristina Wells. Then we were off to the Generation Gap Game Shop in the Explorers Lounge, which was a lot of fun.

It was definitely packed, that’s for sure!

BTW for those interested, here is a picture of the Captain and his officers.

Today, we went to the lectures and the Punta Arenas port talk and enjoyed them all. I also decided to just listen to them rather than taking photos. I know, what a concept! 😂 But this chart did catch my eye. After the last lecture, I went out on the promenade to see if there were any Albatross flying around, as suggested by the two lecturers that said they’ve seen 4 different varieties so far today. Nope! But there was plenty of wind and wave action! 😂

If you like being wowed by an abundance of wildlife, as @azbirdmom noted above, I would definitely suggest considering the option of adding an itinerary that includes “cruising” 4 days around the Antarctica Peninsula to that future SA booking. 😁

Of course it does. Why wouldn’t it? Sure, some folks might have a different opinion as they probably spent some serious $$$ to go on expedition cruise there, and that’s cool. But for us going on a South America cruise that includes 4 days cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula, and hopefully Elephant Island and Iceberg A23a, it definitely checks the box for us. 😉

Good morning from somewhere along the coast line of Chile, with the swales averaging around 13 feet, as was the case for most of the night. After a tasty breakfast in Sabatini’s, we headed to the theater to meet the lecturers we will be hearing from on this cruise. For example, there are two enrichment lectures, South to the Icebergs and Wildlife of Antarctica and An Introduction to Antarctica along with a port talk covering Punta Arenas, scheduled for this afternoon, which of course we will be going to. 😁 Here’s are current location And it doesn’t look like the wave action is going to be decreasing anytime soon.