Btimmer

Unfortunately rebroadcasts of lectures have not been available for many years.

On the GSA, the Antarctica Experience team boarded in Ushuaia just like this cruise. Prior we had a totally different set of lecturers who covered history and cultural topics.

Yes, they start today at 9am like they did on the Grand South America. However we had 3 sea days before Punta Arenas with ample time for lecturers.

It's 6pm in Punta Arenas and the Captain just announced that our departure will be delayed for 2.5 hours to await the return of a HAL shore excursion. I suspect it is the excursion that went to the National Park by air. We've had very cold termperatures and strong winds all day. He indicated that tendering had to be halted mid day due to sustained 40knot winds and rain. As for us, we met my goal for today and actually exceeded it. We visited the wreck of the Lord Lonsdale, the Sara Braun House, the Cemetary where she's buried, the Maritime Museum and had fish soup at La Luna Cafe in downtown. We walked over 14k steps and did a lot of shopping. As I write this, there is another storm cloud coming in from the south. It's definitely colder today than it was in November and this is supposed to be summer. Are we having fun yet? Yes we are loving it.

Punta Arenas today is cold and windy with a few rain showers. We've still walked over 14k steps so far. Here's a few pictures. Details will be in my blog later. Lord Lonsdale wreck Magellan monument in the town square saea Braun house Sara Braun tomb

We have Antarctica team members boarding today, so I am expecting we'll get a redux of what we experienced on the Zaandam. Stay tuned. Yes, this is the place to post questions.

We're back. . . In Punta Arenas for the day. We have some interesting sights to see that we missed on our previous visits.

For the first time in three passages through this set of fjords we encountered oncoming traffic.

We just passed the wreck of the Leonardo. Today it was raining so the picture quality isn't as good as last November 2.

You're welcome. Temperature wise I think it's a bit warmer and that's why there's more small chunks of ice in the water. What I packed is perfect except I brought too many tshirts.

Waterfalls of the El Brujo area.

Here's a few pictures from El Brujo glacier. There's considerably more ice than when we were here in early November. There's a hidden gem of a photography location: Deck 11 Retreat. It's terrific for side and aft photos. fjord entrance ice closeup Incoming smaller vessel

Continuing the Almost live coverage, we're entering the channel for the el Brujo glacier. It's 7:20 in the morning and a very overcast day. The actual glacier is at the end of this little fjord. The bow is already open, but I'll choose to keep warm for a bit longer.

Continuing the Almost live coverage, we're entering the channel for the el Brujo glacier. It's 7:20 in the morning and a very overcast day. The actual glacier is at the end of this little fjord. The bow is already open, but I'll choose to keep warm for a bit longer.

A real treat yesterday in Chacabuco was the sheer quantity of roses in bloom along with other flowers. They seem to really thrive in this climate.

I finally had someone from Guest Services show up at the room to verify the issue. He agreed there is a problem.

The internet in the room was short lived and it's been reported again. I am now out in the central elevator lobby where I can get a reliable connection. Even there the upload speed is quite slow. In any event I have updated my blog through Puerto Chacabuco with lots of narrative and pictures. We're currently sailing the Chilean fjords on our way to Puerto Arenas. Here's an elevator view.

My issue was we couldn't get any speed or speeds way less than 5 download in our stateroom even though the WiFi indicator said I was connected and the router is just outside our door. They swapped out the router and the issue seems to have been resolved. We had great internet connections on our last 73 day cruise on the Zaandam after the first few days.

All is well. Because we departed 13 hours late, we skipped Puerto Montt and had two sea days. But we had a terrific day today in Puerto Chacabuco Old Man's Beard Falls . Great photos coming.

Yes

That's what we experienced on the Zaandam. We still have virtually no internet in our cabin but it's fine in public areas. Here's my current speed test results:

Thanks to @hogladyrider and @Cruise Suzy for correcting the link. It's tough to edit with the internet onboard having significant delays.

Thanks for following along. Be sure to follow my daily blog as there will be lots more information in it. For this "Almost Live" thread, I'll tend fo cover breaking news and a few pictures from time to time as well as answer any questions asked of me. My daily blog is found at: Https://timmer20240sa.blogspot.com

At 11am this morning, Captain Kevin Bairnaert hosted a very full session in the Main Stage to address the embarkation delays and answer any other questions. As he started his presentation he told a story of being a new 2nd officer on a cruise ship and being on an airplane flying home from his assignment. They were boarded on an airplane and ended up setting for a long period of time with no explanation from the Captain as to what was going on. In the end, it was disclosed the that delay was due to Air Force One's arrival, In those cases, all other airline traffic is stopped. Captain Kevin made a pledge to never let that happen when he became in command. He would be transparent with his passengers which promotes happy passengers. He went on to say that the reason for the departure delay was due to two factors: weather and 213 passengers who had delayed connections in arriving into Santiago and transfers to San Antonio. But the biggest issue was the weather issue. He showed us copies of internal emails from the port and screen shots from the weather maps on the bridge. This port is apparently a tricky one to sail into when the weather conditions exceed 15 knots and the swell is over 1.5 meters. There is also a requirement that two tugs be attached to any vessel when arriving or departing regardless of whether the ship has its own maneuverability like the Oosterdam has with azipods and thrusters. The required tugs cannot safely operate in the weather conditions I described above. The soonest that the port would re=open was 4am. As for the delayed passengers, 90 some got on between midnight and 3am. He didn't comment on the others. As far as departures are concerned, the cargo ships have priority. Therefore the container ship Volga was allowed to leave first. Then the Oosterdam was allowed to leave which is did starting just before 7am. He then went on to describe why we were missing Puerto Montt. That had to do with the tide levels under a major power line. The ship can only pass under it at certain times and in certain tidal conditions. Additionally the ship did not have enough speed to make it to the proper point given a late departure and the time at which the ship needed to pass under the cable. So the decision had to be made to skip the port and head directly to Chacabuco. I really appreciated the transparency that the Captain displayed and the audience seemed to as well. As I write this we're cruising along at 18.5 knots. We've met a few people from Cruise Critic at the M&G and had lunch with one of the couples. We're looking forward to a good remainder of the cruise.

Also we are at nearly full capacity at around 1800 guests.