Exciting today really. Firstly the sun came back and the wind disappeared which made it very pleasant to be out on deck. We were still quite well covered i.e. long sleeved t shirts and trousers but, really pleasant conditions. And we're further south now than we've ever been and probably ever likely to be. Certainly, by the time we get to Punta Arenas tonight we will be as near Antarctica as we are ever likely to be….. well…. You never know…..

Anyway, apart from art (parrot on a tree with magnolia flowers) we spent all day at different points on the open decks looking out at the water nature spotting. There were distant whales this morning, some dolphins this afternoon and again this evening, squadrons of geese and then from about 3pm onwards, as we turned into the Magellan Straights, just loads of swimming penguins making runs toward the ship. At first I confess I saw black and white zipping through the water and thought they were orcas. Then I thought…hmmm…very small orcas…. And then I realised they were penguins swimming along with one wing upright like a fin!!!!! So lovely to see them and tomorrow hopefully if the weather stays like this we will see thousands.

The Strait of Magellan is an incredible passage - look at it on Google Maps - a convoluted route through the bottom of South America, splitting Tierra del Fuego off from Patagonia and jointly owned by Argentina and Chile. Discovered by Magellan in the early 1520s, it took him 40 days to find his way through the maze to the Pacific. He was looking for a safer way to the Spice Islands of Indonesia than going around the Horn. He set off with 5 ships and about 240 men. Eventually 1 ship and about 20 returned. Magellan was killed by a poisoned arrow in the (now) Philippines. By the time Drake explored the Strait, some fifty odd years later, he did it in 17 days. It will take us 3.

We had to pick up a pilot boat at the entrance to the channel and then Aurora continued en route to Ponta Arenas our berth for the night. At times the channel was only about 2 miles wide, at others much wider. It becomes spectacular on the Pacific side as the land changes to fjords, glacier parks and mountains. The land on this side though was treeless, tundra-like, barren, seemingly uninhabited. This is high summer so god knows what it must be like in the winter. It looks pretty bleak now. The early settlers in the 1500s starved to death. Magellan was forced to survive by eating rats. Hope we do better than that tomorrow…..

The sunsets are just getting later and later. 1030 tonight. We have had to anchor offshore rather than up against a pier and will go ashore tomorrow by the tenders (lifeboats). Hope it's as calm as it is today. Punta Arenas looks bigger than I expected too.

Tomorrow we are on an independent excursion. I have booked for us to go by rib to Isla Magdelena which is an island inhabited by thousands of penguins. If the wind gets up, they cancel the boat and it happens quite often. So, fall back plan is to go to Otway Penguin Sanctuary which is a penguin reserve on the mainland.