Will the sailing be rough? Will we be able to stop halfway through at Punta Arenas? Who knows? Winds were so fierce on the previous few sailings that the ship couldn’t dock,waiters tell me with relish. The central plaza in Punta Arenas reputedly has ropes on the sides of buildings for pedestrians to cling to when gales get up.
The Strait of Magellan is infamous in maritime exploration,and we get the lowdown from Viking’s resident historian,Geoff Peters,formerly in the Royal Australian Navy and an expert in naval and maritime history.
The strait separates the South American mainland from its continental tailbone,Tierra del Fuego. Before the opening of the Panama Canal,this was the safest way to sail between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But sailing ships still had to battle unpredictable winds and currents,and tack through repeated narrows and around innumerable islands and rock outcrops often obscured by fog.
On a modern cruise ship,it’s a different matter. Viking Jupiter glides onwards with barely a rumble or shudder,and only when I lurch out on deck after breakfast am I left breathless in a frigid wind.
We’ve been lucky. Our approach across the South Atlantic from the Falkland Islands has been so unexpectedly smooth that the captain cheekily detoured around Cape Horn for a photo opportunity. Now we’re wandering through an island labyrinth into the heart of the strait.
Southern Patagonia is a frigid wilderness with a scattered population amid rugged landscapes of granite cliffs,glaciers and deep fjords. You could easily be lost in dead ends. European mariners did get lost for centuries,and even now,an experienced pilot comes on board to track our course.
The Strait of Magellan is a 570-kilometre V-shaped passage across this majestic geological confusion,obvious from a satellite photo but entirely concealed from water level. From the ship’s deck,I get no hint of direction:we’re surrounded by walls of silent mountains,and no sign of human presence.