For a change a calm Strait of Magellan.

The ship drifts at the limit of the charted area, our destination miles away in a long zodiac ride.

With boats full, we go. For an hour no sights, no exciting cruise.

Suddenly a blow in the distance. A humpback whale. Around the landscape changes. Open waters become more confined, islets, rocks and islands surrounded by kelp beds. Eddies, swirls, strong currents to deal with while navigating narrow channels amongst impenetrable forests that reach the coastline. The animal allows us to approach. Faces lighten, smiles appear on them, the thrill of getting a good sight and being accepted by this behemoth of the oceans in its watery world.

It dives, it shows its white fluke, it rests logging at the surface, then again. All happening next to us. On the rocky shoreline, growls, snarls, splashes. Sea lions half hidden in the thick vegetation, several mothers with their calves, a few young males are around too. A wild spot.

Out in the open more whale blows shoot up from the sea and slowly dissipate in the windless day. Boats speed up to cover the large distance to get there. Faces frown under the rain and slowly rising waves. Closing up to the area the currents become stronger. Suddenly a humpback breaches next to the zodiacs. Shouts and laughs and smiles. A surprise treat. Ahead a calf waves and splatters the calm water with its already massive arms. Its mother comes up next to it. The passing rain doesn’t matter anymore.

After dealing with strong headwinds on our way around Cape Froward and up the Straits of Magellan, we could spend a quiet night at Fortescue Bay or so called also Caleta Gallant. A wide bay that encloses the low laying and wooded Wigwam Island, located north of the English Pass in Brunswick Peninsula, where the wide Strait of Magellan start to become more constricted by islands like the Charles Group and Carlos III.

In the early morning, the anchor is pulled up home and the ship crosses the Strait of Magellan southwards. It takes just over an hour to get where the chart soundings end, an area off limits for vessels. Once at this edge the rest of the day’s activities have to be conducted in our zodiacs. Soon they are readied and head into Canal Barbara, a large waterway with often relatively calm conditions, though of wild characteristics.

Morning and afternoon will be spent here, navigating its waters in the small boats, filled twice to fit everyone of the voyage crew on board.

We are now in the Marine and Coastal Protected Area Francisco Coloane, in total counting 67197 hectares of protected channels and fjords, with a nucleus of Marine Park extending for 1506 hectares to the southeast of Carlos III Island. A natural reserve built up around an important feeding ground for Humpback whales. The individuals that can be found here belong to a much larger population which breeds in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Pacific shores of Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica and even Panama and Nicaragua. During the Austral summer they migrate south, the majority of them straight to the western coasts of the Antarctic Peninsula and South Shetland Islands. But there is a split during their migration and some of them just reach the southern Patagonian waters instead of swimming all the way south.

But it is not just the whales that made for protecting the area. Here other charismatic species are found, for instance and considering the land ecosystem, Huemul deer, river otters and even cougars roam around. At sea, islets and rocky coasts are home for fur seals and sea lion colonies, Peale’s dolphins live here too. Occasionally a pod of orcas pass by, and the large kelp beds that grow in the shallow waters around the mainland and islands’ coasts are also of great ecological importance. They support an incredibly high marine diversity. On land, the pillar for the wildlife and vegetation large variety is the combination of the practically untouched coastal evergreen forests, the alpine strata with its high snow-capped mountains, the steppe zones and the freshwater streams and rivers.

Unlike yesterday and being pretty lucky with the weather conditions, today is calm and the seas remain practically flat for the whole journey, allowing for quite a comfortable long zodiac ride. First we took a ride to the depths of Barbara Channel, where landscape and wildlife becomes more untamed than along the main commercial route along the Strait of Magellan. There a humpback whale blow is spotted. Time to slow down, drift and plan a good observation of the animal. Here it blows, there it logs, then a bit further dives showing its white fluke, and then all over again and again. After a good time with it, the zodiacs drove all the way to the zone of fast flowing current close to what is called Paso Shag, where the tidal wave squeezes between narrower passages that lead to the open waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Many fur seals and sea lions swim around, some even seem to get curious about us. Along the coast, amongst rocks and old trees, still numerous sea lion mothers seem to be nursing their pups. Around them, Turkey vultures and the rare Striated caracaras.

Shags thrive here too, making their home on some of the rocky islets. Not to forget the several Magellanic penguins swimming, plunging and leaping in and out of the surface here and there.

Lunch awaits for us on board, and afterwards it doesn’t take long to embark the second group of us for the afternoon cruise.

Again a long approach to the main area preferred by whales and rest of wildlife, but this time we didn’t have to drive so deep into the sound, and just at the entrance of the so called Seno Smith, a humpback is spotted a bit further out. A careful approach reveals three individuals, one of them is the same we have been spending time with in the morning, the others are a mother and a calf. All allowed for close approaches and fantastic views. Cameras don’t stop shooting blows, dorsal fins and flukes. One of them even breaches next to our boats. The youngster spends more time at the surface area, turning around, feeding, splashing the water with its large pectoral fins, while its mother dives for several minutes and keeps surfacing close to it. A fantastic time spent with them until we drive away, still with a bit more time to cruise and keep discovering some of the secrets of this maze of fjords, bays and channels.

Splashes in the distance along the coast attract our attention. A pod of Peale’s dolphins. Driving around with our zodiacs, they seem to enjoy inspecting us and join our ride for a while, until it is time for us to head straight back to a distant Europa.

From then on there’s not much more time to spare. She has to start her way along the Strait of Magellan heading towards the network of channels and passages that run towards the north. But before reaching them, the tidal passage of Canal Jeronimo is ahead and then the open mouth of the Straits to the Pacific. There once more a strong low pressure system heads towards the southern Chilean coast. Better to try to be ahead of it and off the most open waters area, for that, now is time first for a night steaming under engines and probably most of tomorrow at sea as well.