During the night of the 19th we sailed south toward the Magellan Strait. My diary notes: "Heavy seas in the middle of the night. I got out of bed to move the camera, water bottle and computer off the desk. Too dark to see the seas. As I sucked on a ginger candy, the rolling of the skip lulled me back to sleep."
Bahia Fortescu is the sight where, in 1520, Magellan and his crew held the region's first Catholic Mass, to help claim the land for Spain. A cross was erected to commemorate Magellan's mass. Due to high seas and wind, we were not able to land as planned.
Further down the strait, the captain found a secluded bay of islands for us to kayak in. It proved to windy so zodiacs were launched. I had not wanted to risk my camera in a kayak so did not have it with me. But, I did have my binoculars which, in the end, allowed for close up views of the birds.
Once amongst the islands we searched for sea otters seen earlier. We did see nesting Kelp Geese, Petrels, nesting Kelp Gulls, Terns, Blackish Oystercatchers and to our delight, a Condor that flew right over our heads and landed on the nearby cliff to preen and rest. He stayed there while all the other zodiacs gathered to watch him.
The sun broke through as we sailed further through the Strait of Magellan. The evening was beautiful. My notes state that "it was in the high 50s in the wind. Without a cot or hat, I was able to edit (and take more) photos on my sheltered deck".
At dusk, we passed the furthest south solid land - marked with a white marker. From now on, everything will be an island until we land on mainland Antarctica.
