December 4, 2025

Puerto Williams, Chile > Sailing to the Garibaldi Fjord

Thursday Morning. We have spent the whole night cruising northwest up the Beagle Channel to the Garibaldi Fjord. The stunningly beautiful fjord is situated in the southern part of Chilean Patagonia within the Alberto de Agostini National Park, part of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. At the head of the fjord is the massive, but shrinking, tidewater Garibaldi Glacier.

Surely you have the same question I did. What is a tidewater glacier? Basically, a tidewater glacier is a glacier the flows down to the sea and is terminated in the ocean. The glacier “calves” or chunks of ice break off and fall into the ocean below and in front of it. The primary ice loss of a tidewater glacier is calving, rather than surface melt. Tidewater glaciers are often fast-flowing and play a significant role in carving the landscape and shaping the marine environment.

It had just gone 07:00 when we arrived at the mouth of the inlet where the Garibaldi glacier is. Breakfast we delivered to our cabin a few minutes later. It is a hurry up morning because our Zodiac Cruise to the foot of the glacier is about 08:30. The Zodiac Cruises being at 08:00 but we are in group 4, so it will take a few minutes to load everyone from groups 1, 2 & 3 into the Zodiacs.

We eat breakfast and climb, literally, into our cold weather gear. They have warned us that the temperature outside will hover around zero (32F). However, they also pointed out there are 40 mile an hour winds off the glacier which will made it feel much colder. There is also a 100% chance that will be get some spray from the Zodiac as we make out way to the foot of the glacier. There is also a chance of showers, rain and/or snow.

It had just gone 08:20 when they called our group down to deck 3, the loading deck for the Zodiacs. We pushed away from the portal about fifteen minutes later. After a few minutes of protocol and safety instruction we were paired off with another Zodiac and headed up the islet to the foot of the glacier.

 My first view from our cabin before loading into the RIBs.

All dressed up for the excursion outside!

This isn’t our boat but it gives you an idea of what it was like.

Us, believe it or not, in the bow of the RIB with the Garibaldi Glacier behind us.

The base of the Garibaldi Glacier, notice all the ice in the water.

The views of the mountains on either side of the islet were magnificent. As we approached the glacier the calved pieces of ice were everywhere in the water around us. As we rounded the corner of the islet, we could see the Garibaldi Glacier in full view. The guide did point out that the glacier is really three glacier which have come together and formed into one large glacier. This accounts for the brown debris field in the middle of the glacier.

It was exciting to ride the Zodiac. The spray hitting your face, and well the rest of you. The Zodiac bumping into the small icebergs as we went along. We pulled around another outcropping and saw a beautiful waterfall coming off one of the mountains. The whole experience was exhilarating.

It was sad to have to return to the ship, but other people need to have a turn. The entire round trip to the foot of the glacier was about ninety minutes. Every moment of the trip was exciting.

Upon our return we dropped Mary’s boots in the mud room and then headed up to our cabin. We stripped off our cold weather gear and took a moment to breathe. I went down and had a cigar and relax.

There was a stop at the Future Cruise desk to ask about a cruise to Vietnam, Cambodia and region. The conversation got sidetracked and we ended up talking about a cruise in January 2027 to the Galápagos. That got expanded into a six-day pre-cruise venture into the eastern side of the Amazon, and then got expanded into into a seven-day post-cruise adventure into Peru and Machu Picchu. So, a seven-day cruise to the Galápagos turned into an eighteen-day adventure. (January 11 – 29, 2027). More to think about.

At noon we headed to the Grill to have lunch. Today they are having a British Pub Lunch. Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding! The ship got underway while we were at lunch. All afternoon and into the evening we will be sailing down the Garibaldi Fjord, in an area called the Avenida de Los Glaciares, back towards Puerto Williams.

After lunch I went down to the launderette and washed our soiled clothing to-date. This should give us sufficient clothing for the remainder of our cruise. In the afternoon we received the proposal for the January 2027 adventure. We’ll review it before the end of the cruise.

At 17:00 I went down for the daily Recap and Briefing. We are headed out to the Drake Passage this evening. There was some talk about sea sickness. The waves will be three to four meters, and the wind will be about 40 knots (some where between 44 and 46 miles per hour). That translates into rough seas. We will apparently be sailing into the wind, which heightens the experience.

We are off to the Captain’s Reception and dinner at Il Terrazzino. Introduced myself to the Captain and the rest of the Senior Crew members. I have met most of them including the captain already, but this is in a more formal setting.

After the reception we went to Il Terrazzino for dinner. The sommelier had recommended a wine when we were at dinner last night. A Sangiovese from Chianti. It was really good. It went will with the ossobuco and polenta, which by the way was very tender and flavorful. The other three ordered ravioli, which they said was very good.

My ossobuco

Mary’s Pappadelle con l’anatra

Richard and Susan’s Ravioli

I left the group at 20:00, and hour-and-a-half after the start of dinner and headed to the Connoisseur’s Corner for my after-dinner cigar. The Connoisseur’s Corner is a small room, it has a TV but it doesn’t have closed captioning, so it is difficult to watch. A group of five or six Asian men came in for a smoke, not cigars but cigarettes, but they weren’t there to relax they were they to talk which was annoying enough, but they didn’t even seem to see me watching the TV and stood directly between me and the TV. I stayed until just before it went 22:00; this gave me sufficient time to digest dinner before trying to go to sleep.

Buonanotte e ciao,

Enrico e Maria