Tierra del Fuego Expedition

Boarding is early evening in Punta Arenas, and the ship is clear of the pier before dark. Dinner comes as the last lights on the Strait slide astern. Ahead lie eight nights that cover the whole navigation area instead of half of it: south through Almirantazgo Sound, out to Cape Horn, and back again along the other shore.

Overnight: M/V Ventus Australis or M/V Stella Australis · Meals: Dinner

Morning opens on Ainsworth Bay under the Marinelli Glacier, where a Zodiac puts you on a beach of subantarctic forest and a colony of elephant seals that pays visitors no attention whatsoever. The afternoon belongs to the islets off Tucker, alive with Magellanic penguins and cormorants and watched from the water. In September and April, Brookes Glacier takes the islets' place.

Overnight: M/V Ventus Australis or M/V Stella Australis · Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

The ship turns into Pia Fjord and stops in front of the glacier itself, close enough that the cracking carries across the water. A short walk on the moraine gives the whole face at once. The afternoon runs the northwest arm of the Beagle Channel, where five glaciers hang one after another off the Darwin range, sailed past rather than landed on.

Overnight: M/V Ventus Australis or M/V Stella Australis · Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

The ship comes alongside in Ushuaia after breakfast and those sailing four nights step off. The day is yours in the southernmost city on the continent, the museums and the crab restaurants and the Martial glacier above the town. By early evening the ship sails again with the same cabin still yours, this time heading for Cape Horn from the other side.

Overnight: M/V Ventus Australis or M/V Stella Australis · Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

The second run at Cape Horn is the one that often lands: two chances at a headland that grants very few is most of the reason to sail both halves. The afternoon returns to Wulaia Bay from the opposite direction, and the anchorage that looked sheltered on the way south reads differently with the light behind it.

Overnight: M/V Ventus Australis or M/V Stella Australis · Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Pia Fjord again in the morning, and glaciers do not repeat themselves: the front will have calved, the ice will sit differently, the water will carry new bergs out toward the ship. The afternoon adds Porter Glacier, which the southbound route never sees, running its ice down to the waterline.

Overnight: M/V Ventus Australis or M/V Stella Australis · Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

A Zodiac landing on the beach below Aguila, then a walk through native forest to the foot of the glacier, near enough to feel the cold coming off it. Later the ship works into Condor Fjord, where the birds it is named for ride the updraft off the cliffs and the Zodiacs run the ice along the waterline.

Overnight: M/V Ventus Australis or M/V Stella Australis · Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

The last morning lands on Magdalena Island in the middle of the Strait of Magellan, where a marked path runs up to the lighthouse through a colony of Magellanic penguins tens of thousands strong. The ship is alongside in Punta Arenas, where the loop began, by half past twelve. In September and April the island is closed and Marta Island, with its sea lions, stands in.

Meals: Breakfast