Strait of Magellan

 Monday, March 11

Chilly and windy.  Waves 3-4 meters.  The ship was a bit rocky.

Today we just cruised, leaving Punta Arenas and going through the Strait of Magellan (pronounced muh-jeh-luhn).  People were actually disappointed because we went through the Strait during the night.  But the naturalist Milos said that it's too wide to see anything and it's all fog anyways.  So technically, today we cruised along the coast of Chile in the Pacific Ocean.  But too far off the coast to actually see it.  Perhaps the cruise was a bit deceptive about this in their advertising?!?!  

imagecredit https://dustyrucksack.wordpress.com/2017/03/20/magellan-strait/

There were numerous sailings between the 14th and 17th centuries, all trying to discover a new part of the world and new, shorter trade routes.  In 1520, Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to lead a fleet of ships through these narrow channels. (Well, he was actually Portuguese sailing under a Spanish flag). Thus the name Strait of Magellan.  When he emerged out the other side, he named it the "Peaceful Sea" because the water was so calm.  We still call it the Pacific Ocean today.

imagecredit https://www.historyextra.com/period/tudor/ferdinand-magellan-fatal-voyage-discovery-first-circumnavigation-globe-story-facts-timeline/

Magellan's expedition is an interesting story.  Skip the starred section if not interested in his expedition. We will resume about our day after the starred section 😀

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In 1519 Magellan set out with 5 ships and 270 men.  They were on a mission to find a shorter route to the Spice Islands, which are in the East Indies.

imagecredit https://www.britannica.com/place/East-Indies

Magellan unsuccessfully searched for his shorter route in the Rio de la Plata.

imagecredit https://www.danserletango.com/fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/rio-de-la-plata.jpg

He searched so long here that his freezing and starving crew mutinied.  Magellan squashed the rebellion, killing one captain and abandoning another.  He sent one ship ahead to scout, but it was shipwrecked.

Finally in 1520 he found the crossing that is now named after him. It was hazardous, and it took 38 days to travel the 563 km of the strait. One of the captains took his ship and abandoned the fleet,  absconding with many of the supplies. 

imagecredit:https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Portuguese-explorer-Ferdinand-Magellans-fleet-of-five-ships-after-their-departure-from_fig2_361944253

Magellan had no clue how big the Pacific was, and it was 4 starving months before the ships landed at Guam to replenish supplies.

When he finally landed in the Philippines, he decided to try to convert everyone.  The king was converted and decided to start a war against the neighbouring Mactan who did not convert.  Against the advice of his men, Magellan led the charge and was killed by a poison arrow on April 27, 1521.  

imagecredit https://lnu.se/en/meet-linnaeus-university/current/events/2021/danilo/

At this point there were 115 men left and they could not handle the remaining 3 ships, so they burned one and sailed away with just 2 ships.  Interestingly enough, the fleet was now under the command of Sebastian del Cano, a former mutineer. They finally made it to the Spice Islands, secured their spices, and set sail to return to Spain.  One of the ships (the Trinidad) developed a leak and had to undergo several weeks of repairs in the Spice Islands.  The Trinidad was then captured by the Portuguese, and the ship was wrecked in a storm while under Portuguese control.

In September 1522, more than 3 years (1082 days) since the expedition began, the one remaining ship (the Victoria) landed back in Spain.  Only 18 of the 270 men had survived. So even though Magellan himself did not circumnavigate the planet, he did lead the first expedition to do so.

image credit https://www.livescience.com/42788-ferdinand-magellan.html#:~:text=and%20left%20shipwrecked.-,In%20September%201522%20%E2%80%94%20three%20years%20and%20a%20month%20since%20the,original%20270%20%E2%80%94%20survived%20the%20voyage.

There was an interesting unexpected consequence of Magellan's expedition.  When the men returned to Spain, they discovered that their calendar was one day behind, despite keeping accurate daily records.  They had lost a day because they travelled west around the world, opposite to the earth's rotation. An excited delegation was sent to share this news with the pope. However, it took until the International Meridian Conference in 1884 before the International Date Line was proposed.

imagecredit https://www.sscadda.com/international-date-line/

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The Strait of Magellan remains a treacherous crossing, with unpredictable currents and winds called "Williwaws" which are strong cold winds blowing down from a mountainous coast. It is also dangerous here because of the rocky coastline.

imagecredit https://northernwilds.com/lake-superior-water-trail-a-kayakers-double-edged-sword/

Today we had a Milos talk about Mars.

At the beginning of the cruise we had put ourselves on a waiting list to get a backstage tour of the stage/theater area.  We never did get tickets, but we kept getting phone messages reminding us of the time and place, so we took a chance and showed up.  It turned out to be quite interesting.

The backstage is several levels up and down.  We were shown the tech area, the dressing rooms, the storage room (the Topper hat is all one piece and is kept here), a laundry area, a costume room, etc.

The costumes are 7 years old and reused by new dance teams, so they have a full time person cleaning and mending and altering them.  They have "contracts" of about 9 months each.  The contracts don't all start and end at the same time (not sure how that works!).  The contracts include 2 months of practice in Florida before they even come on board the ship.

They were asked how they can dance while the ship is rocking.  Every day they are given a rating.  A "1" means all ahead as normal. A "2" means the girls wear flats instead of heels and some moves are modified.  A "3" means the show is cancelled and replaced by something else.

The evening show was Doug Cameron, a violinist.  Very talented.  He has worked with Tom Petty and David Foster, among others.  His mother was a musician and wrote the theme song for the Roadrunner cartoon.  Apparently she made more royalties off that song than Doug did with his 10 albums.

imagecredit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wile_E._Coyote_and_the_Road_Runner#/media/File:Tobeepornottobeep.jpg