Days 4-7 - Our 4 day, 1500km voyage through the Patagonian channels on a Navimag Cargo Ship oops Cruise Liner!!!
 
Amazingly we awoke to abit of blue sky, wahoo, maybe we would actually see something on our voyage ....we will see! Laden with 30 kilos each plus an additional 13 litres of wine, beer and water, we slowly walked down to the port, to say my shoulders killed was an understatement and at this point I could safely say I hated my back pack! At 2.30 after waiting in the boarding room, our 'tour guides' for the trip arrived and briefed us on safety etc.. and what to expect. We hadn't expected that we would have informative tour guides etc.. on this ship so were pretty surprised, so far so good! The ship looked pretty full and the guide said that this was a lot of people for off season, but I expect half the boat were due to sail like us a week ago hence the number. There seemed a mix of nationalities with Germans (or German speaking) from what we could hear being the most predominant.
 
Soon we were off to check in and board our luxury vessel, a cruise liner come casino with swimming pool, 10 screen 3D cinema, ala carte restaurant and beauty salon.......well we can dream anyway! Instead we were soon walking down the ramp into the black hole of the bottom of our red cargo ship, waiting for the lift, which basically was a metal ramp used to take lorries up to the second deck, quite an experience already, this lift I can cope with! Then we checked into our ensuite bedrooms with king size water bed and spa ......uuuuummmm, now who's wishing!
 
The accommodation for 'c' class ie the bottom class wasn't to bad in that we had paid for a dorm room of 20 beds with no view and ended up in a narrow 4 bunk room, sharing with 2 swiss girls and a small port hole view, bargain! Was this an upgrade to luxury class? Well almost! Speaking little swiss-german the language barrier hindered us getting to know our fellow 'cabiners' for the next 4 days but soon we were organised in our rabbit warren, me in the top bunk and Ads on the bottom, both with leg room for 5ft people, this was going to be fun!! The toilets and showers weren't to bad either, well the mens were nice but unfortunately the ladies showers smelt like you would expect a man's urinal too so I couldn't see myself showering much for the next few days, not quite sure where the shower water was actually coming from??!!!!
 
We then spent a good 4 hours minimum exploring the boat, there was so much to see and do.... Sorry did I say 4 hours, I meant 4 minutes ha ha! Basically the boat consisted of 90 per cent cargo area, followed by 2 small upper decks to sit on, a dining room just like school and a room which was the small pull down cinema screen come bar, come dance floor, come lounge and that was it! Just as we expected though and yes the IOW ferry IS luxurious for anyone who ever complains, ie me, about the 40 minute crossing we have to endure if you live there . I wouldn't have had the boat any other way, this was definitely us and looked like it would be lots of fun for the next 4 days subject to the weather of course!
 
After another welcome briefing, introduction to the vessel and description of the route, we found unfortunately that we wouldn't pass any glaciers as this was the winter route, a tad disappointed but still excited about our mini voyage. The boat was due to set sail at 4pm but from looking at the cargo being loaded, this didn't seem very realistic and soon enough over the loud speakers we heard those words we expected...' Due to a few technical issues on loading we are now due to set sail at 9pm', great, 6 and a half hours stuck in port looking at Puerto Montt some more, another good start! There didn't appear too be much cargo on board so we thought that perhaps as we were out of season the boat wasn't used too much, how wrong were we, soon enough the entire vessel was jam packed and loaded with new buses, bikes, random looking fridges, you named it, we were full! The number of people on board too meant that it was difficult to fit everyone into the dry areas so dinner had to be in 2 settings, fortunately the bottom c class were up first, result!
 
Happy again was Ads when we were dished up on our trays salmon and mashed potato! Thank god for mashed potato that's all I can say!! It was a good meal though and free plus you got soup, bread, fruit and juice so we could see we weren't going to starve . After dinner and nearing 9pm that dreaded loud speaker was off again and now we were due to set sail at 11pm! Hilarious we had been on the boat for over 8 hours and still hadn't moved!! They say expect anything with Navimag and yes they are definitely right!
 
It was cool though to watch our first sunset over Puerto Montt and to actually see that there was a volcano behind the town as the cone of looming Volcano Osorno finally appeared! Then after bumping into Fernando and another Mexican guy Edwardo, we shared some wine with them then all sat down to watch our first movie of many, 'The Motorcycle Diaries.' Set in South America, this true story was about the life of Ernesto, also known as later as the famous late 'Che Guevera,' and his friend Alberto who, in the 50's set out on an old motorbike called 'The Mighty One' and rode across all of South America to discover their country and others close by. It was an amazing film and less political than we expected, to see the landscape and indigenous people across Argentina, Chile, Peru and Bolivia was incredible, knowing that rather than saying 'one day we will go there' but more 'blimey we have been there' was a fantastic feeling and definitely a very appropriate and good movie to watch on our travels!
 
Half way through the film, still having not moved we finally heard the rumble of the engine and at 11pm the propellers kicked in to touch, wahoo!!! Funnily though when the film finished at midnight, we looked outside to see how far we had gone and right next to us was the ship that had been next to us for the last 8 hours!! In one hour we had turned and that was it, it was going to be a long journey for sure! All outside now, we were finally, after 9 and a half hours docked, on our way leaving the lights and cross on the hill of Puerto Montt behind us! In the dark and moving the ship seemed about 5 times larger now than before and laden with us and all its goods seemed an incredible size, which once in the pacific ocean would appear more of a pin prick ...our journey south had finally started.
 
That eve, yours truly had little sleep, for a claustrophobic in a small cabin room its not the best especially when you are convinced they will lock you in with the large iron door outside the cabins, so for me not much sleep was had, thankfully Ads slept.
 
 
Day 2 - Heading towards the Pacific Ocean!!
 
Unfortunately the good ole fashioned cruise ship lie in doesn't happen on Navimag and at 8pm we dragged ourselves to breakfast. Again this meal was fine, fruit, cereal, juice, bread, ham, cheese and egg slop, an ok start to the day. Outside the views we awoke to were non existent, rain, low cloud and choppy waters, but no vista, boo! Yours truly, considering I have been on a boat twice a day for a considerable chunk of my life, started to feel sea sick, even though it was pretty calm, so after taking a sea sickness tablet I had to retire to bed for the next 3 hours and felt too crook for dinner too, heres hoping I don't miss the entire trip from being in bed! Ads then wandered round the ship some more, got chatting to lots of other travellers on the boat and read as still there were no views to be seen .
 
In the afternoon feeling abit better,(those pills are definitely good stuff!) I awoke to see a seal outside our port hole! Peeping his head out of the water then diving and coming back up again, I couldn't believe my luck, in this vast ocean passage I had actually managed to see one seal, wicked! Ads on top has also seen some seals earlier and penguins too, seemed so random that they were so far from land out in the ocean. All we needed now was to see some whales as it was actually the season to see them but after many hours f many travellers looking and wishing not a single whale was seen.
 
Later we wandered out onto the deck and slowly the clouds started to lift abit. Around us we could finally see some land, forested mountain ridges with idyllic small islands dotted about within the channel. With the sun trying to break thro, we got some beautiful bright white reflections across the ocean which was cool. Some people were attempting to play chess to on the top deck with the extra large floorboard and pieces but it was definitely a cold game and everyone looked freezing!! Slowly we got some blue sky and as the evening drew in a reddish sun set behind the mountains at the back of the ship which was quite special considering where we were, basically in the middle of nowhere heading to the most southerly part of the world, kinda cool!
 
After Pirates of the Carribean as the movie of the day, dinner was italiano then we sat down with 2 american ladies, an ozzie and a kiwi girl and played cards . That's what I like about this 'cruise' travellers just sit around playing cards, chess, you name it, having the time to amuse themselves in a way we never have time, or forget to at home, it made the journey even more incredible. Not knowing the rules we to well, we laughed as 9 games later I came last with Ads a close second! Then that eve at midnight we would be hitting the worst part, The Pacific Ocean! The captain had said it seemed like we might have a medioco crossing so in preparation everyone was advised to take the good ole sea sickness tablets. Retiring at midnight we all were praying to sleep through the entire experience but yours truly unfortunately didn't get much sleep and neither did Ads, at one point I awoke feeling like I was being thrown out of my bed by the waves which was a tad scary! Overall though the night could have been worse, we went up and down and rolled quite considerably all night and when you think about all the cargo we are carrying my mind started to run away with me thinking of us sinking this thing but thankfully all was to be fine and after some sleep in the later hours we awoke and all was good!