Saturday 15th January
Today's contributor: Jon Copley
We cleared the entrance of the Straits of Magellan in the early hours this morning, and have spent the day heading south along the coast of Tierra del Fuego, with its mountains just visible off to starboard. This morning we were joined by dolphins, and in the afternoon our first albatross. After a grey cloudy start, we have enjoyed sunshine and gentle glassy swells this afternoon.
Dolphin watching from the weather station
In the evening we passed through the Estrecho de le Maire, a channel between the tip of Tierra del Fuego and the Isla de los Estados, whose spectacular peaks poked out of the cloud on our port side for the photographers on board. The view was short-lived, however, as we entered a fogbank almost immediately on leaving the channel.
Isla de los Estados
We've now begun our crossing of the Drake Passage, which is the seaway between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula. The Drake Passage is notorious for its waves and weather, as it is swept by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, where the seas circle Antarctica with nothing to block their path.
Photocall before the fog
For plots of our progress, and weather data from the ship updated every three hours, please visit the RRS James Cook on sailwx.info.