The world’s most notorious sea route is surprisingly scenic

As Viking Jupiter enters the Strait of Magellan, I feel I might be sailing into a horror movie. The next couple of days could end in storms and mutiny, dead albatrosses and ancient curses, shipwreck and cannibalism.

Breathtaking landscapes … El Brujo Glacier on the edge of the Sarmiento Channel, Patagonia.

Will the sailing be rough? Will we be able to stop halfway through at Punta Arenas? Who knows? Winds were so fierce on the previous few sailings that the ship couldn’t dock, waiters tell me with relish. The central plaza in Punta Arenas reputedly has ropes on the sides of buildings for pedestrians to cling to when gales get up.

The Strait of Magellan is infamous in maritime exploration, and we get the lowdown from Viking’s resident historian, Geoff Peters, formerly in the Royal Australian Navy and an expert in naval and maritime history.

The strait separates the South American mainland from its continental tailbone, Tierra del Fuego. Before the opening of the Panama Canal, this was the safest way to sail between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But sailing ships still had to battle unpredictable winds and currents, and tack through repeated narrows and around innumerable islands and rock outcrops often obscured by fog.

On a modern cruise ship, it’s a different matter. Viking Jupiter glides onwards with barely a rumble or shudder, and only when I lurch out on deck after breakfast am I left breathless in a frigid wind.

We’ve been lucky. Our approach across the South Atlantic from the Falkland Islands has been so unexpectedly smooth that the captain cheekily detoured around Cape Horn for a photo opportunity. Now we’re wandering through an island labyrinth into the heart of the strait.

Southern Patagonia is a frigid wilderness with a scattered population amid rugged landscapes of granite cliffs, glaciers and deep fjords. You could easily be lost in dead ends. European mariners did get lost for centuries, and even now, an experienced pilot comes on board to track our course.

The Strait of Magellan is a 570-kilometre V-shaped passage across this majestic geological confusion, obvious from a satellite photo but entirely concealed from water level. From the ship’s deck, I get no hint of direction: we’re surrounded by walls of silent mountains, and no sign of human presence.

Adventure - and comfort at Manfredi’s.

That evening over an excellent dinner at Manfredi’s restaurant, the landscape puts on a spectacular show. We’re squeezed between mountains which push a series of glaciers down towards the sea, presenting spectacular caps of blue-white ice and hissing waterfalls.

Next morning, I wake to find we’re in a bay so vast it looks like the open ocean. Punta Arenas is scattered along a low coastline, and we’re in luck: Viking Jupiter has no trouble tying up, though it does so cautiously as I devour salmon and scrambled eggs in the World Cafe.

El Brujo Glacier.

Wind buffets me into the town centre, which is full of weather-beaten buildings and crumbling mansions built on 19th-century wool and gold fortunes. It’s the last outpost of any size in Chile: the ends of the Earth.

By late afternoon we’re off, and endless islands scroll past. Next morning the Strait of Magellan presents a last hurrah. I pull back my cabin curtains to find we’re in a narrow channel of spectacular scenery that will continue halfway up Chile in a shattered mosaic of islands. Andean snows occasionally pose in the background.

Artillery cannon at Fuerte Bulnes fort on the Strait of Magellan near Punta Arenas, Chile.

It took Magellan, who first charted this strait, 38 days to get across it. It has taken us two, but that’s the miracle of modern cruising. Now I’m tucking into chicken breast wrapped in Iberian ham, and accompanied by a glass of white wine served by a smiling Viking waiter. If you have to tackle a notorious sea passage, this is the way to do it.

THE DETAILS

MORE

chile.travel

CRUISE

Viking Jupiter.

Viking Cruises’ 18-day South America & Chilean Fjords between Buenos Aires and Santiago (Valparaiso) visits Argentina, Uruguay, the Falkland Islands and Chile. It sails famed maritime destinations such as the Beagle Channel, Cape Horn and Strait of Magellan, with eight departures between November 2024 and March 2025. From $9995 a person including accommodation, all meals and meal-time drinks, Wi-Fi, gratuities and a complimentary shore excursion in each port. See vikingcruises.com.au

The writer was a guest of Viking Cruises.