Lost at sea??

Well, we were to have visited Punta Arenas, in the south of Chile, yesterday ... but we never landed! Because we left so late the night before we didn't arrive until late afternoon, instead of early morning ... AND the ship is too big to dock at the wharf in Punta Arenas, so we would have had to go ashore by tender (see below) ... AND the wind was so strong that the tender would not have been safe ... AND the authorities said NO. We felt as thought we were lost at sea! Oh well, we had a wonderful journey through the Beagle Channel.
The day began for us in a funny way. We keep the TV in our room on the GPS channel all night, so anytime we wake up we can see where we are. I awoke about four am, and saw that there was a glacier coming up, so I grabbed a wrap and went out on the balcony ... and there it was! I raced inside, woke John and told him to grab something warm (it was 7C outside), grabbed the camera, and disappeared outside again. John blearily grabbed - a bath towel - and joined me!! The channel was narrow, and we were only 30-40 metres from the face of the glacier, towering above us, and then disappearing back into the mist and darkness ... Oh to have had a nightscope camera to have filmed it - and to have filmed John in his bathtowel!!!
We saw other glaciers at a distance during the day, and glorious views of thousands of islands as we sailed through channels to the Magellan Straits and the bay at Punta Arenas, where we left the Chilean pilots, but did not stay. The scenery was so magnificent that we shared our balcony with friends for much of the day, and the whole day felt like a party.
For those, particularly Jim, who've been asking details about the Carnival Splendor, here are some details ... It is 952feet long, and weighs 113,300 tons, holds 3006 passengers and 1150 crew. We cruise at about 20-22 knots (about 40 km hour), powered by 2 main propellers and 6 thruster propellors which move us in and out of docks, instead of using tugs. The main drive unit is powered by a 21 megawatt synchro-propulsion drive, powered by 11,000 volt, 75.6 megawatt generators driven by 6 twelve-cylinder motors.
The less mechanically minded, like me, might also like to know that there are 40,000 lights, 5,000 smoke detectors, 500 automatic fire doors, 19,000 km of electric cable and 360km of water piping. I was talking to a man yesterday whose sole job on board is to change failed light globes!!