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Category: Digital Image Metadata

Iceberg Glacier First View

The ship turned and the glacier, 500+ feet high, 0.7 mile wide, came into view on port.

January 16, 2022December 18, 2021 MichaelStephenWills6 Comments
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At 5:09 PM (daylight savings time for Chile) the Regatta turned to starboard to navigate around a headland of Farquhar Island.  Iceberg Glacier came into view from our port side stateroom terrace.  I was set up with the Canon 300 mm variable lens set to 120 mm (1/500 second, F11, ISO500), tripod mounted, to capture the ice from 5 miles distance.  The location is marked on the above GoogleEarth view. The red line leading in is our course. On the right, the white line is the boundary between Chilean regions Aisen and Magellan.

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Visible is the .75 glacier front, 500+ feet above the head of Tempanos Fjord. On the GoogleEarth view the front is marked with a red line.  Yes, more than 500 feet above the water.  In mid-view there are two rocks in the water.  Behind them, under the glacier, is a rock face.  That rock is 100+ feet tall.

Twenty seven (27) minutes later I used a handheld Sony with variable lens set to 200 mm (1/500 second, F13, ISO800) to capture this image of the ship bridge superimposed on the glacier.

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All you see is part of the Bernardo O’Higgins National Park. Named for a founding father of Chile, the country’s first head of state, the park covers 13,614 square miles.

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Posted in Adventure, Aisen Region, Clouds, cruise, Digital Image Metadata, Fjord, Glacier, Google Earth, Ice and Snow, Landscape, Nature, photography, Season, Southern Andes, Summer, Technology, travel, Uncategorized, WaterTagged Adventure, Aisen Region, Bernardo O'Higgins National Park, Chile, Chilean Fjords, cruise, Iceberg Glacier, Oceania Regatta, photography, Tempanos Fjord, travel

Navigating the Messier Channel

Finding your way through photographs

January 15, 2022December 17, 2021 MichaelStephenWills3 Comments
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These photographs are most notable for the first sighting of the entrance to Fjord Tempanos and our day’s destination the Iceberg Glacier. At Middle Island Messier Channel is over 5 miles wide though studded with islets and navigational hazards.  Here is a Google Earth map of the area with notable locations pinned with names.  The red line is a ruler path from Sombrero Island.

messierchannel

In the previous blog, Orientation, Iceberg Glacier, February 17, 2016, you learned about the route the Oceania Regatta followed that day.  We left off with photographs of Scout and Orlebar islands, the time was 12:43 pm Chilean Summer Time (daylight savings).  The next photograph was time stamped 2:24 pm and, frankly, I had lost track of where we were, so it was necessary to determine the ship’s position.

Here is how to do it.  From two known points, Sombrero Island at the northern end of Messier Channel and the Iceberg Glacier, our day’s destination, first a velocity from the total distance, in miles, (Google Earth) divided by the time duration (subtract time stamp of the starting from the final digital photograph and convert to minutes).  This gives an average ship velocity in miles  Using excel list the photographs with time stamps.  For each photograph calculate the time from the starting photo, in minutes, and multiply this by the average velocity.

In this way, I determined the first photographs of this blog were Middle Island and obtained confirmation using Google Earth to view the location from ground level.  The process is iterative in that the views showed the first calculated position to be behind the position matching the view.

This, I hypothesized, was because the ship velocity decreased on entering Tempanos Fjord.  Noting a time gap between the last photograph of this blog and the next, taken within Tempanos Fjord.  So, using Google Earth to establish the last photograph position, I recalculated velocity using that last position as the last time.  Then, I recalculated the distances of the photographs and the calculated positions came into better agreement with the viewed positions.  After Middle Island the ship slowed significantly in order to enter the fjord.

I still have opened questions because the calculated speed from Sombrero Island to Middle Island is 6 knots higher than the documented top speed of the Regatta.

Like what you see here? Visit my online gallery for more.
Here is a map with positions of key photographs in this series.

tempanosfjordapproach

52.02 miles from Sombrero Island. View NorthEast toward Middle Island, Farquhar Island behind.

Middle Island

The lighthouse of Middle Island is not in view. The channel between the islands is Brazo del Este.

Middle Island

View NorthEast toward the peaks of Farquhar Island Over the shoulder of Middle Island is Riches Bay of the farther island.

Middle Island

View NorthEast toward the peaks of Farquhar Island. Across from us, on Farquhar Island, the George River flow into Connor Cove which opens onto the channel named Brazo del Este. The channel separates the islands.

Middle Island

View east the steep cliffs of Farquhar Island rising abruptly from Messier Channel, to 3,200 feet in 2.7 miles.

Middle Island

Peaks of Farquhar Island. View east from Messier Channel using long lens.  The island is named for Percival Farquhar, American entrepreneur active in South America, mostly Brazil and railroads, 1905 – 1930.

Middle Island

View north from mid-Messier Channel. Nearest on the right is Middle Island with lighthouse Farquhar Island behind with Palmer and Hens points. In the distance is Van Der Meulen island.

Middle Island

Farquhar Channel. View Northeast with Boxer Island, left foreground,Farquhar Island behind.

Middle Island

Tempanos Fjord. View Southeast with Estacion Point and Headland to left. Behind the headland is the entrance to Farquhar Fjord, not visible. Tempanos Fjord is framed by land on both sides.

Middle Island

Like what you see here? Visit my online gallery for more.

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Posted in Adventure, Canal, Chile, cruise, Digital Image Metadata, Fjord, Google Earth, Landscape, Magellan Region, Messier Channel, Mountain, Nature, Ocean, Oceania, Pacific Ocean, photography, Rivers, Streams, Creeks, Seascape, Summer, Technology, travel, WaterTagged Adventure, Chile, Chilean Fjords, cruise, distance measurement, Farquhar Channel, Farquhar Island, Fjord, Google Earth, knots, Messier Channel, Middle Island and Lighthouse, Mountains, Nature, navigation, Oceania Regatta, Pacific Ocean, photography, Tempanos Fjord, travel, velocity

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