Summary: a trip to do only in good weather. Pleasant scenery, lush, nothing dramatic. Decent food, acceptable and reasonably priced accommodation. Friendly staff. Lectures and movies. See the route map to the right. We did this in the reverse order: south to north. According to our guide on board, volcanic activities are on the rise since in 90s, causing more rain falls and advance of glaciers.
2/13. rain and sun off and on all day.
Navimag registration 10:00-19:00 at Hotel CostAustralis at the waterfront. Hung out in the lobby. After lunch, we returned with luggage to be checked in (tagged to our cabin#). By this time, the door between the hotel and Navimag's space was closed, nor were we allowed to hang out in the hotel lobby. Had to go in a back door. At least the hotel wifi can still be reached from Navimag's waiting area, albeit weak. 
At 9pm, a quick speech on the boarding procedure. Then we were off. At 10pm, a safty video in the dinning room.Our cheapest cabin1 is in the hallway on the first floor, next to the bathroom: convenient, but busy with other passengers. Bunk beds, curtains. Each has a locker for luggage, a lamp above pillow with an outlet plug. Water is portable. Had to beg for towel (which is supposed to be distributed the next morning). 2nd floor is the dinning room, more cabins, the bridge and emergency boats. 3rd floor is a pub with comfy sofas. Cargo is on the ground floor which we are denied access.
2/14 drizzle.
Chilean fjord looks very much like the Inside Passage of Alaska. Green, misty, many little waterfalls, some snowy hills, a couple of small ice fields.
The ship departed ~4:30. At around 6:00, we entered the Santa Maria Canal. Quite narrow.
8:00 breakfast. Busy, lines. Plenty food: scrambled egg (alternating days), ham, cheese, bread, jam, yogurt, cereal, milk, lipton tea bag, nestle instant coffee.
By now, all the cargo were on board. Some foul smelling lorries.
9:45 Captain speech. The ship is 125m long, 18.5m wide, 9951 ton. 229 passengers on board, only 1 Asian passport (Japan).
~11:00 documentary "Eden at the end of the world": animals in Patagonia. Not bad.
Lunch: 12:30 even # cabin (alternating). 1:15 odd # cabin. Dinner:19:30 even # cabin. 8:15 odd # cabin.
Visited the bridge. The friendly captain showed me what some of the monitoring devices do. Many sheets of navigation maps on a drawing table where a young officer marks the location in pencil every once awhile. GPS tracked map is broadcasted in the dinning room and the pub. Dual engine. 
Shortly after 18:00, a minor detour into Amalia Fjord for Skua Glacier. A slow approach. Lots of small floating ices. Quite nice, but raining. We left ~19:00.After dinner, "March of the Penguin" was shown in the dining room.
2/15 misty rain.
Arrived at Puerto Eden on Wellington Island, in the wee hour of morning, which was completely ignored by my sleep. It was an 1-hour stop for resupply and cargo change.
The scenery doesn't seem to change. With the low visibility, only the small islands, and beacons can be seen. A statue of Virgin Mary is on a little island at one point, where people toss coins to.
~11am, lecture on fauna, mostly on birds and where to see them.
Further north, in Canal Messier, a cargo ship “Capitán Leonidas” hit a tiny semi-submerged island called “bajo Cotopaxi” in the 70s. Since then, it was used as a navigation reference and home for numerous South American Terns.~3pm: reached open ocean (Gulf Pena). Hoping to see Tonina whale and dolphin.l but didn't. Did see some seals or seal lions swimming. Expected 10-20 knots wind. wave 1.5-3.5m. Yes, took a motion sickness pill.
~4pm: movie "an Arctic Tale": story of a baby walrus and a baby polar bear.
~9:30pm: movie: Master of Commander. I slept instead.
2/16
Back in sheltered water, via Anna Pink Bay, Pulluche Channel, Canal Chacabuco, Canal Errazuriz. Detour a bit in Rodriguez Channel, to see the little town of Puerto Aguirre. A salmon farming community. More and more of these farms as we went north. The excrement and extra feed is polluting the water, and at the same time attracting bigger marine animals like Blue Whale, which was advertised. 11:15. Lecture on flora, and where to find them.. I learnt that :
moss makes PH of passing water slightly more acidic, from 7-7.5 to 6.5-6.8, and thus reduces bacteria. The local Indians mix Calafate roots with fat and mud to seal wooden boats. The common Mata Negra (Black Bush, Chilliotrichum diffusum) is food for guanaco, but not the introduced prevailing sheep. Devil's Strawberry (Gunnera Magellanica)'s red currant-like berries can cause lasitiv-diarreah. Indian Bread (Cyttaria Darwinii): apricot color golf ball size mushroom on beech tree. Edible for salad.
Afternoon: replay of last night's movie: Master of Commander. Weather cleared. Finally we got to enjoy the deck. A chess game started. Much warmer now. 
We were heading into the much wider Canal Moraleda, between the island of Chiloe and the mainland. More salmon farming. Saw volcanoes: twin peaked Melimoyu and the more symetric Corcovado.~6pm, talk on Puerto Montt and the surrounding areas to visit. Seems one needs at least 2 weeks here.
Rain started again!
2/17 RAIN!
3-4 am arrival at Puerto Montt in pouring rain. Only allowed to dock ~8am.
Notes
