At Sea, Heading to Port, January 17-19, 2013

We entered the dreaded, Drake Passage last night. This is one of the stormiest places on the planet as it is where the Antarctic Circum-polar current connects through the relatively narrow passage between South America and Antarctica. However, we have had an uneventful crossing thus far. The seas are only slightly choppy. I awoke to a foggy sea.  Visibility of less than 200 meters to start. 

We enjoyed our normal breakfast buffet of cereal choices, “porridge”, and fruit juices.  The main part seems to alternate on a rotation of bacon and sausage or bagels and lox.  I don't recall if I noted but we ran out of eggs some time ago. Apparently they ordered 4,000 eggs when docked in Port Stanley in the Falklands but were only able to get 1,000. Sides always include either whole wheat or white toast with occasionally English Muffins.  Today was a bit unusual in that we were given an opportunity to spread “Mint Butter” or “Strawberry Butter” on our toast.  A few souls took the “Mint Butter” not knowing what it was (some supposed it to be spinach cream cheese).  I believe it was universally disliked. It was somewhat amusing to see the surprised look at people's faces as they bit into the "spinach cream cheese" and discovered that it was mint butter. 

After breakfast we were given an opportunity to tour those parts of the ship that we had not ventured into or that we had not had explained fully.  The tour included the engine rooms, an explanation of the bridge, the stabilizer room (where the bilge water is shifted around to minimize roll of the ship), and most interestingly the control room in the bowels of the ship.  There are banks of generators and computers that monitor all the ship’s systems from the hydraulics to the consumption of water.  It turns out that the ship does have a desalination plant on board.  Desalinated water is used for washing, the lavatories, showers, sinks, etc.

Control room, the actual brains of the ship. 

The lectures resumed.  We heard from: Pauline Carr on “The Heroic Age of Explorers”; Ian Dalziel on “Antarctica and Supercontinent Evolution”; Rob Dunbar on “Climate Change in Antarctica: Stories from Sediment Cores”; Michael Moore on “Penguins, Whales, and Climate Change”; and, Richard Alley on “ How Glaciers Use Earthquakes to Make Beautiful Scenery”.

We also received some briefings on closeout procedures, etc.  I did spend some time on the bridge looking at the waves coming obliquely towards us.  Biota was few and far between.  I caught a distant glimpse of a Fin Whale and saw some Gray Headed Albatrosses.  All in all an uneventful day.

January 18, 2013: At Sea, Heading North, Entering Beagle Channel

Another gray day.  The fog is somewhat lifted and the waves continue to be fairly low.  All in our entire trip has been one of remarkably good weather.  Ted remarked that another cruise ship following a few days behind us suffered some major storm damage when the winds and waves blew out the bridge windows and injured the captain, expedition leader, and second expedition leader. They were forced to return to port without completing their voyage. I guess that is the reason that they required us to buy travel insurance.

Cape Horn hove into view. It was difficult to make anything out as the fog was still with us. 

Somewhere over there is Cape Horn. 

This morning we settled our accounts with the OneOcean group.  This was to pay for the ship’s laundry, bar, and email accounts.  I had washed a few items in the bathroom of my room (as did most of the other passengers) but had laundered pants, shirts, etc. My bill was in the range expected (around $200).  Just another expedition expense!

We entered the Beagle Channel late in the evening. However, we could not proceed further without getting a "Channel Master" to take over steering the ship into the channel to Port.

January 19, 2013: Docking in Ushuaia, Argentina (VOYAGE ENDS)

I must admit that I had a long night last night (our last on the ship). The partying went on for several hours. It started with champagne toasts during the "Captain's Dinner." The poor Captain is Russian and his English is not that good. He received his round of applause, gave a toast, and left quickly. After that the toasts went on and on. Dinner included a little wine but it was in the bar afterwards that the real party began. However, I awoke promptly with the 6:30am wake up call and headed down for our last breakfast on board.

Sometime in the night we had boarded our "Channel Master" and we had shipped slowly up the Beagle Channel. It is named the Beagle Channel after the ship that Charles Darwin had shipped around the world on as a young man. He was the consummate naturalist and took notes on everything they found including the natives, the geology, and biota. Of course, it was this voyage that put the idea for the concept of evolution into his head. I refuse to say theory of evolution.

Finally, around 8am we docked in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. I found out later that it is also billed as the “Capital de las Malvinas.” The Malvinas are Argentina’s name for the Falklands Islands, which they maintain is illegally occupied by the British.

Ushuaia is a port city and a tourist mecca.  It is one of the prime jumping off points for trips to Antarctica during the austral summer. In the winter it is a ski destination, especially for Brazilians. As Ian Dalziel said, it has the aspects of a Bavarian village.  It climbs up the mountains to its north and many of the structures have the "mountain" architecture with steep roofs to shed snow, wood interiors, etc.

Just coming into port in Ushuaia, Argentina.

As we pulled in we could see two other cruise ships in port.  One was a bit bigger and the second one was massive. The more massive cruise ships do not typically launch Zodiacs for shore landings the way that we did. They are more, traditional-type cruise ships that dock at ports only.

Good-byes were said and about 2/3 of our group boarded two buses for travel to the airport and flights out. The remaining 1/3 of us continued on with the group for trips to Tierra del Fuego, the Andes, or just to be tourists in Ushuaia before proceeding on to other points.