Drake Passage - 2 Sea Days & Disembarkation Day Ushuaia

January 7

This was the first morning that there was no wakeup call. Some people almost or did miss breakfast. Walking around the ship took great care today. You could see the water level block the view out of a window one minute and then drop way down with nothing but sky the next. At breakfast you had to hold on to your glasses or they tipped over. (and this is with the non-skid material on top of the tablecloth.)

Our portholes had already been bolted shut last night. We spent much of the day organizing to pack in between the lectures. With the rough seas we opted to sit in the back on the curved couch that made a U around the back of the lounge since they didn't swivel like the regular tables & chairs.

We saw one guy that had stitches and was bandaged because he was bounced out of bed. Depending on which way your bed faced in the cabin, you either were pushed head to toe up and down in bed or side to side and you had to hang on.

Dinner was interesting as the seas were now really rough. Wine bottles flying off tables and glasses breaking all around. Loud crashes coming from the kitchen. Are we having fun yet? The seats are all bolted down, but they swivel so it was challenging to eat while your chair moved around. The servers must be used to walking in rough seas as they all did really well.

After dinner we went to the trivia quiz night. We formed teams of 6 and the questions were mostly silly. Things like “name the nationalities on the passports of all of the passengers” I think they counted which team got the most right. Cheating seemed to be OK, as on the more serious questions people were consulting their notes of the trip. One of the questions was “which 2 of the expedition staff were dating each other?” We all knew it was Will and Liz. The answer was "none as it is against Quark policy." All in good fun!

Here is the program for today:

Drake Passage Reminders:

Laundry: Today is the last day to send your laundry. Please put out your last laundry in the morning no later than 09:00 for your cabin steward/stewardess to collect.

Shipboard Account: At dinner tonight, you will receive a preliminary statement of your account in your cabin.

Please look through the statement and advise Reception of any discrepancies found. If you have yet to give Reception an imprint of your credit card, please do so today. If you will be settling your onboard account with cash, please also advise Reception.

Photo Journal: If you would like to share your photos, please add them to the photo computer. If you need assistance, Sam and the team will be available at various times throughout the day - please listen for announcements. The cut off time for sharing photos is the end of the day.

07:00 - 08:00 A Continental Breakfast is served outside the Main Lounge

08:00 - 09:00 Breakfast is served in the Dining Room

09:30 Please join Nikita for his presentation, “Polar Bear Conservation” in the Main Lounge

11:00 Please join Miko in the Main Lounge for his presentation, “The Land of True Seals”

12:30 Lunch is served in the Dining Room

14:30 Please join Liz in the Main Lounge for her presentation, “Krill: The Lifeblood of the Southern Ocean”

15:30 Kayakers please join Sean and Abbey in the Library for your Final Kayak Meeting

16:30 Please join Hadleigh for his presentation, “An Heroic Contribution: The Story of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition”

18:30 There will be a Recap & Briefing in the Main Lounge

19:30 Dinner will be served in the Dining Room

21:15 Please join the Expedition team in the Main Lounge for your final exam. It’s Voyage Quiz Night!

“To anyone who goes to the Antarctic, there is a tremendous appeal, an unparalleled combination of grandeur, beauty, vastness, loneliness, and malevolence --- all of which sound terribly melodramatic --- but which truthfully convey the actual feeling of Antarctica. Where else in the world are all of these descriptors really true?” - Captain T. L. M. Sunter in the Antarctic Century Newsletter

Sunrise: 03:41 Sunset: 22:54

January 8

This morning they remembered the wakeup call. Breakfast was better attended than expected considering the seas were still rough. There were several people we didn’t see for the 2 days.

Our crossing was not as rough as it could be. I think they said it was a 7 out of 10 or 12 (whatever scale they use). The captain redirected the ship around a storm and then the seas calmed quite a bit.

We finished our packing in between the few lectures they had today. Over the last 2 days we returned our loaner boots and life vests. Kayaker had more to deal with.

A couple of photos from out on deck. There are videos of the seas on Picasa.

 Black-browed Albatross

There was a board with a photo of a penguin that jumped in one of the zodiacs and passengers put their funny captions.

There was a farewell party from the Captain & crew that had sushi for appetizers in the lounge and after dinner there was a huge chocolate dessert table in the lounge.

 

Sam put together a photo journal of the trip. She promised to put it on their website for us, but we haven’t seen it yet. It was nice that a few people shared their photos on the computer in the lounge for that purpose.

We said our final goodbyes to quite a few people we met and our cabin steward Mark who took such good care of us.

 Mark

I give up, what is it?

We will miss announcements that end with “See you about the ship”

January 9

After breakfast and a few more goodbyes we waited in the lounge for our group to be called. The first buses were for those going directly to the airport. We had an afternoon flight so we went in the last bus that dropped us at a place where we could store our luggage until time to go to the airport.

We went to the Albatros Hotel and hung out, thrilled to have WIFI and connectivity for a change. We did a bit of last minute shopping which included buying more chocolates from the really good place and having one of their yummy hot chocolates. After walking around a bit we went to lunch at Chiko’s again. I guess we really liked that place.

 

Then we walked back to where our luggage was stored and grabbed a taxi to the airport.

We arrived in Buenos Aires early and Fabian wasn’t there yet. We were about an hour early and we weren’t concerned, but when he arrived he felt really bad  that we had to wait. He took us back to the Urban Suites where we got a few hours of sleep before our 7:00 in the morning pick up to go back to the airport for our flight to Iguazu Falls.