Drake Lake

December 21, 2011

USHUAIA, ARGENTINA -- Well, we have made it back safely to Ushuaia! We made phenomenal timing due to a really smooth crossing of the Drake. Last time, going south, we had about 20 foot swells… these were less than half that, at max, and overall it wasn’t a big deal. The only people who got remotely sick were those who were taking sea-sickness medication, and it was the medicine that made them feel unwell.

Due to “Drake Lake,” we were able to maintain a higher speed, and despite our scheduled arrival being 8:00am tomorrow, we pulled into the Beagle Channel around 2:30pm today, and we were tied to the dock by 7:30pm, a few hours ago.

A few highlights from today...

We woke up this morning at the early hour of 6:15am, so that we could get on the ship intercom as per our Save the Albatross auction victory from last night. We woke everyone up around 6:30am, which was actually our usual wake-up time while in Antarctica, but we told everyone it was 7:30am. Seeing as there are no clocks in the rooms, and nobody was on a working phone, everyone bought it. Watching their reactions when they found out it was actually an hour earlier was priceless. Last night, when we won this, we were told that the last cruise did a 15-minute rendition, so that was our target. In order to make it that long, we thought it would be both annoying and clever to thank every single crew member by name, so we painstakingly thanked them, mostly in some sort of comedic way. We made reference to Matt's desire to be reincarnated as an elephant seal, Kevin's love of birds, Scott's disdain for Scott, etc. Then, at the end, we told everyone we had a sighting of blue whales from the ship, and to get out on deck to see them. To give it some authenticity, at the end, we translated the last bit into Spanish, which was normal procedure for ship announcements (almost all announcements were translated into Spanish for a large contingent of Spanish-speakers on the expedition). To see the announcement, spoken and enunciated slowly and clearly, as per our expedition leader Susan, go ahead and click here.

After the announcement a few of us hung around for a bit, and there were a couple dozen people who came out to get coffee and tea, all of whom were shocked to see the actual time. There were also a number of people from the Spanish-speaking group who came out fully dressed in outside gear, no doubt heading to the deck to look for some whales that were a figment of our imagination. Overall a few people were upset, but everyone knew it was in good fun, and throughout the day, many people who I had never met came up to me to thank me for a job well done. It's all for charity, folks! We had a lot of fun with it too.

The day itself, as stated, was pretty relaxed. We mostly edited and transferred pictures among us, though we did have an Engine Room tour that was exciting. It is pretty cramped working quarters down there, but it was nice to see it and appreciate the inner workings of the ship that got us safely to Antarctica and back.

An hour or so after that we saw South America for the first time in a week and a half, so I went outside to the bow, where it was noticeably warmer (although the weather wasn't great, it was pretty windy and there was some light rain). More striking than that was the smell! There are no real plants in Antarctica, and the only distinguishable smell in all the cold and ice is the penguin guano, which isn't all that pleasant. Being surrounded by pristine forests in the Chilean and Argentinian mountains was incredibly refreshing, and it was quite powerful and not something I had really thought about until it happened.

Also, coming into the Beagle Channel we saw a number of dolphins swimming out to sea. They came by us really quickly, so there wasn't much time for photos, but they were very playful, jumping clear out of the water time and again. Later on, in the heart of the Beagle Channel, only a couple of hours out of Ushuaia, we passed a couple of colonies of Magellanic Penguins, the fifth species we saw on the trip!

Finally, as we finished dinner, we docked back in Ushuaia, and after our meal we went for a nice three mile walk through town. We didn't even get anything, but it was just nice to walk outside on solid ground for a change. That said, being in a city again, and in a world of Spanish being in Argentina was a bit of a culture shock. We came back to the ship to finish off our wine, and got one last night of sleep aboard the M/S Expedition.