Posts

Jan 26-27: Ushuaia to Buenos Aires to New York City

Image
The Return Home Watch as our hero braves the horrors of economy class, struggles to meet luggage weight limits, does battle with Customs and Immigration Agents, before despairing over identifying the correct Uber driver for the final miles Or...perhaps a little less dramatic!  Saturday afternoon, around the time I was thinking about dinner, I happened to look towards the pier and saw Sea Spirit sailing back down the Beagle Channel on her next voyage; a small ship again going out on a very large ocean. I believe this trip is to visit the Antarctica Peninsula a bit further south than we managed, to cross the Antarctic Circle. I hope the crew and guides enjoy their new charges as much as they seemed to enjoy having us onboard, and I hope the new passengers enjoy and get as much from their trip as we did. Sunday I met up for breakfast with a friend from the Sea Spirit who was spending a few weeks in Patagonia before returning to Germany. We chatted, ate, had some coffee, and then she n...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jan 25: In Ushuaia, waiting for a plane (tomorrow)

Image
We pulled into port bright and early this morning - dressed, turned luggage over to the crew, had breakfast, and then waited to be bussed to the luggage storage area, where our bags were interned until we returned to pick them up (before 5:30 PM!). After that, I looked for Javier, a vendor selling hand-carved figures near the port and caught up with him (buying a few figures), went to a bookstore to try (unsuccessfully) to find a book about penguins recommended by our ornithologist Ken, had some lunch, ran into a number of now-former shipmates, and talked with another until it was time to leave for the airport and then walked back to my hotel where I watched Sea Spirit get underway and enter the Beagle Channel outbound; since then I've been listening to wistful and melancholy music as I send and reply to emails and messages from the folks I've shared the ship with for the last three weeks. I've also been repacking my luggage and pulling out a few more things to leave behind...
2 comments
Read more

Jan 24: In the Beagle Channel

Image
 So we arrived in the Beagle Channel and we are awaiting our scheduled time to pull into the pier. We were steaming for much of the day, and are still steaming, albeit at a very slow speed; just enough to control the ship (called "steerage way"). We should tie up tomorrow around 7 AM, then I'm off to the luggage storage building to pick up my luggage to drag to the hotel for the night - my flight to Buenos Aires takes off the following day around 2 PM. And I've got to admit I've lost track of what day today is. And I see on the calendar - since I'm writing after midnight it's now Saturday.  It was a busy day today, with stuff that had to get done, but was time-consuming - like turning in our boots. Wait in line, wait a little more, keep waiting, then a line through my name, a quick look for penguin poo, and OK to go. Then the next thing and the next - lectures, disembarkation briefing, paying off our room charges, tips for the staff who helped us the most,...
1 comment
Read more

Jan 23: At sea between Antarctic Peninsula and Cape Horn (about 58 degrees south latitude)

Image
 Short entry today - more (hopefully) tomorrow. We set out from Antarctica yesterday evening and were beyond the South Orkney Islands and into the Southern Ocean by the time I went to sleep. We've been steaming all day at about 12-15 knots and are now about halfway between the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and the tip of South America. We should enter the mouth of the Beagle Channel by bedtime tomorrow and will then make our leisurely way to Ushuaia, to arrive at the ship's scheduled docking time. Once we're docked we'll be hustled off the ship and bussed to the airport (for those with flights the same day or to the Poseidon luggage storage facility (for those, like me, who are staying overnight or longer). It's hard to believe the trip is nearly over. Today was much like one of the last days of high school, except that, instead of signing yearbooks (is that still done?) we're exchanging email/phone/WhatsApp/WeChat information. One person I talked with when sta...
1 comment
Read more

Jan 22: Georges Point and Duperre Bay

Image
 A bittersweet day today. On the one hand, I saw two whales breaching from a distance today and was able to take a nice photo of a whale's tail during a deep dive at close range. On the negative side, I had my last walk in Antarctica and my last Zodiac cruise in Antarctic bays for...who knows how long. We are now on our way back to Ushuaia at 14 knots; we are still in Antarctic waters, but only for a few hours more. We have the Drake Passage ahead of us, but that's only a few days - we should arrive in Ushuaia in the early morning of January 25 and I should be back in my apartment in Bay Ridge in the morning of Jan 27. That's all for now (well, a few photos too!) - it's been a tiring few days and it's after midnight; time for me to get some sleep. I'll spend tomorrow organizing my photos, packing my things, and giving a short talk to the guides and passengers about natural radiation and the dose we've all picked up on this trip (spoiler: less than if we'...
1 comment
Read more

Jan 21: Paradise Bay - Ketley Point, Lautaro Island (65 degrees south latitude)

Image
Picture yourself sitting about a foot above calm water in a ridiculously beautiful bay filled with icebergs, "bergy bits," and brash ice and surrounded by mountains of ice and rock. Sun shining, breeze not blowing and, when the motor of the Zodiac is turned off, utterly silent except for the calls of the penguins on the shore and nearby islands. The only other sound is the water, gently lapping the Zodiac's hull, and then you hear a sudden outrush of air. Turning towards the sound you see, emerging gently from the water about 50 yards away, the topmost part of a head as long as your Zodiac, above which you see some residual steam hanging in the air in the shape of a plume. Part of a massive back emerges from the water as well with a fin in about the middle. Perhaps you hear another breath, see another plume of steam, and then the back arches into an impossibly tight bend and the head and back sink beneath the waves. You're lucky today and, as the arch rises into the a...
2 comments
Read more

Jan 20: Curtiss Bay and Mikkelsen Harbor (64 degrees south latitude)

Image
  I'm not sure if it's possible to have a perfect day - it seems there's always a fly in the ointment. But today was a pretty good day and whatever imperfections there might have been are so minor in comparison to the good as to not even warrant mention. With animals alone we saw gentoo and chinstrap penguins; leopard, crabeater, and Weddell seals; and at least a dozen kinds of birds. And, at the end of the day, we saw whales as the ship ended up close to a small group of three or four humpbacks and about a half mile from another small group of a similar size. Close enough to hear the sound of the blows, to see the back fin, and to see the tails of several as they dived - all in front of a magnificent backdrop of mountains lit golden by the setting sun. And that's just the animals - today we also had our first steps on the Antarctic continent, we spent several hours walking with penguins and riding a Zodiac in an area of incomparable beauty on what, back home, would be ...
1 comment
Read more