Final sunset
Polar Plunge in the Beagle Channel
Final sunset on the ship
Celito's sign to hold our table
Our group at dinner
Preparing for the Polar PlungeSaturday, March 5th
Today is our last day at sea. We'll be arriving into the port at Ushuaia, Argentina very early tomorrow morning. I'm writing this around 5pm Saturday afternoon. Tonight we have a final dinner celebration - so I wanted to get a jump on things.
The day has gotten better every minute. The shaking and constant movement of the ship has turned into relatively smooth waters. It's a great, great feeling to be out of the Drake Passage. We now have a visual of Cape Horn - the southernmost point of South America.
We had a couple seminars this morning. The first was titled - Icy Antarctica. We learned about the different movements of ice and how the seasonal changes occur. We then had a talk from the Marathon Tours group - providing an overview of our trip and pointing out some upcoming excursions.
I wanted to summarize the types of wildlife we saw on the trip. They have a daily recorder near the reception desk. This lists includes: 3 types of penguins (gentoo, chinstrap, adelie), 3 types of whales (orca, humpback, and minke), 4 types of seals (fur, leopard, weddell, crabeater), 3 types of albatross (wandering, southern royal, black-browed), 1 type of petrel (southern giant), 2 types of storm petrels (wilson's, black-bailed), 1 cormorant (antarctic), 1 sheathbill (snowy), 2 types of skuas (south polar, brown), and 2 types of gulls/terns (kelp gull, antarctic tern).
We really have been lucky on this trip. We had some aggressive weather, but it did not prevent us from running the marathon. We only saw the angry seas on the ride home -- it could have knocked us out if we had encountered this on our arrival. We had enough sunny days that we got to see the good and bad. It would not have been right if we didn't get some of the snowy, windy, and cold conditions that often defines the continent of Antarctica.
Tomorrow will be primarily a travel day - as I'll be catching 2 planes back to the US - for arrival in the morning of March 7th. I plan to keep the blog through the 7th. At this point, I think we're all happy and thankful about how things have turned out.
Hope to coming to you live from the airport in Buenos Aires tomorrow evening.
Today is our last day at sea. We'll be arriving into the port at Ushuaia, Argentina very early tomorrow morning. I'm writing this around 5pm Saturday afternoon. Tonight we have a final dinner celebration - so I wanted to get a jump on things.
The day has gotten better every minute. The shaking and constant movement of the ship has turned into relatively smooth waters. It's a great, great feeling to be out of the Drake Passage. We now have a visual of Cape Horn - the southernmost point of South America.
We had a couple seminars this morning. The first was titled - Icy Antarctica. We learned about the different movements of ice and how the seasonal changes occur. We then had a talk from the Marathon Tours group - providing an overview of our trip and pointing out some upcoming excursions.
I wanted to summarize the types of wildlife we saw on the trip. They have a daily recorder near the reception desk. This lists includes: 3 types of penguins (gentoo, chinstrap, adelie), 3 types of whales (orca, humpback, and minke), 4 types of seals (fur, leopard, weddell, crabeater), 3 types of albatross (wandering, southern royal, black-browed), 1 type of petrel (southern giant), 2 types of storm petrels (wilson's, black-bailed), 1 cormorant (antarctic), 1 sheathbill (snowy), 2 types of skuas (south polar, brown), and 2 types of gulls/terns (kelp gull, antarctic tern).
We really have been lucky on this trip. We had some aggressive weather, but it did not prevent us from running the marathon. We only saw the angry seas on the ride home -- it could have knocked us out if we had encountered this on our arrival. We had enough sunny days that we got to see the good and bad. It would not have been right if we didn't get some of the snowy, windy, and cold conditions that often defines the continent of Antarctica.
Tomorrow will be primarily a travel day - as I'll be catching 2 planes back to the US - for arrival in the morning of March 7th. I plan to keep the blog through the 7th. At this point, I think we're all happy and thankful about how things have turned out.
Hope to coming to you live from the airport in Buenos Aires tomorrow evening.
Good to be reading your blog again--found out a couple of days ago--congrats to all of you on the completion of the marathon. Can't wait to see your pictures. Safe travels home. Bob and Annie
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