Saturday, February 17, 2018

Today we will fly to the end of the world, then sail right off the edge!

Recommended reading for the trip was Endurance, the true story about Sir Ernest Shackelton’s ill-fated expedition.  After 150 pages reading about a ship that was caught in the ice and crushed thereby forcing the crew to hike across Antarctica…I quit!  This is not an optimistic read before getting on a boat to sail in the same body of ice and water!!

Our wakeup call came at 4:15am.  After a quick breakfast we departed for the airport for a 4 hour (1478 miles) private charter flight from Santiago to Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world.

Ushuaia is a quaint little city with brightly colored homes and shops skirting the base of the Patagonia Mountains where they slope abruptly toward the sea.  Situated on the Beagle Channel, Ushuaia means “inner harbor to the westward” in the native Yahgan tongue. This is where our real journey begins, and it’s the last solid ground we will see for many days.

We drove through Tierra del Fuego National Park on our way to Lapataia Bay.  We boarded a catamaran for a lunch cruise on the scenic Beagle Channel before transferring to the National Geographic Orion.  The wildlife were very cooperative and we saw 4-5 humpback whales, a sea lion and numerous birds and penguins.

The catamaran delivered us to the pier where we met up with our ship, the Orion.  We were welcomed aboard and escorted to cabin 509.

Shortly after 5:00 p.m., the lines were cast off and the ship moved away from the dock, setting out down the Beagle Channel to the open sea of the Drake Passage. The Captain rushed to get us out to sea an hour earlier than planned to avoid some anticipated weather in the Drake passage.  The skies were over cast with calm waters.  There was a brief meet & greet with crew and then mandatory evacuation practice.

Cocktail time begins!

We enjoyed a delicious dinner with fellow passengers.  We attached our Scope patches, sucked down a sleeping pill and went to bed.

At about 11pm we entered the Drake Passage which is widely considered the roughest body of water in the world.  The Drake Passage is the notorious 500-mile wide, 2-mile deep stretch of turbulent sea where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans collide, creating arguably the world’s most dangerous stretch of sea. It lies between the tip of South American and Antarctica.  Many people hesitate to take the Antarctic trip solely because they fear the Drake.  It is described as the ‘Drake Shake’ or the ‘Drake Lake’ depending on sea conditions.  We’re praying for Drake Lake.

We were gently awakened around midnight by the rocking and rolling of the ship…reminiscent of being in a baby cradle with your older sibling rocking you a bit too fast and hard.  Regardless, we went back to sleep and didn’t rise until 10am. Taking advantage of the few days we have to sleep in.