MS National Geographic Explorer
At Sea, Ushuaia, and at Sea Again
Friday, February 18, 2011

    Last Tuesday, we spent all day at sea navigating our way back north toward Ushuaia. The crossing was really pretty good, with swells of three to four meters. We didn't really see any wildlife of interest on Tuesday and it was a good day to recover and work on photos and listen to lectures from the naturalists.

    Wednesday morning, we came into sight of Cape Horn and the seabirds began to show up flying behind and around the ship. I spend time on the aft sundeck capturing a few images of the albatrosses, petrels, and shags. We actually arrived to the cape from the eastern side rather than the western side due to a course change during the night to get out of some rather rough seas.

    Once back into the Beagle Channel, the ride was very smooth and it was somewhat comforting to see trees and bushes along the shorelines; that is missing in Antarctica. We arrived at the dock in Ushuaia about 6:30 pm and spend the night on the ship tied to the dock. Paul Allen's private ship, Octopus, was tied up alongside, minus the helicopter that crashed recently. Still aboard, though, were his minisubs.

    Thursday, I had a lot of the ship to myself, as all the other passengers departed for home and the crew were busy in and around the ship getting ready to sail again Thursday evening. In a matter of just a few hours, the ship's stores are reprovisioned, all collected waste, which is completed separated and processed on board, is removed from the ship to be disposed of in an environmentally-safe manner, and the ship is refueled. Meanwhile, the inside and outside of the ship is scrubbed squeaky clean.

    The new passengers arrived about 4:45 pm and we departed Ushuaia at exactly 6 pm. We left the protection of the Beagle Channel about 10:00 Thursday night and entered the Drake Passage. That night and all of Friday, we had four to five meter swells, but they and the wind were coming at our stern. The MS National Geographic Explorer rode the seas extremely well and it was a comfortable crossing.

    Friday was a full day at sea, but we made excellent time and expect to reach the South Shetland Islands early tomorrow morning, giving us almost a full extra day in Antarctica. There were a lot of opportunities to photograph albatrosses off of the stern today.