Buenos Aires and end of the line

The seas have smoothed out as we near Buenos Aires and we are enjoying our last full day aboard ship. I gave my final presentation about Henry Bowers and we celebrated with an eight-lap walk around the promenade deck (2 miles). The temps are definitely balmy, we were able to sit out in the sun by the pool. Very nice. I am disappointed this blog was not able to get the several pictures I took. The satellite link to the internet was extremely unreliable, extremely slow and extremely frustrating. I continued to take many photos but was unable to upload them once we left Chile. Even now, the link is not as reliable as I think it should be. Too bad. So please contact me by email if you would like to see some of the photos from the trip. This will be my last posting as we will be touring Buenos Aires tomorrow and then straight to the airport for our night flight back to the states. I have enjoyed this experiment with blogging, even though it came up very short of my expectations of it. Thank you for following along.

At Sea

We are on the first of two days at sea as we cruise northwards to Buenos Aires. The rocking and rolling is still there, storm systems have apparently been piling up here in the far south Atlantic and made the Drake Passage as well as the waters north of the Falklands difficult. But we are making good speed. I give one of my last talks today and then will participate in a question/answer session along with the captain, the ice captain and the two other expedition lecturers. Then it is time to start packing up everything and making plans to get home. I am pretty homesick at this point and looking forward to seeing my wife and children again.

Falkland Islands

We arrived last night and tried to get ashore this morning, but the waves and swells made it extremely difficult for the tenders to maneuver. The ship is too large to get into the inner harbor of Stanley, so must moor out in the outer channel. We did manage to get in, toured the town, bought lots of souvinirs, saw the museum, ate some fish and chips. Getting back to the ship was touch and go as well, but we made it. Still no luck in trying to get photos uploaded from this far south. Will have to wait.

On Our Way to the Falkland Islands

Went by Deception Island, poked into Admiralty Bay on King George Island but then turned north to the Falkland Islands. We raced an open area of weather, between several storm systems that are stacking up in the southern ocean. The weather has been pretty tough and the satellite internet connections spotty at best. As a result, I have been unable to sometimes even connect, let alone upload photos. Hopefully, I will be able to get some photos up on this blog once we get to the Falkland Islands.

Antarctic Peninsula Cruising

We cruised through de Gerlache Strait with limited visibility but was still able to see some penguins swimming, whales blowing and seabirds circling the ship. I spent most of the day on the bridge helping with commentary, although conditions were difficult at best. At least two inches of wet snow fell on the ship as we cruised by Anvers Island the site of Palmer Station, where we will visit hopefully tomorrow morning.

Drake Passage

When Sir Francis Drake sailed the Golden Hind through the Strait of Magellan in 1578, it took him 18 days to transit. Upon reaching the Pacific Ocean, however, he was driven by a ferocious storm many miles southwards into open water. Drake concluded that Terra Australis, the mythical continent Greeks reasoned existed to balance the weight of the land masses of the northern hemisphere was not in the area. The open waterway along the 60° South Latitude between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula now bears his name, the Drake Passage. Some pretty good swells make walking around ship somewhat entertaining as everyone is trying to get their “sea legs”. I presented a talk on the history of US involvement in the Antarctic after a talk on the Antarctic Treaty. Once again, there were good questions and a good crowd.

Ushuaia, Argentina

Ushuaia means “bay that is open to the west” and is considered by many to be the southern most city in the world. The Argentines refer to it as FIN DEL MUNDO or End of the World. It is located on the north shore of the Beagle Channel, made famous by Charles Darwin’s voyage of the Beagle. Originally a Feugian Indian fishing settlement, Ushuaia became a British Missionary Society outpost in 1869.  The Argentine Navy founded it as a township in 1884 to enforce its territorial claim over Tierra del Feugo and built an escape-proof prison there in 1902 that closed in 1947. Population is about 60,000 and by the 1980s had become the administrative capital of the province as well as a tourism center for southern South America and the Antarctic tourist trade.  We planned to spend the day there but terrific winds made maneuverability difficult so the ship tried tendering, but dragged her anchors. As a result the Argentine Coast Guard waved us off and we were unable to land. We spent the rest of the day cruising the Beagle Channel, which is very picturesque. I also made my first presentation to the passengers. My talk was on the history of Cape Horn. They were a great crowd and asked good questions.

Straits of Magellan

We departed Punta Arenas around 8pm and discovered that our luggage had indeed arrived in time! It was nice to step out of the clothes I had been wearing for about three days. I met the ship’s cruise director and event coordinator and we set up a schedule for some of my talks. My first one will be tomorrow and will be about Cape Horn, which is timely since we will be in Ushuaia later that day and then the Horn the following day. The Prinsendam is a wonderful ship of about 800 passengers. The stage/lecture site will hold about 350 or so passengers. I have met many wonderful passengers and crew and am psyched about my upcoming talk. When we departed Punta Arenas, the weather turned cloudy and stormy as we headed west into the Strait of Magellan. The sunset was very pretty, there was even a rainbow and then the clouds closed in. I had hoped to see the Southern Cross constellation after dark but it will have to be another night. With the arrival of the luggage, however, everything is now going smoothly and the adventure feels like it has truly begun!

On Board the Ship!

We transferred from the Cabo de Hornos Hotel in Punta Arenas to the Holland America ship Prinsendam. I will have more about her in another post. She was tied at the dock but has since been moved and moored out in the bay, an act they call tendering. Now, if we want to go ashore, we have to take tenders from the ship. Still no trace of our luggage, although have everyone working on it. Cool and windy, the wind off the water is quite chilly. Have not yet met the event coordinator or cruise director to get information about my talks, thank goodness I had my laptop with me as the thumbdrive and hard copy CD of my talks were in my lost luggage. Got ensconced in our room, purchased an internet card and explored the ship. Now I am in search of toiletries and some clothes to augment the little I had with my carry-on. But we are aboard and on we go!

Punta Arenas, Chile

Well we finally made it after a long series of flights. But our luggage did not arrive with us. We hope it catches up to us at some point. Punta Arenas is “Sandy Point” and is considered the main port of the Strait of Magelllan. Founded in 1849, the city replaced the Chilean Fort Bulnes, a timber stockade built in 1844 to enforce Chilean claims to the region. Coaling and provisioning ships through the straits was the principle business until later eclipsed by Panama Canal traffic. It has a population of 120,000, a large main square (Plaza de Armas) with the Ferdinand Magellan monument statue flanked by recumbent Indians. One toe is polished smooth. I guess local folklore suggests that you should kiss the toe to ensure a safe passage on your sea voyage.

Itinerary Set - Good to Go

We have received our travel information and now have our itinerary set. Bangor to Philadelphia to Miami to Santiago to Punta Arenas. Once we get to southern Chile, we are booked for an overnight at the Cabo de Hornos Hotel and so will have the afternoon and evening in town to tour around. Bags are packed, last minute details are being taken care of and I have officially started counting down the hours to our departure!

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my first ever blog! I am learning how to do this as I go, so please bear with me. Enough people have asked me to set one up for my upcoming trip to the Antarctic Peninsula and so I will try. I will be a guest lecturer for Holland America aboard the Prinsendam ship. We will embark at Punta Arenas in southern Chile on January 30 and disembark at Buenos Aires, Argentina on February 10. My goal with this blog is submit a daily (or two) entry about what is going on and the places we visit. These entries will also hopefully include images from a new digital camera, so we'll see how this all works out. Please follow along and contact me if you have any questions or comments. Thanks and welcome aboard!