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.