We made it past the Drake! Yay, Yippee!

We woke up in the calmer waters of Cape Horn, which is the very tip of Chile.  It is a beautiful day!  I feel like a new person!  We had to request permission to come in closer so the ship could hug the coast and make it around to the Beagle Channel. The Chilean authorities granted permission, which means the rest of our Journey should be much calmer waters.

Since we changed our route back to avoid rough waters we arrived early, so we are just idling off the coast of Cape Horn.  We said Good-bye to the pilots & helicopters and started heading to Porta Williams for the night.   Based on arrival at Cape Horn, we could have spent more time in the Weddell sea, but the weather is so unpredictable and they certainly wouldn’t want to have a late arrival in Ushuaia.

BBQ on the outside decks for dinner tonight and Farwell cocktails with the captain.

It has been a wonderful trip.  For most passengers this is their second or third trip to Antarctica.  It really was a gamble if we would see Emperor penguins.

Tomorrow we are off the ship early to start our journey home.

Everyone should see Antarctica; it is one of the most beautiful places on Earth!

Ugh the Drake!

Today was a rough day on the Drake.  Cheryl and I mostly stayed in our cabin and watched movies.  We made it out for breakfast and lunch, but that was it for me.  The Drake took me down; I was sick all afternoon.  Sleeping most of the day.

As the day progressed so did the swells…

We were just told that we are not heading straight to Ushuaia– seas are too rough so we are heading to Cape Horn, then we will hug the coast back to Ushuaia.

Daily briefing (last night) 

• on Penguin pooh viscosity (it was a hysterical presentation!)

Casualty Report

• the Drake got me – Ugh I feel horrible.
• but we still have two working iPhones :^)

Final day of landings before heading North

Today we were up and off the ship by 5:30am for our first landing at Whalers Bay on Deception Island, which is an active volcano and an old whaling station.  To this day whales will not enter the bay, very sad.  A few random penguins show up on the beaches (Gentoo and Chinstrap)

Winds and swells caused us to leave Deception Island, we ended up with Plan D this afternoon, – a zodiac landing on Halfmoon Island – where a colony of Chinstrap penguins live.  The water was rough so getting off and on the zodiac was definitely an adventure!

As we started leaving Halfmoon Island, we were escorted by a few Humpback whales, including a mamma and her calf – the captain idled the ship so we could all go outside to take pictures.

This afternoon we started heading North toward Ushuaia.  Our expedition leader let us know that the first day crossing the Drake will be a typical conditions rough but not like we experience on the way to Antarctica.  The second day crossing is supposed to be worse than what we have already experienced.  I’m so excited!

Our expedition leader just provided an update Drakes Passage – “everyone needs to Drake proof your cabin – the ship is definitely going to be moving!  Yikes!

We have thousands of pictures to go through, two days crossing Drakes will give us plenty of time to work on them… as long our motion sickness patches work and we can keep the laptop stable.

We forgot to update you – we are not the only Americans on board – turns out there are six of us.  (A couple from Texas and two women traveling together (Cheryl & Colleen) We’ve been having fun hanging out with Cheryl & Colleen and sharing great travel stories.

OMG!  We just left Halfmoon Island and the swells are already huge, the ship is moving all over the place –this is going to be a long 2 ½ days!  It’s definitely back to one hand for the ship and one hand for you!

Wish us luck crossing Drakes Passage!

Fun Facts: 

• Deception Island is a volcano whose one wall collapsed and filled with sea water, creating what is called a caldera. It looks like the letter C.

Casualty Report:

• had internet issues on Saturday and was not able to send the Saturday blog to our publisher.