Saturday 17 November 2012
Highlights: Rock and rolling of the Drake Passage
Our return to Ushuaia was well underway today. The ‘turbulence’ was also back and quite a few people suffered ill effects despite today being calmer than the first time through the passage. For most of the day we sailed in mist and fog with not much visible. Due to the conditions we couldn’t go out on the decks.
So today turned in a lecture day. The session topics were:
- The Wandering Albatross
- Women in Antarctica
- Profile of Explorers – Nordenskjord (Sweden) and Mawson (Australian)
- Southern Cetaceans
The role of women in Antarctica was really fascinating. Women really weren’t welcome for a very long time. The British in the mid 1980s were the last major country to stop there official ban.
The explorer lecture again gave us an insight into how tough it is to survive in Antarctica and how one small mistake often leads to the death of expedition party members.
Later in the day the fog lifted enough to see some Royal Albatrosses following the ship. The majority of my travelling companions were very tried. This was probably a result of the warm temperature in the ship, no physical activities and the rocking of the ship.
We finished the day with a short briefing on settling our accounts. I added to my account by purchasing two tie-shirts commenting on the Antarctica adventure, hopefully they will survive longer than my Thailand shirt. I also bought a $25 USD raffle ticket for the navigation chart, the money goes to an environment project in South Georgia Island, With luck i will have a super souvenir.
Hard to believe this journey is almost over, tomorrow I’ll probably have to start packing 😦
Nathan's Insights 