Ushuaia, the Explorer, and THE DRAKE

Day 3: December 11, 2008, Santiago-Ushuaia

It was a long day. Our 4:45 am wake-up call happened at 4:00 am instead. Our bus departed the hotel for the airport at 5:30 am. As much as I was really impressed with the city of Santiago, I was feeling anxious to get to Ushuaia, away from civilization, and onto the ship. I could barely keep my eyes open on the flight. The five hours of sleep the previous night (and virtually none the night before that), together with the time change, still left me very tired.

Flying into Ushuaia was beautiful. The dramatic rise of the mountains reminded me very much of the eastern Sierra, but with much different vegetation and not quite so arid. The “international” airport looked more like a rustic ski lodge. As we waited to pass through Argentinian immigration, we stood near the group of travelers who had just come off our ship and were headed back to Santiago. I searched their faces for any indication of what was to come. They all seemed happy and in good spirits. I took that as a good sign.

I got to feed my love for trees for a short while in the afternoon. There are three species of beech (Northofagus for my fellow plant geeks) between sea level and 600 m along the coastline near Ushuaia. Two are deciduous and one is evergreen. They form these really beautiful forests that almost seem like dwarf forests as the canopy trees aren’t that tall. At the end of this tour through the forest, which terminated at the very end of the Pan-American highway, we boarded a catamaran that took us back to Ushuaia via some gorgeous scenery and our first encounter with wildlife.

The ship. I was giddy as we boarded the ship. After finding our room, we couldn’t contain our curiosity and went on an exploration of the various public spaces on the ship: the restaurant & bistro, the lounge (and more importantly, the bar!), the chart room (with coffee and tea available all day long – quickly became my favorite room), the spa and exercise room, and the observation lounge and library, on the very top deck of the ship. As this is a newly refurbished vessel, everything is modern, and the attention to detail is striking. After some orientation-type activities and a very nice dinner (my first real meal in several days, it seemed), I was happy to turn in early for a full night of sleep.

Day 4: December 12, 2008 – The Drake Passage

My full night of sleep was interrupted after two hours. I woke to ever-increasing rocking and rolling motions. At first the ship rocked mostly side to side, but then it started to move forward and aft as well, so that it was difficult to anticipate which way the ship would move next. At times the motion threatened to pull me right out of bed. Although I wasn’t able to sleep, I was surprised that I didn’t feel sick. Instead, it was sort of like a gentle roller coaster ride. After being up for several hours, I did finally fall back asleep, lulled by the now-familiar feeling of motion.

I’m sitting in the lounge this morning watching the open ocean. Some of the swells are large – I’m guessing 20 feet high – and there are albatrosses and petrels escorting us on our journey. I went to the chart room earlier, which is near the bow of the ship, to watch the waves, and realized that it’s much better to be on the stern end. It also feels a lot better to be horizontal than sitting or standing. Dad’s already been sick once this morning and is back in bed. The public areas of the ship are empty – few people were at breakfast, and even fewer were eating. Only a handful are sitting in the lounge with me. My guess is that most are riding this out in bed. The wind is supposed to abate throughout the day. One of the staff I talked to this morning said this is the second roughest crossing he’s done out of nine.

Later that day…

We learned a little while ago from our captain that we’re making good progress across the Drake (although on a personal level, it feels like I’m regressing!), and that given the weather conditions in Antarctica, we are going to continue sailing south beyond the Antarctic Circle to Marguerite Bay, on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. While crossing the Antarctic Circle will fulfill one of my dreams for this journey, the thought of another day at sea like this makes my stomach churn. We are also getting to the point of continual daylight. For example, by tomorrow night there will be only 3.5 hours without the sun in the sky. One of these nights when I feel better, I will stay up late or rise early to experience day during night.

(I think I'm not going to post pictures at this point. Internet is very slow and we only have a certain number of minutes to use. If I have some extra minutes later on in the trip, I'll post some pics...or it'll have to happen all at the end.)