By now we were through the worst of the Drake Passage, expecting to get into Ushuaia by midnight tonight. The Beagle channel is very calm, and would be the last 4ish hours of the journey. I was still a bit swimmy but feeling a lot better. Today would be our last day on board, and there were a lot of sessions to attend!
After breakfast buffet in Aune, we got stuck into packing. I generally have the easier time of it as Dan carried the bulk of the technology (cables etc) and these always get out of whack when we unpack. I found holding my head down to pack made me feel every wave, so I had to stop periodically to lie down.
Full disclosure: the room we chose was magnificent. Our suite had the best view of the whole ship. To get the best view, we had to be at the front. We were even further forward than the bridge. This meant that the motion of the ship was extra pronounced. When Dan got me a seasick tablet at one point, the lady at reception, upon taking his room number, said “ah I would be having one too in that room!”. I think for future trips somewhere near the middle would be better considered, but hell the view was magnificent through the calm Antarctic waters!
At 11am, our humpback whales group was given the opportunity to visit the bridge. Dan and I left a few minutes early and, maskedup, we managed to join the end of the queue and walk straight in. The first mate was at the wheel, and the lady captain gave us a rundown of the various screens. No wheel at all, just a tiny joystick. Few buttons - everything is touch screen. When asked if the power went down did they resort to paper maps she replied no, there’s electricity backup! It is all digital now.
One interesting screen showed where the ship had been - as the Antarctic waters are still relatively unexplored many ships share and collaborate with their own charts through the Drake Passage. This contributes to building a bigger data picture. On both edges the floor was glass - this was so the ship could be navigated against a wharf and could be looked down upon.
Straight after the bridge visit was a science and animal recap. I can’t remember all the stats (we will be supplied all this information in a few weeks time!) but we saw an inordinate amount of humpbacks, about 21 different species of birds, and we learnt that Dougie was “furious” that he missed out on seeing the orcas! The Citizen Science experiments were recapped, including how many birds at various times, how many whales, levels of phytoplankton (microscopic sea plants that is eaten by krill which, if not kept under control, could become invasive), clouds and much more. Fascinating!
The menu for Lindstrom didn’t appeal so we went to the buffet. We ran into a/Prof Anne and I chatted with her about my seasickness. As she researches tourism to Antarctica she was interested in - essentially - how much I was willing to suffer to see it!
More packing, then to level 10 to see the scientists elevator pitches - each of the main scientists on board (many of the expedition leaders) also have outside research they are conducting. Heidi and Marianne had saved us a seat and we caught the end of the towel folding session (which actually
Looked fun! Sad we missed it) and when it hit 3pm, the ladies and Dan went to the other side of the ship to get some afternoon tea cake. I tried my best to fend people off our group of seats, and one lady got quite bitchy with me for saving so many.
The research included :
- Helene as we already knew was obsessed with seaweed, and had even compiled a book of seaweeds in South America
- Miguel onboard was known as the bird guy, but outside he has researched everything from elephants to his most recent, the correlation between weaver ants and bee populations/ pollinating (weaver ants seem to eat bees, which means generally less pollinating)
- Mexican Miguel, as he said “During covid we had two options. Stay at home and cry, or find something to research.” He spent much of covid collating tonnes and tonnes of data into a spacialgram that he said himself is too complicated for him yo datamine, so also worked on the dna patterns of fish and various parasites
- Dougie onboard was a whale guy, but outside he was relatively new to the academic world having done his masters during covid. His main research had been on invasive crayfish in the uk and the best traps for catching them. This resonated with me as this had been an issue PIRSA dealt with in SA.
- Laura, the “ice girl”, who had researched glaciers and ice lakes in Greenland
It was really cool hearing all their passions and explaining the why behind their sliver of research!
More packing, then returned for the activity recap. Even tho we didn’t end up doing any of the optional activities (having opted not to do the kayaking in the end), it was still interesting. Apparently the highest number of kayaking groups to date (8) because the weather had been so spectacular. The groups in many instances even went to places the leaders had never been due to the glorious weather and no issues with wind!
At 5:30pm was the Captains Farewell and we held the fort this time while Heidi and Marianne went back to their rooms. It was extra hard fending people away, almost the whole ship turned out for this one! We got our glass of champagne and the captain recapped what we had gone through and thanked everyone for their patience with our double take start and that the injured passenger is successfully healing from surgery. Our captain said he was looking forward to a cold beer - he was also going home for a time after this voyage! After a quick SKÖL, he passed the microphone to Tousten who introduced the entirety of the crew. We gave them a standing ovation as all 100+ walked past. I don’t think I’ve mentioned but many of our waiters in the restaurants also doubled as expedition crew, helping us in and out of boats and the like! It was amazing.
Tim the photographer had put together his photos and videos on board. As Tousten said,
“If this doesn’t win an Oscar for best documentary in 2023, they lack vision!”
It brought tears it was so beautiful and also a wonderful memory recap. Tim had also captured some funny/gross animal moments that made everyone laugh. We will get a copy of this in a few weeks too!
Following the recap, The Rolling Waved took to the stage! One of the officers on lead guitar, there were a couple of bass players, drummers and keyboardists - including our sommelier! The first couple of singers were a bit off key and we clapping politely but the third and only female singer took to the stage like she was meant for it! She had a great voice and great charisma and managed to get almost everyone up dancing to Dancing Queen! Had a wiggle with Helene.
We had to finish our packing and have it by the elevator before 9pm, however we were scheduled for 7:45 dinner. We had shared details with Heidi and Marianne earlier that day and at 7:40 received a message to say they have a big table in the restaurant if we wanted to join them. We had lost track of the time (drinking a vino and eating yesterdays chocolates …!) that we quickly grabbed our bags, literally dragged them to the lift (only two others were there already…I always been uncomfortable leaving my bags for cruises but one just has to trust nothing will happen to them).
Dinner was lovely and we toasted our good times with Heidi and Marianne. It was very warm at the table, so we had to close the blinds - there wasn’t much to see outside anyway! I had the king crab, we all were a lamb with blue cheese sauce appreciation society, and I ended on the raspberry and jelly soup which was a touch odd. It was so warm our petit fours were melting! We drank plenty of red wine!
We caught the very end of Anne and Hanne’s research talk at 9pm, and ducked out briefly for some fresh air. I ran into Helene and fumbled my way through a thank you for everything. Outside it wasn’t even cold, but we didn’t want to miss the expedition teams sea shanty so we returned to deck 10. The only seats left were right at the front. Tousten did another amazing recap of the tour, highlighting the unimaginably good weather and shared photos and footage of behind the scenes with the expedition team. Expedition crew Paul led the sea shanty - and hell he could sing! The words were on the screen (Nelson’s Blood- Roll the ol’ chariot along) and we all sang along - a wonderfully fitting end to our last night on board.
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