South Shet­land Islands to Ushua­ia – March 15-18, 2017

Wed
15 Mar
2017

Even 32 days in Ant­ar­c­ti­ca will final­ly come to an end. The South Shet­land Islands are the last stop of our Ant­ar­c­tic Odys­sey, befo­re we set cour­se nor­thwards, to more civi­li­zed lati­tu­des. We do not have too much time left, but enough for an ear­ly mor­ning landing. The wea­ther is on our side, which is good for a visit to a small island on the edge of the Dra­ke-Pas­sa­ge.

At least in com­pa­ri­son, it seems to be a tro­pi­cal rain forest. Well, almost. The­re are some green patches, some­thing we have not seen in a while. With the Chin­strap pen­gu­ins, we can add yet ano­ther spe­ci­es to our spe­ci­es list, which is alre­a­dy quite impres­si­ve.

Then back to the open sea. A good two days across the Dra­ke-Pas­sa­ge until we have rea­ched sou­thern­most South Ame­ri­ca. We pass Cape Hoorn in distance and dark­ness wit­hout taking too much noti­ce of it, befo­re we approach the Bea­gle-Chan­nel in the com­pa­ny of dol­phins. Then it is time to say good­bye to our good heli­c­op­ter crew, pilots and mecha­nics, six of them in total, who take off in their birds and quick­ly dis­ap­pear in the distance, not wit­hout a fine fare­well to Ort­eli­us.

Gal­lery – South Shet­land Islands to Ushua­ia – March 15-18, 2017

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

And while we are at it, we keep say­ing good­bye to many good peo­p­le the next day in the mor­ning. The very last day of a voya­ge is never a high­light, and port days are always very busy. But on the other side … if it is hard to lea­ve a trip and asso­cia­ted peo­p­le behind, then I guess it must have been pret­ty good 🙂

Too few short hours later, we are on our way again. Has­ta la vis­ta, Ant­ark­tis!