At Sea / Drake Passage
Every trip from Ushuaia to the Antarctic peninsula is bound to the rules of geography — leave South America, travel 800 miles across the world’s most infamous body of water and arrive anywhere from 40 to 190-odd hours later (depending on your vessel and the winds) somewhere on or near the Antarctic peninsula. For this voyage we have set a course for a place called Half Moon island but needed to spend all day in transit and will likely spend much of tomorrow at sea as well before arriving at our first anchorage. A passage across the Drake can range from windy, to calm (today was on the calm side) swelly or smooth (ours was on the smooth side) full of life or sparse (ours was definitely on the life side)! Even before breakfast was announced a southern bottlenose whale was briefly spotted from the bridge, an impressively rare sighting for anywhere in the world but especially while cruising 14 knots across the Drake. Moments later a large blow was seen on the horizon inspiring speculation towards one of the larger whales of the world. With luck on our side this mammoth of a creature reared its head mere meters from our port bow revealing the telltale signs of a fin whale — the second largest animal to ever grace this planet.
Of the marine mammals spotted thus far none of them are notorious for long periods of exposure. A fin here, a blow there, but rarely anything worth slowing the ship for. What came next still didn’t slow the ship but only because the pod of hourglass dolphins spotted during lecture time were drawn to our speed and spent a good five minutes riding our wake. Leap after leap they kept our 14-knot pace until fatigue or boredom sent them on their way.
Beyond the large mammals we were of course escorted by countless seabirds including Wandering Albatross, Blue Petrels, Black-browed Albatross and a host of other ocean nomads. This is what the Drake is about, gazing into the grey on blue horizon, getting lost in contemplation at the vastness of it all and then being surprised by the abundance of life that thrives in this seemingly inhospitable place.
