At Sea / East Coast of Argentina
Southbound we continue. Settling in for a day at sea the day’s motive, despite our progress, seemed to be sabotage. With a packed bridge on the lookout for anything warranting an abrupt course change all eyes were searching for something out of the ordinary - something that would encourage the captain to slow down or stop. Of course the irony is that everything is out of the ordinary in this part of the world. By the time I reached the bridge at 07:30 this morning there was already a sightings list 10 strong. While sea birds like the black-browed albatross and white-chinned petrels dominated the skies (with sightings in the hundreds) an early encounter with dozens of dusky dolphins helped us cross the avian divide. While their time with us was too short to warrant a stop the overall sightings were only getting started. By 8am there were already dozens of Magellanic penguins seen bobbing on the surface, by 08:25 our first Wilson’s storm petrel only to be followed by a northern royal albatross at 09:01. Things were really warming up and it wasn’t even lunch time.
The day’s course took us as far as 75 miles off the eastern shore of Argentina along a part of the coast called the “bulge.” We spent most of the day north of Patagonia proper between 38 and 40 degrees south latitude. But by the time the sun began to set in the direction of tomorrow’s adventures we crossed that historical divide, that invisible point (at least while off shore) separating northern Argentina from that mythical land called Patagonia. While on the mainland Patagonia is bounded by the Rio Colorado to the north and the Straits of Magellan to the south. Out here, at sea, however, the frontier was marked by our first South American tern sighting and a calming sea. While not necessarily expected, the calm conditions were a pleasant introduction to this part of our expedition. Welcome to Patagonia!
