Date - 16 November, 2016
Weather - Ushuaia - Cold, overcast - Max 6
Seas - Calm in the Beagle Channel, choppy in open seas
It was the first day of our adventure and it was a good one. We spent the day travelling from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, sight-seeing in Ushuaia and then settling into our ship, "Ocean Endeavour". This will be our home for the next eighteen days as we tour the Sub-Antarctic and the Antarctic regions.
We had an early start as breakfast was in the foyer of our hotel at 5.00am and our bus left for the airport at 6.00am. Everything ran like clockwork throughout the day due to the experienced organisation of the Quark company. As our bags travelled separately we did not have to check them in nor collect them at the airports and we, therefore, moved quickly through the airport procedures. Our bags were waiting for us in our cabin on arrival on the ship.
The chartered plane trip from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia took three and a half hours and it went very quickly for me as the seasickness pill I took earlier made me very sleepy. There was a buzz of excitement as we were close to landing as we had lovely views of high snow-capped mountains surrounding the coastal town of Ushuaia. On arrival at the world's most southerly city our group was quickly escorted off the plane down a flight of stairs, walked across a very cold, windy tarmac and onto waiting buses to take us into very small city of Ushuaia.
We spent four hours in Ushuaia before getting back on the bus to take us to the ship. We could see it very close by in the harbour. Henk and I decided to firstly go to a coffee shop and coincidently we met Georga whom I sat next to on the plane from Auckland to Buenos Aires. We spent a pleasant hour in the warmth chatting. Georga had arrived in Ushuaia the previous day and was heading off to Patagonia.
We were greeted on board by our cabin crew and we handed over our passports in exchange for our boat card which allows us both entry into our cabin and to charge items we buy whilst on board. We were pleased with the deck level and the size of our cabin.
As we left Ushuaia and sailed down the Beagle Channel we met in the Aurora Lounge for afternoon tea and met some of our fellow travellers. There is a good mixture of nationalities and ages on the ship.
Our ship briefing commenced at 5.15pm and lasted an hour. It was all very interesting and included meeting the specialist expedition staff who will be guiding us throughout the voyage. I was particularly interested in the doctor's advice re seasickness and also the forecast for the next few days. It seems we will be fortunate weather-wise as we head east and north east towards the Falkland Islands and the seas should be relatively calm. I wasn't keen to hear that the Drake Passage which we will encounter near the end of our voyage is one of the roughest seas in the world!
We also had our safety drill before dinner and we were all assigned a lifeboat. Each lifeboat takes the surprising number of approximately 70 people. We stood in the very cold weather on the deck below our lifeboat whilst they completed the briefing.
Dinner was a very delicious buffet which we ate sparingly following the doctor's advice. After dinner we had "jobs" to do which entailed the collection of our yellow all-weather coats and Wellington boots and registering for a zodiac group. We get to keep the coats at the end of the voyage.
We have already met some very interesting people en route and on board the ship. Tomorrow will be spent at sea as we make our way to the Falkland Islands.
No comments:
Post a Comment