The wonderful birds of the Southern Ocean. We never tired of watching them flying by the ship.
We have been so lucky this far to have had a pretty smooth crossing of the Drake Passage. We sat by a portside window at breakfast and saw a Wandering Albatross! We were thrilled, as this was the one we really wanted to see. Back out on deck, there were so many birds and it was wonderful to watch them flying really close to the ship and swooping low over the sea. It started to rain and I went in to Victoria's lecture on the Antarctic Treaty. I fell asleep once or twice. We went outside again and sat on the aft deck in glorious sunshine with Foster, Jane, Peter, Pauline, Jackie and Mansell, like a group of pensioners at the seaside.
Once again, we saw great birds, including the Southern Giant Petrel White Morph, which is rare. I took this picture of it.
The expedition crew all came out on deck for a group photo and there was a lot of fun and games. It was like the end of term.
The Drake Passage, as calm as a mill pond!!
Entering the Beagle Channel at the end of our incredibly smooth crossing of the Drake Passage.
Later, the Captain came out on deck for a chat and said he was really pleased with the way the journey had gone. We had lunch with John and Marty and then went to our suite to pack. At the briefing, we saw many of Val the photographer's photos of the trip. We went to the bar with many of the others, then ate with Pauline, Peter, Mary and Steve.
The end of the voyage in sight; the mountains behind Ushuaia.
We were met in the Channel by a pilot boat and it was fun to watch as he guided us towards Ushuaia, arriving at the dock at about 9.30pm.
It looked very busy in the port and we even saw a submarine moored in front of a cruise liner.
We finished our packing, then headed into the town with Pauline and Peter at 11 o'clock to look around. We found the Lennox Hotel, where Tim and I would be staying for the next 2 nights. It looked OK and we found we could check in tomorrow at 12.30. We shall leave the ship at 9.30am. It is going to be very sad saying goodbye to everyone.
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