As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, nobody slept well last night. This morning we continue to have large 6-8 meter swells, that’s higher than anything we have seen so far, and 45 kn of wind.
We had breakfast with Adam, the bird naturalist. He has been down here for about 15 seasons and has run diving programs on several trips (our trip does not have a diving program). He was telling us about a season in which he did four trips. On the first trip a 38 year old man with a heart condition died while diving, on the second trip a man fell down the stairs and fractured his skull (he didn’t die) and on the last trip someone committed suicide by jumping off the boat. Surprisingly Adam came back.
Again we had two talks in the morning
1. The history of Ushuaia and Tierra Del Fuego. I started out at the talk but had to leave to come back to our cabin and take a nap.
2. Our expedition leader, Hayley Shepard, attempted to kayak around S. Georgia to raise awareness for the albatross. She showed a documentary entitled Soul of the Sea about her trip. It was very moving and I recommend you try to watch it.
During the lectures the waves were up to the windows on the third deck. Just to give you a sense of how high that is, the portholes in the cabins on the second deck are above the water line.
In the afternoon the doctor on the ship gave a talk on how to live until you are 100. The basic message was be mindful and avoid stress. Then we had a meeting about disembarking. During the meeting we entered the beagle channel and a pilot came aboard to guide us to the dock.
That night there was a captain’s reception with champagne and a special dinner. It was bittersweet because we have made many friends on our trip.
We spent the night tied up to the dock. No more rocking and rolling.
Here’s the finally map of our trip.
