Early in the morning on New Year’s Eve 2011, we happily left Buenos Aires, flying South on Aerolinas Argentinas to the “southernmost city in the world”. \u00a0Ushuaia. \u00a0Capitol of Tierra del Fuego, South America. \u00a0As we boarded the B737, Winnie presented the lead flight attendant with her card, identifying her as a Delta Airlines captain, and then we proceeded to our seats. \u00a0About 2 South American minutes later a very nice (and very young) Captain came back,\u00a0apologized\u00a0that first class was full, but assured us that next time we met, he’d again try to upgrade us.<\/p>\n

Two and a half hours passes a Lot faster when you’re excited and anticipating the commencement of your next big adventure. \u00a0The aircraft descended VFR between the mountains of the southern end of the Andes, lower, and lower… until<\/p>\n

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Ushuaia Airport, Fin del Mundo<\/h3>\n
we completely ran out of land. \u00a0WELCOME TO FIN DEL MUNDO came over the p.a. system in 4 languages.<\/p>\n
Ushuaia, Argentina
\nThere’s very little business in Ushuaia that isn’t related to tourism. \u00a0It’s a good looking little town that reminded me of many of the small towns in Southeastern AK.<\/p>\n
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Lupines<\/h3>\n
Lupines are the native flower, and grow wildly anywhere they can find a few inches of dirt.<\/p>\n
We endured an endless briefing at our hotel about our impending morning expedition. \u00a0They were mentioning some stuff that we’d need to know on board over the next two weeks. \u00a0I think that Winnie was listening. \u00a0Or something. \u00a0I just wanted to get down to the docks and check things out for tomorrow’s sailing. \u00a0I wanted to be first in line!<\/p>\n
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Yea! \u00a0A “Welcome to Ushuaia Port” sign with “Puerto Y Puerta a la Antartida” on it. \u00a0We’re getting warm! \u00a0And<\/u>\u00a0it seemed to be less than a meter from the “U R Here” (Ushuaia) arrow, across the Drake Passage to the Antarctic Peninsula. \u00a0Heck, we’ll be there in no time. \u00a0What could Possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n
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Okay, Winnie, we go this way tomorrow. \u00a0I got a grip on things. \u00a0I am in control. \u00a0(Oh wait, that’s been said before, I think.. so.. well, uh, nevermind. \u00a0I never liked that sumbitch anyways.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Then\u00a0I noticed this sign, indicating a little, teeny, tiny, itty bitty hint of the spirit of cooperation between Argentina and Great Britain… :<\/div>\n
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Check out the last paragraph. \u00a0More about that later. \u00a0But, hey, the sign was old and I was pretty sure that they’d probably worked everything out by now.<\/div>\n
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So again, nothing’s going to rain on our parade. \u00a0Train’s on track, full head of steam, and then we met:<\/div>\n
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The Captain of the Sea Spirit<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Captain Fran Cisco Schittino. \u00a0Nyaah, not really. \u00a0This was just some guy I met in this dark, quaint, Argentine bar. \u00a0I left after one drink. \u00a0His personality had a kind of woodenness to it that made conversation a bit awkward.<\/div>\n
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Paraphrasing Snoopy the author… “It was a dark and sleepless night…” <\/i>\u00a0but FINALLY it was sailing day! \u00a0The Expedition was going to begin! \u00a0(I did Snoopy’s happy dance.) \u00a0Winnie and I raced down the dock to…<\/div>\n
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You can see a small Customs and Immigration station in the background. \u00a0It has a gate that swings up and down. \u00a0And a very\u00a0important uniformed officer in charge who operates the gate.<\/div>\n
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Us: \u00a0“Sir, do we need to come through here to get to the Sea Spirit?<\/i><\/div>\n
OIC: \u00a0“Nah, mate, I think the gate over there is still open. \u00a0Just go through there and ‘ang a right. then a left.”<\/div>\n
Me: \u00a0“I’m good with that. \u00a0Buh-bye.”<\/div>\n
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And then we come upon our home for the next two weeks. \u00a0The Sea Spirit.<\/i><\/div>\n
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The Sea Spirit<\/h3>\n
The first order of business: \u00a0setting sail. \u00a0Or whatever you call it for a motoring vessel. \u00a0Winnie’s the boat person, not me.<\/div>\n
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18:00 – Cast off<\/div>\n
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18:30 – Mandatory Lifeboat drill. \u00a0I think that they do that on all the better cruise lines. \u00a0Like Costa, for example.<\/div>\n
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Luckily, we were able to find our life vests (very important, in the -1C water, it helps the Coast Guard find you and save you… if it’s say… oh, I donno… LESS THAN 3 FREAKING MINUTES!) and don them correctly… and find our life boat. \u00a0I think that if it were obviously going to be more than three minutes, I probably wouldn’t don my “life” vest. \u00a0Pardon the expression. \u00a0I think that I’d rather just make my own personal contribution to the food chain. \u00a0Does your next of kin get carbon credits for that, or just your Senator?<\/div>\n
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19:00 – Dinner in the restaurant on deck 2. \u00a0Little did I suspect that this would mark the beginning of the road on my long, long, trek to the Betty Ford Food Clinic after my return home, and the embarrassing, but absolutely necessary first step… I am so afraid… \u00a0“Hello folks. \u00a0I’m one of Bill’s friends. \u00a0And I’m a foodaholic.”<\/div>\n
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20:30 – Parka and boot distribution.<\/div>\n
We got some bright yellow parkas, with fleece zip-ins (from my favorite outfitter, Columbia), and lined up for gum-boots. \u00a0Why boots? \u00a0Well, statistics show (and, mainly, cruise line income shows) that if you wear your own boots through all that pink penguin poop… no matter how much you try to clean them… if<\/u> you pack them up to take them back home.. bottom line… everything in that particular suitcase is going to smell like penguin shit for the rest of its life. \u00a0And that’s no… well, you get the point. \u00a0The good news: \u00a0those gum-boots were Really comfortable, warm, and dry. \u00a0And very light-weight. \u00a0No need for two pairs of socks until the temps drop to around -15C. \u00a0Or so. \u00a0Love those boots. \u00a0I’m going to buy some for WA state.<\/div>\n
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After, supper, it’s good bye Argentina. \u00a0We’re finally heading South on our expedition. \u00a0The excitement is still high, but there’s maybe a teeny bit of trepidation, too. \u00a0Where we’re heading is a helluva long way from home. \u00a0Or anywhere else, for that matter. \u00a0If we don’t got it now, there ain’t no convenience stores for the next two weeks.<\/div>\n
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Finally, heading down the Beagle Channel, sailing in the last calm waters for a bit. \u00a0We spent the last hour of our evening securing everything in our cabins in case of heavy seas in the Drake Passage tonight. \u00a0Locked down tight. \u00a0What could possibly go wrong?<\/div>\n
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The last mountain coming out of Beagle, at the end of the world. \u00a0Time for bed? \u00a0Yep. \u00a0One scotch (open free bar, whole trip) and head for the rack. \u00a0I closed my eyes and thought of the fun rides to come on the Zodiacs strapped onto the back of our ship… and the crew’s admonition that “all landings will be wet landings”. \u00a0Can hardly wait.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Next: The Drake Passage<\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday, January 27, 2012 Fin del Mundo Early in the morning on New Year’s Eve 2011, we happily left Buenos Aires, flying South on Aerolinas Argentinas to the “southernmost city in the world”. \u00a0Ushuaia. \u00a0Capitol of Tierra del Fuego, South America. \u00a0As we boarded the B737, Winnie presented the lead flight attendant with her card, … <\/p>\n
Read more “ANTARCTICA – FIN DEL MUNDO”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,8,9],"tags":[96,95,94],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6836"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6836"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6882,"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6836\/revisions\/6882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}