Antarctica 2010 - Day 12

Still on the Drake Passage. Everything started to change again. We were still being visited by many birds including Petrels, Gulls and Albatros. People were out on deck making the most of the remaining time. We were all aware of the little time left and thoughts were now turning to the rest of the journey home.

On board the staff had arranged some more presentations, one about Shackleton’s journeys and another by the expedition leader about Arctic Spitsbergen which is another destination that the Plancius travels to during the northern hemisphere summertime.

Already people are making plans to visit the north. They’ve been bitten by the Polar bug!

We had our final dinner together and the staff had created a trip log for us with day by day details about the trip as well as photos and maps of our adventure. Many of the passengers had submitted some of their photos and Anjali, one of the expedition staff put together a great slide show. I will put a link to the slide show on the blog next week when I get back to Dublin. It really is worth a look.

Later that evening we arrived at the Beagle Channel ahead of schedule and anchored there waiting for the Pilot to board the ship to guide it into port. The sight of mountains with trees and green grass was strange to see and another reminder that our voyage was coming to an end.

We were not due to anchor back at Ushuaia until 7am tomorrow morning. The pilot will board at 12.30 am and then Plancius will make it’s way up the Beagle Channel overnight. In the meantime we will all make the most of our last night on Plancius.

Remember you can track the voyage by clicking here.