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Our actual course through Antarctica, starting at the Falkland Islands and ending at Cape Horn
Cruising Antarctica Dec 26 to Dec 31
After leaving The Falkland Islands, we were "at sea" for the next six days. We first had to cross the Drake Passage which traditionally can be very stormy and we had been warned that conditions might be difficult. It was windy, but generally, the passage was very smooth and no one seemed to get seasick, although perhaps those that did stayed in their cabins. We did not!
Our first sighting of an iceberg. We were excited!
We spent Christmas Day on the ship and there were decorations around the ship,
but it was the scenery outside which was the real highlight of the cruise
The pool didn't get a lot of use, but the hot tubs were popular!
People gathered at the front of the ship during the day to watch the scenery
Antarctica is a continent, so most of what you see is snow and ice lying above rock, but icebergs do break off from glaciers and slowly float by.
One day, we saw floating ice and the captain changed our itinerary to avoid running into it.
We saw penguins - sometimes just a few and sometimes a whole colony.
I need a better telephoto lens!
When we weren't on deck, we spent time in our cabin or enjoying afternoon tea in one of the restaurants
But there was always something dramatic to see outside, so we would either watch from our balcony or go on deck
The view from our balcony
Finally and because the weather was getting worse, we left Antarctica a little early and headed back to South America, again crossing the Drake Passage, which was a little rougher this time, but still not as bad as we had feared. The Captain said the weather we had experienced in the Antarctic was the best he had ever seen, so we considered ourselves to be lucky.
We spent New Years Eve cruising and of course, there was a New Year Party and countdown. We stayed until about 12:30 and then retreated to bed.
I seem to remember the clock got stuck at 11:51, but it really didn't matter !
We were supposed to visit Cape Horn and then go into Ushuaia, but we had an unplanned stop in Ushuaia first, to drop of a couple of passengers who were having a medical issue. After a short early morning stop, we headed back to Cape Horn.
Our first unplanned view of Ushuaia. Actually rather pretty with the mountains in the background.
After a quick stop, we headed back out to sea, to Cape Horn.
Even on a good day, which this was, we couldn't get very close, but this is Cape Horn, with the lighthouse on the left and the monument on the right.
This is the albatross monument from the other side - not my photograph, I'm afraid. It was created in 1992 and appears to be rusting
After spending some time at Cape Horn and after technically "roundng the horn" we headed back to Ushuaia for our originally scheduled stop.
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