Friday, February 7 - Leaving Antarctica

 Today was our last day in Antarctica.  At our final stop for a look around, the weather really improved and at times it was full sun.  Icebergs are beautiful no matter what the weather, but they are spectacular in full sun.  We saw a lot more whales and penguins frolicking around the ship today.  No pictures, unfortunately, because they just move too fast and my phone camera isn't good enough.

I did get this shot though.  Those little dots are penguins.  You might need to click on it to blow it up.  I like how the ones in the front are all moving to the left with their wings out as they waddle along, and the lone little fellow on the right has stopped to look behind him.

We spent the morning up in the Observation Lounge on Deck 12 where you have a full view forward, as did seemingly most of the passengers.  There you can stay inside and see almost everything, or step outside to get a clear view and possibly hear when the humpback whales blow.  It wasn't that cold as we were moving so slowly and there wasn't any natural wind.

Just when I think I've gotten all of the iceberg or mountain photos I can take, something else beautiful comes along.  Here are a few.

Those lateral lines are like tree rings which mark the age of the tree, only here they are snow rings marking the snowfall each year.  

We're rather close again.

And we made it past this big guy with no trouble.  There is an ice pilot on board to assist the regular navigation crew.  He's also a certified ship captain.  

This is an Argentinian research station.  It looks so remote, I can't imagine spending months at a time here.  Apparently, in 1984 a doctor at one of the stations decided he'd had enough and wanted to go home.  But he had signed a contract and they wouldn't let him out of it.  So he set fire to the station.  Everyone survived, but they now make sure that stations have another outbuilding where the researchers can go for shelter in case the main building burns down.  No word on what happened to the doctor.

We saw several of the perfectly cut icebergs around the area today.  This one was measured at 850 meters across and 40 meters deep.

And it was perfectly cut on the other side as well.  We learned that based on measurements of this iceberg, there is enough fresh water in it to supply this ship for 262 years.  Wow.

At midday, it was time to head back to South America.  This has been an amazing few days and I'm so thankful that we had the chance to do this.  At first, we were a bit disappointed that we wouldn't be getting into Zodiacs and really getting up close and personal to the bergs (which we knew before we booked), but it turns out that we don't feel cheated.  At our age, getting as close as we did in comfort was great.  We only saw one other ship while we were here and it looked to be a research ship.  What a fabulous experience.

Captain Ahbi says the forecast for crossing Drakes Passage looks pretty good.  He thinks the 36 hours or so south of the Falklands where it was pretty rough might have been our worst weather.  Fingers crossed again!  He also announced that due to a guest's medical situation on board (not life-threatening, but urgent), we will be going full speed to our next port, Ushuaia, Argentina.  If the weather cooperates, we should be passing Cape Horn in the early afternoon tomorrow, so we may get a chance to see it.  Then we'll be heading into the Beagle Channel for the last bit to Ushuaia where we hope to dock around midnight, about 7-8 hours before originally scheduled.  Must be frightening for the passenger and the medical team onboard!

This afternoon there were 2 talks.  The one on whales was a bit disappointing as I had hoped it would be more about the lives of whales, and it turned out to be more about the efforts to save the whales.  I guess the good news is that some species are coming back since almost everyone has discontinued whaling.  Japan has been playing fast and loose with the agreement, apparently.  They say they are whaling for scientific study - right!  The second lecture was about how Antarctica is "governed" since it isn't owned by anyone.  It's basically a gentlemen's agreement among the interested countries that only research will be conducted here - no military, resource collecting or ownership will be allowed.  It seems to be working.  Too bad we can't have more gentlemen's agreements.

Before dinner, there was a Q&A with the naturalists and Captain Ahbi about our days in Antarctica.  We learned that the ship holds about 2 weeks' worth of fuel, that there is no special equipment on board to look for whales or how much of an iceberg is underwater, and that the captain thinks we came within about 10 meters of that iceberg I showed above.  He said that it was a bit tense during that time, so he asked the naturalist on the bridge who was giving commentary occasionally to stay silent while the iceberg was negotiated.

I think today must have been our longest day. Sunrise was at 4:53 am and sunset is at 9:24 pm.  The farthest south we got on this trip was this morning at just shy of 65 degrees latitude.