• RME Gear & Apparel

Antarctica Part One, landscapes.

Houndoc

Houndoc

Registered User
Location
Grantsville
My wife and I finally made a twice-delayed (COVID) expedition to Antarctica. Sailed out of Ushuaia, Argentina. Furthest point south was roughly 930 miles south of there (1300 miles from the south pole.)

An amazing trip, very hard to describe what that part of the world is really like. Will have to let photos do the talking for me (will do different threass to show different aspects of the trip over the coming days.)

For those familiar at all with sailing that part of the world, the Drake Passage has a well earned reputation for rough seas. On the way down we face 80 mph winds, resulting in waves of up to 70 feet (in the way we would think of a wave- a wall of water in front of you. 11 meters in official ocean measurements). And they considered this a 6 of 10 on conditions the Drake can be. The return felt relatively comfortable in 30-40 foot waves.

Enjoyed beautiful later summer weather of highs on the low 30s.

DSC_0021.JPGDSC_0087.JPGDSC_0096.JPG
 
P

Pile of parts

Well-Known Member
Location
South Jordan
What do 70 foot waves feel like on a ship like that?

I spent a couple of years in Southern Argentina. Never made it to Ushuaia, but pretty close. Always wanted to and would love to go back.
 
Houndoc

Houndoc

Registered User
Location
Grantsville
Mouse said:
How busy was the expedition - were there a lot of people on the ship?
Click to expand...

14 days, 120 passengers plus about 70 crew/staff. It was one of the smaller ships out there (we saw a few others in port and as we worked our way back north- it was very cool to go about a week and not see a single other human outside our own group when we where further south.)

Pile of parts said:
What do 70 foot waves feel like on a ship like that?

I spent a couple of years in Southern Argentina. Never made it to Ushuaia, but pretty close. Always wanted to and would love to go back.
Click to expand...
It is a little rough, to say the least. You basically lay in bed in your cabin and try not to fall (at times took some bracing not to get rolled out of bed). Luckily had a large window in our cabin so could still watch outside. We were on deck 4 and would often have the entire window blocked out with water. Meals etc cancelled (although the 30 footers didn't stop meals, dancing etc). Moving around for trips to the bathroom would involving timing your movements with the direction the ship was leaning. The ship takes a heck of a beating. Glad it was built for those conditions.

Ushuaia was beautiful. Reminds me a lot of Juneau. We did get to spend one day in Tierra del Fuego National Park as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top