Drake Passage Northbound

The expectations set by the crew were for a moderate crossing of the Drake passage. It started out quite nice, with gently rolling seas and a bit of a tailwind.

Some staff members considered our crossing the Drake “Lake”, others thought it was only close to a “Lake” crossing. It was very pleasant, easy to walk around outside. On the morning of the 5th around 10 am we got a little snow, the only snow I saw fall on the trip.

Lots of seabird sightings and pictures on the 5th. I spent nearly four hours out looking for seabirds and whales and got rewarded on the seabirds. I didn’t see a whale.

I saw two wandering albatross on the southbound passage, but didn’t have my good camera with me to get a photo. Those sightings were very short, 15-20 seconds before the bird flew off. This one stayed within photo range for nearly a minute. It even landed and grabbed some food. Not too many folks put the effort in to see these rare huge birds with wingspans of 10-12 feet.

The Black-browed albatross was much more common. It is smaller, but still soars effortlessly like the wandering albatross.

The other large bird that is somewhat common is the giant petrel. On the Drake passage, I saw mostly the northern giant petrel, which has a red beak tip vs. the southern giant petrel which has a greenish beak tip that we saw in Antarctica.

A nice sunset on the 5th and Donna got to see the Green Flash that can happen at sunset.

The morning of the 6th, we got a surprise, a bright sunny morning look at Cape Horn. We had made the crossing faster than needed and had time for the detour.

We arrived in Ushuaia around 5:30 pm during the captain’s reception and dinner. There was a little time to get off the ship and walk around Ushuaia after dinner.