Casting off across the Drake Passage - to beyond the end of the world!!!

Being ushered on board....
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The amazingly warm and sunny weather – unprecedented, we were told, for early spring! – had really made our day out in the Tierra Del Fuego National Park. So after getting what we thought might be necessary supplies – a couple of bottles of wine and some bananas in my case! – we all met on the quayside to go through customs and were then ushered aboard and checked in– and it was STILL really sunny, nearly hot! Even though it was six o’ clock in the evening! On board the cabin arrangements had changed and I was not sharing with Jen and Mel, I was put in with Margarita. She’s from Columbia originally, but now living in the U.S. and was doing this trip to fulfill a dream of her husbands, who sadly had died earlier in the year. She turned out to be a great character and fun to share with, almost more talkative than me, would you believe!

Me on deck in a sleeveless tee shirt - in the sunshine!!
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Then we all went onto the top deck to watch Ushuaia disappear into the warm evening light (sunset comes later here, even in spring) I was in a sleeveless tee shirt! Then I went below to make a quick more up market change to go to the ‘Welcome Cocktails with the Captain’. There was champagne (I could start getting used to that!) and introductions to the crew and the Captain, who were Russian, by the expedition staff who were from US, UK, and Australia. Cara was our expedition leader and it was obvious from the beginning that the standard of customer care was going to be very high indeed! As was the standard of the food!! Beautifully presented, fantastic variety, the first dinner was fabulous – with a little Quark chocolate adorning the dessert! – LOADS of choice for vegetarians so there’ll be no need for any other provisions on THIS trip!

The famous Drake Passage - at its calmest!!
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Bedtime arrived before we got out into the Drake Passage, and I wonder now if the full on day in the National Park is a way of making sure everyone is going to be sleepy enough not to notice the transition as we leave the Beagle Channel? This is one of the roughest stretches of water anywhere I believe, and although we were experiencing it almost at its calmest, there were quite a few empty tables at breakfast the next morning! I am SO lucky not to be afflicted by this, although I was very sleepy a lot of the time, and I’m told that’s the first sign of it – hope I never move onto the second!

Leaving the Andes behind us.....
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The first day started as would the rest – with a ‘get up’ call from Cara, telling us our position and the weather and plans for the day. We were issued with an itinerary every evening, although this could change, as much of what we were doing was weather dependent – and change it did, often! It was going to take 2 days to cross the Drake Passage, but boy were we kept busy! It being the first morning we had a more in depth introduction from the expedition staff to their roles and then the talks began – the first was from Graham Snow, our Ornithologist – the first wildlife we were to see was the Wandering Albatross that morning, and so this was very relevant to the moment, as were all the talks. All very well planned and even better executed!

My cabin mate, Margarita.
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The next talk was - ‘Who saw Antarctica First?’ by Ian Stone, historian and lecturer at Cambridge I believe and it shows - and he plays on it, much to the delight of the audience, especially the Americans! Can’t for the life of me remember who did, or the story behind it, but I do remember it was debatable and so entertainingly presented! Then lunch and MORE fabulous food and then there was a showing of David Attenboroughs ‘Life in the Freezer’ – well I’d seen this at least 5 times over the last three weeks as John gave me the DVD AGES before this trip had even started to be planned! So I skipped that and went for a much needed snooze!

Quark chocolate adorning the dessert of the first of many amazing meals we were to have on board!
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Woke up just in time for tea – and I’d begun to notice a face that reminded me of someone, although for the life of me I couldn’t place it straight away. Then after tea I realised it brought to my mind a friend of Alex’s who had come to Ireland in 1990 for a couple of weeks, had his name been Mike? Or Mark? – Anyway it couldn’t possibly be the same person, it’s just he looks like the chap.

Then we had a geology lecture – our knowledge and our ability to have in depth appreciation of our destination was really being enhanced during our approach to it – this was about Gondwana – the super continent that Africa, India, South America, Australasia and Europe came from as they split away, leaving Antarctica, by far the largest land mass. Fascinating stuff that I’m not even sure I’ve heard before, certainly not put so clearly and definitely not so relevant to what I’m up to. I had thoughts about imagery and the possible symbolism of that in the context of world conflict today, but won’t go into that here!

Ushuaia disappearing into the fading evening light.
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Before dinner we had another of what was to become a daily routine – a recap and briefing, itemising what had gone on during the day, giving us an opportunity to contribute and filling us in on the plans for the morrow. We were making good headway across the Passage and were possibly going to be somewhere where we could land, using zodiacs, the inflatable dinghies, by the next afternoon. Before dinner we were asked to check the passenger list, make sure our names were spelt correctly etc. so I looked to see if there were any UK Mike of Marks – well there was a Mark and a Michael. So maybe………? No, not possible that I could be going all the way to Antarctica and STILL bump into people I know!

Waving farewell to Ushuaia and the Andes for 12 days...
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Anyway, I decided to see if this guy sounded English, and if he did, I would ask him if he knew Alex. So I surreptitiously listened to him talking with his friend and he WAS English! So at dinner I went up to him at and said ‘Do you know Alex Brand?’ – and he looked MOST confused – because he does! It WAS Alex’s friend, he HAD been to Milbeg and the synchronicity of meetings was ridiculous! We chatted a bit over supper, caught up a bit on the intervening years and both acknowledged that it was a really, really remarkable co-incidence . The Mark on the list is his travelling companion and brother-in-law! Then after supper I played scrabble with some other passengers - a very international group – Neel from India, Jen from USA and Claude from Switzerland – we made up 2 teams and mine won I THINK – but then we were playing in English and I was the only English one there and I did used to be a teacher so if we hadn’t, well it would have been very bad form (please correct me if I’m wrong on that guys!)

Next morning (it had really been a very calm crossing that night) we had safety briefings, and the regulations of IAATO (International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators), which are mainly aimed at keeping Antarctica pristine and as untouched by man as possible. Interesting such a thing only seems to become a real top priority in a land where it is so difficult for man to survive! But good that it does and that it is agreed on, for the time being, by so many nations. And to be taking it seriously ourselves was good preparation for our first landing… …….