End of the world cont...

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Sorry had to go sort our next leg out with the travel agent. We leave for Arequippa, Lake Titicaca, Cuzo and Macchu Picchu tomorrow morning.

So where was I...?

I forgot to say that when we arrived on the boat we discovered that one of the expedition staff was a friend from NZ who I hadn't seen in 5 years, Anjali. I helped her with some research diving 10 yrs ago when she was doing her PhD. See I can go to the bottom of the world and still find someone I know!!! Five degrees of separation is alive and well 😊

Neko harbour was also the site of the antarctic swim for those hardy souls who could manage it. Only one girl was brave enough and Marty took it one step further by skinny dipping. The video Shea took of this is not for public consumption however I have attached a back view - hmmmmm!

That night we had a bbq on deck which was fab and free booze was provided. Needless to say the Kiwi, the Irish, the Scottish and a couple of the Belgium guys held their end up and the pictures of me asleep in the bar are greeeeeat. Luckily I didn't get copies. We had a bit of a boogie on the back deck (Marty and I even did a bit of ceroc) and I even had to take off my coat and fleece due to being too warm. I left Marty and Hemi drinking whiskey with Shea and Laura about 2am.

The next day saw us landing at Port Lockroy a base that is only open in the summer. The staff had left 3 days earlier but they left a key. They are obviously used to visitors when they're not there as there was a sign saying please close and lock the door when you leave! The afternoon saw us diving on a wreck - the Guvernoren near Enterprise Island - which was really nice and the last dive of the trip. The Guvernoren was full of whale oil when it caught fire during a crew party. The captin drove it into shore to try and salvage some stuff. All the crew got off safely and the wreck sits half in and out of the water. It was a little murky going down but nice and clear at the stern in 20m of water, we did our last 10 mins and our safety stop on top of the wreck which had lots of kelp, algae, phytoplankton and crstaceans on it - a good way to end the diving.

Unfortunately we had a terrible weather forecast come through and as such we had to miss our last landing in the South Shetland Islands and head as quickly as possible for the Drake passage. Dire warnings were given, sea sickness patches and tablets handed out and people told to batten down the hatches and drake proof their cabins. However the waves only got to about 8-10m max so other than a few spilt glasses of wine and some flying cutlery/plates/books we were ok. We had slings on our bunks to stop us rolling out. A few people got sick but once again Mary and I sailed through with no drugs and no sickness - thank god! We managed to get back to the Beagle channel ahead of the storm however it did mean 3 long days and nights stuck on the boat with nothing but reading and lectures to entertain us.

The staff were great with nearly all of them having PhDs in Marine biology and having done work and research in both the Artic and Antarctic. They prepared a journal of everywhere we had been and what we saw which is a great reminder. And of course we have the photos. I will add some more here but obviously we have screeds more which I won't bore you with. I am also going to try and upload some videos.

We travelled 3608km or 1948 natical miles and were the only ship this season to make it south of the Antarctic Circle. Considering one trip got ashore once in 10 days due to weather and the trip before us sat for 3 days on board in Antarctica due to bad weather we were amazingly lucky.

We're off to dinner with Maty and Paul here in Lima tonight and off again tomorrow.

Hasta Luego.....

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Photos

iceberg
Brilliant blue in colour