Day 11, 21st March – Drake Passage
Sadly today was the beginning of our journey back from Antarctica to Ushuaia, across the Drake’s Passage. We will be spending two full days at sea (including today) and should arrive back to port in Ushuaia early on Monday morning. Everyone is a bit sad to be leaving such an incredible place but we will be bringing back some unforgettable experiences and great memories. However our adventure is not over yet – there is still plenty of wildlife to look out for in the Drake’s Passage and last night there was some hushed talk of the possibility of hourglass dolphins and maybe even blue whales if we are very very lucky! Our bird and marine mammal surveys are therefore continuing throughout the journey back (during daylight hours) right up until we arrive back in Ushuaia.
Heading back on the Drake Passage has meant there is a bit more rocking and rolling of the ship and a few people are feeling a bit under the weather again, but on the whole the group is rallying well! The captain has tactically planned our journey back across the Drake Passage to fit nicely in between two slightly nasty looking weather systems so it should be fairly smooth sailing for the remainder of the Drake’s Passage (fingers crossed!).
We started today’s surveys at 7am in some pretty thick fog – caused by the mixing of the cold waters of the Southern Ocean with warmer Atlantic waters as we crossed the Antarctic Convergence. This made the bird and mammal spotting slightly trickier than usual! Typically, just after one of the hourly 10 minute bird surveys (during which not a single bird was spotted) there were sightings of two beautiful but rarely seen birds – a light-mantled sooty albatross (see photo) and a snow petrel – which was a treat for everyone, especially the keen bird watchers on board. There was also a cheeky snowy sheathbill hitching a ride on the top deck.
After breakfast there was a very interesting talk from one of the expedition staff members, Ali Liddle, on the role of women (or “Ice Maidens” as she called them) in historic Antarctic exploration. It was really inspiring, especially for me as I have definitely been bitten by the “polar bug”! Lars also gave a presentation on his work with elephant seals, using them to investigate the physical oceanography of the Southern Ocean (tracking currents, temperature and salinity changes etc.). After lunch another staff member gave a talk on the geology of Antarctica then we gave a presentation to the other passengers on the surveying work we have been doing throughout the trip. Everyone of the group got to present a section about our work on deck and in the zodiac, and Sonja and Lars thought we did a great job.
Unfortunately the fog didn’t really lift all day so we didn’t see many marine mammals apart from a possible sighting of some elusive beaked whales. Hopefully tomorrow’s weather will be a bit clearer – I’m still keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed for that blue whale!
Astrid Vinall (SH student)
