Departure from Ushuaia
Position 12pm 22 February: 52°50’57”S 50°13’32”W (MAP)
It’s been a busy few days following our delayed departure from Ushuaia. Originally scheduled for the afternoon of Saturday 18 February, we were delayed 36 hours due to a problem with a propellor.
A part was flown from Germany to Buenos Aires, missed a connection somewhere along the way and finally arrived there on Sunday morning. It was then flown to Ushuaia where it was received late afternoon, and the engineers started their work.
We went to sleep on Sunday, still tied up to the dock. After being woken by noises around 2:30am Monday morning, I thought “yay”, we’ll be on our way soon. I rolled over and woke at around 5:45am to see that we were still firmly tied up … would we ever see Ushuaia disappearing into the distance?
At around 6:15am I heard engines starting. I went out to the stern (close to our cabin) and saw that we’d now moved away from the wharf. At last!! Just to be sure, I stayed out there until the dock was well behind us and we were finally on our way.
As I write, we are sailing from the Falkland Islands to South Georgia, so here’s a catch-up on what I’ve seen since landing in Ushuaia on Wednesday evening, 14 February.
Thursday 15 – Sunday 18 February 2024
Thursday morning we were picked up by a great guide, Nacho, in his Toyota 4WD. It was definitely a fun day driving to, from and in the southern Andes and lakes – and yes, I mean in the lakes too, just near the shoreline.
We drove up into the mountains in his Toyota 4WD, stopping at “rest stops” along the way including a very cool “café”. Walking into the café was like stepping into a motor bike shop from the 1960s – glorious old bikes including a Royal Enfield, a Sertum and an old Aktiv 290 snowmobile. All of the bikes had been ridden from Alaska to Ushuaia – an amazing collection.
From there we bounced across old dirt roads, stopping at an abandoned building beside a lake for a refreshing tea/coffee, before driving deeper into the bush until we reached Lake Fagnano. This lake is huge, several hundred square kilometers, and surrounded by mountains. Driving off road to reach it we could see the damage that beavers, introduced in the 1800s, have done – cutting down trees, damming rivers, and destroying significant areas. Lunch was at a restaurant away from the lake before we were driven back to our B&B, just outside Ushuaia. It was a relaxing day with great conversations and an excellent guide.
On Friday we visited the Magellanic penguinos down towards the entrance to the Beagle Channel. Unfortunately I picked the wrong boat – too crowded with no outside seating, although we managed to find a few boxes to sit on alongside the upstairs stern rail. We saw cormorants and sea lions at the lighthouse and finally saw the Magellanic penguins on a small island. Equally entertaining were the happy smiles and “Facetime/Insta/TikTok poses” of the other 120 passengers when they had their photos taken with the “Fin Del Mondo” sign.
Back in Ushuaia in our hotel for the night, we received an email advising us of the delayed departure. At least we were able to board the ship as planned.
On Saturday afternoon, along with 160 the other passengers, we boarded World Explorer and it was absolutely wonderful to see Woody waiting to greet us, and then Annie, and also Shane. Big hugs all around!
I spent Sunday learning my way around the ship, ensuring camera batteries were charged, lenses were attached to cameras, and transferring photos from the week to my Lightroom files. We were all itching to get going.
If you are interested in following the weather in the area, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has the weather map for the Antarctic at this LINK. Any black tightly bunched circles indicate ferocious winds!
And if you would like to know where we are, you can track our location (World Explorer) via Cruise Mapper at this LINK.