During the night, about 3AM, we enter the open sea again with the rocking and rolling, but it doesn’t last too long. At some point we turn into the northern channel of the Beagle Channel. It is known as the Avenue of the Glaciers. Terry will start talking about the area about 7AM.
Best laid plans and all that. We awake at 7:45AM and flip on the TV to find that we have slept through at least the first of six glaciers that we will pass while in the Beagle Channel. We listen to the broadcast description of what is passing us as we hurriedly dress and head for the open area of Deck 12 and then to the observation lounge where a crowd is gathered. It is not too cold and is not raining steadily but showers are passing periodically. The view is much like the inside passage in southern Alaska.
There are hanging glaciers on both sides and lots of fresh snow.
We pass Italia Glacier which is the only one that is still a tidewater glacier.
The last one is Holland Glacier
at the junction of the North and South Beagle channels.
None of what we see matches Alaska but it is still beautiful.
We migrate in and out of the Observation Lounge on Deck 12 forward and even eat a continental breakfast there instead of going to the dinning room. We spend most of the morning there watching the Beagle Channel unfold,
the arrival of the Argentinian pilot
and, finally, the arrival of Ushuaia off our port side.
We are an hour early arriving to Usuhaia but it does us no good as there is a container ship in our docking spot that was supposed to leave at noon and finally leaves after 2PM. By the time it is out of our way and we are docked it is 3PM and the tours bail off the ship. One of the tours, the one we toyed with taking, is five hours long and we are to sail at 8PM. Someone has a time problem.
Since we were here in 2008, we finally decide to skip the tour and just walk into the shopping area of the town where we buy Jack three pins (one each for: Antarctica, The Falkland (Malvinas) Islands and Ushuaia), T-shirts for some of the grandchildren and toothpaste. How exciting!! But the idea of sitting on a bus for five hours and getting back to the ship so late was not appealing. Usuhaia doesn't really have much, but today the gardens around the old Government building are in full bloom.
As we return to the ship around 5PM.
We stop at a small postoffice set up on the dock and buy some post cards. Back on the ship Dick writes the cards and makes the trek back to the dock postoffice to buy stamps and mail them to the states so we can get the
"End of the World" cancellation on them. Upon his return he stops at his favorite ship’s bar for two drinks and returns to the room where Carolyn is nursing her sore knees and Jack is lobbying to have his new pins installed.
About 7:30PM we go the La Veranda and get a window table from which we watch the Celebrity ship
Infinity sail away.
By the way, the
Polar Star, our Antarctica expedition ship in 2008 is anchored out in the bay.
She sure looks small!!! Dinner is very nice and we may utilize this venue for dinner more than we have so far.
As we are finishing, about 8:45PM, the two long tours return (280people) and the restaurant rapidly fills with guests. We enjoy our dessert and finish our wine but finally leave so some lucky souls can enjoy the rest of the evening at our window table! We head to deck 12 to take a few more pictures and find that the
Polar Star has now moved to the dock and is in front of us.
Looking down on the dock we see one of the funnier things we have seen...the office of the Usuhaia dock workers,,,an old shipping container, two porta potties and several plastic lawn chairs!
We wind up in the Observation Lounge and visit with some friends as we set sail for Antarctica.
The Captain announces that we may luck out and have calm weather and, if we do, we will be off Cape Horn at 5AM for those who want to get up and take photos. We return to the cabin, work on this blog and contemplate setting a 5AM alarm.
Internet may be a problem while we are sailing around in Antarctica's waters for the next five days, so please check back often. We will post again as soon as we can. We are a little less than half way around South America!
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