Day 20 Friday 16th January 2009
We sailed up the Beagle Channel on schedule overnight and as we passed Puerto Williams (in Chile) at around 0345 my blackberry picked up 285 email messages! Arrival in Ushuaia was exactly on schedule at 6 am. The weather was miserable, rain and cold and it seemed far worse than that in the Antarctic.
Over the past 13 days we had travelled 2132 nautical miles, going to 22 nm below the Antarctic Circle at 66 48 95. We saw 31 species of Birds, 4 types of penguins, 8 marine mammals, attended 16 lectures and ate 108 courses of food (approximately).
There is a view that travelling to Antarctica changes your opinion of the world and your attitude to conservation etc - that certainly is the case for us. Standard superlatives are insufficient for Antarctica and we feel very privileged to have been there.
Surprisingly, the journey back to BA went very easy and exactly to schedule. We landed at Rio Gallegos to pick up passengers and fuel and got to BA (the correct airport this time) on schedule and they did not loose our bags. The taxi was waiting for us and took us straight to the Hotel and check in was very
easy. Our bed is about as large as the cabin
we have been sleeping in for the past two weeks so it will take some getting used to.
The temperature in BA is around 31 C and very humid and so we feel totally washed out. An early night beckons.
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