The National Geographic Explorer made her way almost due north today, the last full day of our extraordinary expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula and back to South America, towards the Beagle Channel. The channel is the border between Chile and Argentina. The forecast winds and seas did not come to be and the ship made good speed north and into the shelter of the outer Chilean islands before turning to the west and towards our destination: Ushuaia. There were many seabirds both in the air and in the water as we plied along the boundary of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Albatrosses, petrels, and gulls in the air, while Magellanic penguins and shags were seen in the water. Seeing green on the hillsides as the Beagle Channel narrowed was something we had missed without knowing it. Bushes and trees are devoid in Antarctica—a place of black, white, and shades of gray. Witnessing them here shows us the incredible biological difference between these two continents just 500 miles apart.
There were presentations and meals during the day as well as dealing with the housekeeping details of travel and transfers to be endured the next couple of days. The wind began to pick up and funnel down the Beagle Channel as we made our way farther west. The pilot boat brought out the pilot to guide us the last part of the journey. He was a form of ambassador from Argentina. There was also the sense that we are now ambassadors to this amazing place called simply The Ice. What stories will we tell when we arrive home about the great White Continent?
