My grand plans for lots of posts yesterday were upset by a dramatic lack of Internet access, so I have a bit of catching up to do still.
In any event, below is the GPS track starting around 9:40pm on Sunday, February 14th through yesterday evening.
Last night past midnight we crossed southward over the 66.33 degree south latitude line, but alas, we didn’t feel it. Spent much of the day in fog searching for a suitable landing site with penguin colonies. Found one mid-afternoon at Red Rocks Ridge – numerous groups of Adelie Penguins. Photos later.
For now, our GPS track from about 21:44 last night through the present. No idea where we’re going next except that it’s probably northwards along the Antarctic Peninsula.
Oh what an interesting day and half it’s been! And tonight we expect to cross the Antarctic Circle at 66.33 degrees south latitude. Woo hoo!
More later.
For now, here’s our GPS track for the last 27 or so hours – north to south.
We had some moderately rough seas as we exited out of the Beagle Channel and passed Cape Horn on the National Geographic Explorer around 3am this morning (10-12 foot swells according to the crew). Things have calmed noticeably in the few hours (since mid-afternoon). We have another day or so left before we get near land.
GPS track for our voyage so far is below. We’ve traveled from the top of the map to the bottom, and continue in a southward direction. The last spot sampled (southern-most point) is from around 4:30pm local time (GMT-3).
We left our hotel in Santiago, Chile at 7am this morning to go to the airport, where a private charter flight provided by LAN Chile took us to Ushuaia, Argentina. We spent the afternoon in the Ushaia area before boarding our ship. We are presently heading towards Cape Horn and the Drake Passage.
Internet connection is workable from the ship at present, so I will try and get a story and a few photos up tonight.
Below is our GPS Track from Sanitiago to Ushuaia up until the point we boarded the National Geographic Explorer.
After a stay at the wonderful boutique hotel, Casa Higueres, in Valparaiso, we toured more of the city, as well as the resort area of Viña Del Mar. We also spent an hour in the Museo Fonck, which had a great blend of Chilean, Easter Island, and South American cultural and natural history. We’re now back in Santiago and about to have our introductory cocktail reception for the Lindblad Expedition to the Antarctic with a hundred-plus other adventure seekers.
Far less pictures today (don’t have the count yet). Hope to post some pictures from our last two day via Flickr tonight, however.
Our GPS track for today is below:
