01/13/2009

At Sea, Drake Passage

Minerva is still ploughing her way across the calm waters of what qualifies as ‘The Drake Lake’. One result of the lack of wind is that there are very few seabirds following the ship but sometimes an albatross passes by or zig-zags effortlessly over our wake.

This is the day for, sadly, wrapping-up the expedition. Packing and exchanging addresses are important activities but there were still lectures to complete the course of enlightenment on Antarctic matters. Sean Todd talked about whaling and sealing and Daria Nikitina told us about glacial landscapes. Finally Expedition Leader led the assembled company through an overview of our achievements. He was followed a photo presentation of highlights of the crusie, compiled by Richard Harker from photos taken by the Expedition Staff.

During the evening, Minerva came into the shelter of land, steamed back up the Beagle Channel and during the evening Ushuaia came in sight. So ended our cruise aboard Minerva. We will leave tomorrow to go our separate ways – perhaps to meet again aboard one day.