Antarctica 10: Beagle Channel

In the morning the shaking had finally eased and we got up to a beautiful day with sunshine and blue sky. The first way was as always to the dining room for breakfast where I saw Craig and Joe. They are super nice people and we enjoyed spending time together chatting. We took it slowly and we were finally allowed back outside which I used for a little relaxed walk over the decks. Then it was time for today's first lecture. It was once again about ice, this time how the Antarctic ice fields work as a protective shield. But these shields are crumbling at a high speed and the resulting effects may be catastrophic.
Next up Ursula taught us about feeding pattern and habits of Baleen whales. Her insights with that extensive knowledge was as always a highlight. Her passion and ways of teaching about them is really inspiring. Her constant reminder that we need to act on the protection of whales and the food sources that they relay on, is necessary. If there's no action done on certain topics the extinction of species might accelerate. The lectures aren't always fun but they name things as they are. And the crew keeps telling us that as one of the few people that visit Antarctica we are Antarctic Ambassadors. Because Antarctica doesn't have any government it also doesn't have any representation when facing exploitation. And therefore we need to stand for the continued protection of the continent.

It's facing so many man-made challenges that it's overwhelming: Melting sea ice, melting glaciers, destruction of habitat for many species, increasing water temperature... Some of them irreversible. On the other hand it's inspiring to see so many skilled, intelligent and charming people trying to make a change about that. And I'll definitely try to do something as well, whatever that may be. On a more happy note we were finally allowed to go out again as we reached a calming sea rather protected by the islands of Tierra del Fuego. In the afternoon there was a Mini series of lectures on the ships cooking and menu creation, the importance of amateur wildlife photography and how to make a perfect mate 🧉 This was followed by a slideshow created by the trip photographer and expedition guide Georgina.

Ultimately the ship's captain 🫡 came to the lounge for the Captain's farewell with champagne and fingerfood. Then each of the teams was thanked with applause and cheering. Then we went with quite a big group of friends we found along the trip to the last fancy dinner :) The menu offered "The last greens" as a starter, amazing vegetarian ravioli as main and ice cake as dessert.

With a full belly and happy we chilled out at the lounge with some more champagne and beer but around 11 we headed to the cabins to prepare our luggage for the disembarking tomorrow morning...Read more