This morning at around 8:00 AM, we will round Cape Horn, the well known monument to the sailors of the past, many of which did not survive the passage.
There was an announcement made yesterday that there will be hot chocolate, coffee, Baily’s and Bloody Mary’s served as we “Round the Horn”. We set an alarm for 7:20 AM, but I was up before that and looked out the window. I could not see any land, so were were still quite a long distance out.
I showered and went to get a bite to eat for breakfast. Stephanie elected to sleep a little longer while I went to eat. The seas were still rough, but the waves were more from the side this morning, and the ship was rocking sideways more today than yesterday.
The sun was peaking through some clouds and passing rain showers, and there was one really nice rainbow that appeared out on the sea right after I finished breakfast. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera or even my phone with me, and by the time I got back to the cabin, the rainbow was gone.
Stephanie was up and getting ready, and we put on our warm Expedition jackets and headed to the bow of the ship for the passing by of Cape Horn. The bar staff was serving all of the various drinks, and I had a coffee with Baily’s and Stephanie had hot chocolate with Baily’s. There were quite a few folks on the bow and more on the deck above, outside of the Explorer’s Lounge.
Mountainous Land Near Cape Horn
At first, we could not really tell which land was Cape Horn, but as we got closer, announcements were made about its history and the monument that has been built there. We finally got close enough to see the lighthouse station and monument that are there, but we were still quite a distance away. I took some photos, but there was a lit of mist in the air, and the quality was not that good. At least there was some sunshine, and that helped a little.
We headed back to the cabin and lowered our window to look at Cape Horn from our room and used our binoculars. It was easier to see from our room, we had no people in front of us, and I could steady the camera better for photos.
We needed to let the cabin stewards clean the room, so we left to go to the World Cafe so Stephanie could get some breakfast. We hung out there enjoying the ocean views and giving them time to clean the room. When we got back, we had signed certificates stating that we had gone around “The Horn”. Technically, we had really sort of passed by, it was a long way from really being a rounding of the horn from one ocean to the other, but it was as close as we were going to probably ever get.
At least now we were going with the waves, and it was a smoother ride. We are heading to Ushuaia and are expected to arrive around 8:00 PM, and tie up at the pier. We saw from the Viking Daily that anyone can get on and off of the ship at anytime overnight after we arrive, just like being there for a port call.
We started some of our packing. We are required to have our bags outside of the cabin by 10:00 PM tonight for pick-up and transfer to the Ushuaia Airport tomorrow morning This is certainly the least favorite part of any cruise. We wanted to put as many of the clothes we will no longer need into our suitcases now instead of waiting until later this evening. All of the warm weather clothes we used for Buenos Aires were no longer needed once we boarded the ship, so they could all get packed now.
We know that we always like to go out and see our new friends for a farewell drink or two, and having most of the packing done before that happens is just better.
We needed some lunch, so we headed up to the World Cafe. They had a good selection, and we really enjoyed it. All of the staff there were being really friendly and helpful, not that they were not helpful all cruise long, it just seemed like they were really going out of their way today. I guess passengers leaving with a good last impression is good marketing strategy.
After lunch, we went to the Explorer’s Lounge just to enjoy the scenery. By this time, we were out of the rougher open water and now sailing through the Beagle Channel. On one half of the channel, the land is part of Chile, and on the other half it belongs to Argentina.
The Beagle Channel
It was quite crowded there with everyone wanting to see the last of the scenery we will have before we arrived in Ushuaia. Our friends Dennis and Lisa showed up, and we had a good time talking with them, especially when one of the Expedition Team Members, Pablo form Ushuaia, came over and we all discussed a lot of things about the area and his living in Ushuaia. Pablo had some great stories about his time doing these types of expeditions over a lot of years.
Visiting With Dennis & Lisa
Our friend Robert came in for a beer or two, but his wife, Martha, was not feeling that great, she had started dealing with some type of cold yesterday.
We saw a lot of wildlife in the Beagle Channel. there were a couple of whale sightings, and one island that was home to some penguins. We kidded that these penguins were content to be here near Ushuaia, and not take the long swim to Antarctica, maybe they were smarter.
Nearing Ushuaia – Our Final Stop
We actually made it into Ushuaia ahead of schedule, it was just a little after 6:00 PM when we were finished docking. Some passengers wanted to go out into town to visit some of the stores, which were apparently still open even though it was late on a Sunday afternoon.
Most of these were people we met that had told us they had arrived late on the day of embarkation due to some mechanical issues with the second charter airplane. We had gotten to go into town that day, but many other people just got on the ship, and we sailed shortly thereafter. The crew were also happy to have a little time ashore even though it was going to be pretty late at night before they ended their shifts and got to go ashore. Apparently some of the restaurants and bars are open late.
We went to dinner at the World Cafe, and again the grilled to order steaks were wonderful. We did sample some of the offerings on the normal buffet area, and they were also good, but not as good as a freshly cooked to order filet mignon.
It was now about 7:45 PM, and we decided to go to the Explorer’s Lounge for one or two drinks and visit with everyone there on our last night. We set a curfew of 9:00 PM to go back to the cabin to finish packing before the 10:00 PM luggage out in the hallway deadline. We had just kept on the same clothes all day, and once we left the Explorer’s Lounge, we would not go back out so that all the clothes we needed to leave out of our suitcases was for tomorrow’s travel.
We did not have any type of carryon bag, so everything needed to be in the suitcases unless we needed it for tomorrow.
We ended up staying there until about 9:30 PM, just having fun and saying our goodbye’s. While that part was fun, going back to the cabin to try and finish packing in 30 minutes before our 10:00 PM luggage deadline was not fun at all. Of course, both of us were in an extremely clear state of mind, well not really with some of the adult beverages we had consumed in our farewell gathering. Most important was making sure we had all the clothes we needed for tomorrow, there was no access to the luggage to get any additional clothing once it left the cabin.
We put as much as we could into Stephanie’s suitcase first, and also put in her new expedition jacket. The weight was about 46.5 pounds, so we were good on weight and nothing else was going to fit in there anyway after adding her bulky jacket, it was really full.
We went ahead and put that suitcase out for collection since it was already about 9:55 PM. We still had some work to do pulling together all of our “stuff”, as in non-clothing items we still needed to pack such as rain gear, umbrellas, etc. We pulled out the bare necessity toiletries, and made sure all were small enough for the liquid limits to take on the airplanes.
It was a struggle, but after we did a couple of final drawer checks, everything was packed into my suitcase at about 10:10 PM. The weight was a very light 42 pounds even with my new jacket packed.
We put that bag out and then checked a few minutes later and it had already been collected, so all was good with the packing effort.
We have a really long day of travel tomorrow, starting with needing to be at our meeting point for our designated “Green 2” disembarkation schedule at 7:50 AM. It is not terribly early, no where near as early as coming here to Ushuaia. Our flight is scheduled for departure at 10:40 AM, it is the return of the same early charter flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia that we took to get here many days ago.
At about 10:45 PM, we set some alarms for the morning and turned in for the night.