Today we set out on our next Antarctica voyage leaving again from Ushuaia, the capital of Argentina's Tierra del Fuego province and what many consider the gateway to Antarctica and the South Pole - I reckon the Ross Sea in Greater Antarctica is the gateway to the South Pole. Nicknamed ‘El fin del mundo’ this city is the most southerly in the world. It is almost surrounded by the Andres which abut the Beagle Channel to the south - the views are stunning.
Before we are allowed to board our ship, Le Commandant Charcot, we have to produce negative COVID tests. The only place we could find to do the tests was at Clinica San Jorge, the hospital, so we set out early to get down to the clinic when it opened – we had already done a ‘dry run’ a couple of days ago to check times etc and found it very crowded. Much to our surprise this morning we only had 5-10 mins wait and were in and out not long after 8am. Our results were sent through by 8:30am – both negative. Boarding time was supposed to be 4-5pm so we had a bit of time to kill but we managed to fill the time writing etc – part of the etc was a long slow lunch at Tante Sara’s, a warm and cosy place buzzing with people.
We were expecting to hear from Ponant about location and boarding but that didn’t happen, neither were we contacted by the company who had offered to take us to the ship. So at 4pm we took a taxi to the port gates where it was prevented from entering and then walked to our ship at the end of the wharf hauling our way-too-heavy luggage (of course the ship had to be at the end!). We were so relieved when we got to the gangway; it seems we were the last people to board!
Once we were aboard there was a flurry of briefings etc etc before Lindsay and I took off to explore the ship. It’s quite large (twice as big as our last ship) with lots of interesting nooks and crannies, a few bars, dining rooms, 2 pools and a Promenade deck which was ‘closed’ because of the weather – and a cigar salon would you believe. A far cry from what we’re accustomed to and we were feeling just a weensy bit out of our comfort zone. Incidentally we’re allowed on the Bridge which will be terrific - our Captain, Stanislas Devorsine, is energetic and has a great passion for Antarctica. Our Expedition leader is Florence Kuypers who coincidentally was the leader of our Greenland expedition in August last year (with a different expedition company). It promises to be a great voyage. On board there are less than 70 passengers out of potentially 200 odd, and there’s over 200 crew so we might get spoilt.
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| The Bar in the main lounge on deck 5 |
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| The Cigar Salon |
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| Our parkas are thick and heavy. No way we'll get cold on the ice! |
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| The Bridge on deck 8 |
We didn’t cast off until around 9:30pm leaving flocks of birds diving in our wake snatching at the ‘tasty titbits’ that the propellers stirred up from the bottom. Also farewelling us were a few seals who barked madly after us for a while. It was extremely windy and we were thinking that signified a rough Passage crossing ahead of us but we slept well that night – it was quiet, comfortable and we were rather tired.
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| The front of the deck 6 (our deck level) is the helicopter pad. |
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