There are two helicopters
on board, each can carry up to 8 passengers, but for today’s festivities it
will be limited to 6 passengers so everyone can have an unobstructed window
view, with one passenger having the coveted copilot seat. Oh please! Oh please! No, I mean maybe it should go to the Bean . .
. . sorry Bean. I didn't know it at
the time, but though they are Airbus models, they are made in the US.
Made me feel a little better. So
we are looking at ~ 180 passengers, 12 passengers per 15-minute tour, 48 per
hour plus a 30-minute turnaround time, throw in crew rest and refueling and
we’re looking at a minimum 6 hours of air operations, so my guess is we will be
sitting tight for around 3 ½ hours before we get a shot. It's not like you're in line for hours, you know what group you're in and the approximate time for your group. Then about 30 minutes out they call you by group and that gives you time to get your gear together and meet in the panorama lounge for one final, short briefing.
We talked previously about the helicopter briefing we had on 28 Dec. It covered safety issues, getting on and
off the helo, as well as clothing. Unlike the Zodiac, no wet gear
is required. Instead we'll wear what's called a dry suit. It's
basically a big onesie with watertight sealing at the neck and arms and
footies. It's purpose is to keep you as dry as possible should the helo have to
ditch in flight – or as the crew called it, an “unscheduled water landing" –
you know, as opposed to a scheduled water landing! Beanie & I suited up and all I could hear
was the Top Gun movie soundtrack in the background. Maybe it’s just me, but hey, check it out!
While we were
waiting we roamed the deck and caught a few videos of the incoming and outgoing
helo flights and got some steps in.
We were the
next to the last group to get out, but that was fine. The weather got even better, visibility was
about as good as it gets and the views were stunning. I thought a nice, commercial helo would be a
little more “sophisticated” than the military versions, but they are just as
noisy as the old Hueys. That’s why
everyone wears a headset, which in my case, went tango uniform, which I didn’t
discover until later. Also, Beanie’s
camera picked a bad time, halfway through the flight, to die - not permanently
it was just a depleted battery. We still
had some great viewing. The whole event was about 15 minutes, takeoff
to landing, but it covered a lot of ground.
 |
| Just chillin'. This was the warmest and calmest day of the trip |
 |
| Yes, yet another selfie |
Back to the
room to shower and then off to dinner which was excellent with lobster and
fillet medallions.
 |
| Look at us all dressed up! |
(Kathy) You may have noticed the Reserved for Captain sign on the table. The helicopter pilots and maintenance guy were sitting at the next table and they said the captain wasn't coming to dinner tonight so we should sit there since Randy was an Air Force captain after all. So we did. Then the waiter said the captain's special wine was chilling and it shouldn't go to waste, so we enjoyed that too. It was an excellent dinner.
(Randy) We followed this up
with a New Year's Eve party which was well attended.
Lots of fun activities with music trivia bingo, dancing (which of course
we led the crowd – maybe not!), and a lot of folks that really got into the costume
mode. We joined Mark and Brian to play music trivia bingo. Quick video of those of us with rhythm - that would not be me!!
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| Claudia, zodiac driver. She cleans up nicely |
 |
| Sharon was sweltering in this penguin suit. Looked cute though! |
(Kathy) The video below was just before midnight when we had a whale sighting and everyone at the party dashed outside. And this gives you an idea of how light it still is at midnight on 31 December this far south on our planet. Happy New Year!
Back to the party and the countdown.
1 Jan
25: Antarctic Peninsula
(Kathy) This is the day we officially set foot on Antarctica. The previous landings were on Antarctic islands, not on the continent itself. I enjoyed the beautifully colored and different ice/snow formations we saw on the zodiac cruise portion of this excursion. At this point the rain had turned to sleet and the wind had picked up. It was a steep and slippery climb up from the landing site. I'm very glad we did it but after we got to the flag site, I told Randy it was probably time to bag it for me.
(Randy) We’ve arrived
at Orne Harbour on the northwest side of the Arctowski Peninsula. It was discovered by Adrian de Gerlache in
1898. It was quite cold and wet, especially after being
spoiled with the spectacular weather we had yesterday. We’ll have a split
crew, we are the second group off the ship, so hopefully we’ll get the shore
excursion first.
Well, of course, we did not get the shore excursion first so it was off to the Zodiac
cruise. There were some interesting
ice/snow formations on the land. They were multi-colored. The snow freezes mixed with certain algae and
other stuff I don’t understand and it looks almost like a quartz or marble
stone.
 |
| I still think the brown snow is penguin poop! |
 |
| Up close it does look like granite |
 |
| That snow drift (glacier) is about 200' tall |
After cruising around for an hour or so we got to the landing area. It was rocky and slick with ice and and the trail
was up a pretty steep hill, covered with snow, to a Gentoo penguin rookery. We made it part way up and
stopped at a photo op with a flag of Antarctica set up by the crew. Though we've technically been in Antarctica the past couple of days, today is the first
time we stepped foot on the continent itself. I
suspect it’s like visiting Hawaii before you step foot on the contiguous 48
states. I guess it’s a distinction to
the purists of the world.
 |
| Antarctic explorer.....make that tourist |
 |
| It doesn't look it but it was VERY windy. I felt like I was going to be blown down the hill |
While we were
waiting to get our chance at the flag, a humpback whale breached just off
shore and continued on hugging the coastline, close to shore. We also had another iceberg calf.
This one was a bit smaller and just broke into a bunch of bergy bits. Very cool to see though. We started to
head further up the hill and decided to bag the rest of it. The weather was getting worse, we were wet
from the Zodiac portion, and figured we wouldn’t see anything better than we
saw the day before. After we got back to the ship, at lunch I
was chatting with a gentleman from India and he related his Zodiac tour was a
huge success this morning. He shared his video and it
was awesome with a whale within feet of the Zodiac, circling around to check
the people out. The water is really
clear so you could see the white under his fins while he was swimming and
circling. To top it off, he breached the
water a few times. I’d really like
to take credit for this video, but he was gracious enough to share it with me
so take a look – it’s pretty good. It’s
all in the timing, I guess.
(Kathy) It was good to get back to the ship and warm up. This is the coldest I've been on any of our zodiac excursions or landings. It was probably a combination of being wet and cold. That and the fact my glasses were constantly wet and/or frosted over. Ugh. We shared the fabulous video of the whale encounter from this morning with friends, Lori and Steve, and they told us they were in the other zodiac that saw it too. Lucky ducks! We had a nice lunch in the Bistro. For some reason the Captain had stopped the ship in a small cove during lunch, probably so we could enjoy watching all the whales in this area. We also saw a sailboat coming into the cove and he anchored not too far from us. It looked so small. Being on a sail boat in Antarctica sounds very romantic but I'm pretty sure I'd be in panic mode 24/7.
 |
| I like to think of myself as hardy, but . . . . no sailing in the Antarctic for me!! |
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| It must be "interesting" - probably a handful of passengers, maybe a "working" adventure. |
(Randy) In the afternoon we headed to Damoy Point, which is located on the west side of Wiencke Island in the
Palmer Archipelago. The voyage in was challengingly since it was very narrow. We entered what looked like a cove, but at
the end there was a narrow passage which led to another narrow strait (Neumayer Channel – beautiful) to Damoy Bay. There are two huts at this location: one a maintained British refuge hut and the other an Argentinian hut that was not maintained and looked like it was ready to collapse. The British hut
was previously used as a transit station for personnel and supplies to be taken
from the ship and flown south in early summer when sea ice blocked access to
Rothera Station. The small prop planes took off and landed on the hill behind the hut. Eventually they decided it was too dangerous to continue doing that. The British hut
is still functional, though more of a museum than anything else now. We decided to explore the area before going into the hut.
(Kathy) Newmayer Channel was beautiful. The wind was picking up snow from the mountain tops and it billowed down the side of the mountains. It looked like fog.
 |
| We decided to head to the penguin rookery before going into the hut |
(Randy) There is a
Gentoo Penguin colony that spends the summer nesting here so we began our
ascent to that site. About 15 minutes
into the hike we were advised that due to some incoming bad weather, the captain
had cancelled the shore excursion and directed everyone back to the ship. That was a little exasperating, but it is
what it is. We stopped for a few minutes
to check out the British hut but didn't have time to go in and then headed down to the landing site for the zodiac
back to the ship. Captain made a good
call! By the time we boarded the zodiac
it was raining/snowing, the winds had picked up, and the seas were beginning to
churn. We got back to the ship, dumped
our wet clothes, and went in search of a beer.
We had dinner
with a very nice couple we met from Washington state (you really didn’t think I
was going to say DC did you?!). Jerry is
a retired USAF Colonel (O-6), USAF Academy Grad (1977), and FB-111 pilot, one
of my very favorite aircraft from the Vietnam era. Very interesting career, both active duty and
SES civil service with lots of very “interesting” assignments. He is married to a most charming lady,
Sharon. Very nice meal, lots of good
conversation, accompanied by even more laughter – a memorable evening!
(Kathy) It was a fast, bumpy zodiac ride back to the ship. We were trying to out race the weather and we were almost back to the ship when it started to hail and we got hit by a small wave. As luck would have it I was in the front so got a lot of spray. I got drenched but it was fun. That hot shower felt great when we got back to the cabin.
We've been fortunate to meet so many wonderful people on this trip. Dinner with Jerry and Sharon was a lot of fun this evening. They're both avid kayakers and it was interesting to hear about their experiences on the kayaks as opposed to the zodiacs. Pros and cons to both. We've also spent fun time with and enjoyed dinners and lunches with Steve and Lori from North Carolina and Mark and Brian from Canada. Occasionally we've had dinner at a big table with up to 10 people and then we often enjoy tables for two also. Nice mix up. And for lunch, the Bistro has been an easy way to meet some of the Quark crew one on one.
2 Jan
25: You can call us Rednose or Royal
Order of the Penguin!!
(Randy) Today is a sea
day and quite frankly a welcome sea day as it’s a day of rest. Or in my case, maybe I can catch up on a few
things. First good thing – no wakeup
call. We slept in until 9:00! Without looking at a clock it’s really hard
to know what time it is by the light coming through the cracks in the curtains. It looks the same at 9:00 PM and 9:00
AM.
Today is a big
day – we officially cross the Antarctic Circle, approximately 66̊ South.
It appears that it is somewhat of a floating target due to the earth’s
axial tilt which varies over time. Who
knew?? Historically the maritime
community has labeled significant events.
For example, before Beanie and I crossed the equator we were Pollywogs,
once we crossed we became Shellbacks.
There are several variants depending on the vessel, i.e., a submarine
may be a Top Secret Shellback depending on the mission. When crossing the Arctic Circle one becomes a
member of the Order of the Blue Nose, transitioning the Panama Canal
makes you a member of the Order of the Ditch and for the Antarctic
Circle, the Bean and I are officially members of The Order of the Red Nose. There are lots of names for doing almost
anything like this.
We crossed the circle at 10:30 AM. Champaign flowed,
patches to commemorate the event were passed out, and of course, pics were
taken. Here’s our contribution. Note: No Mouth added to his impressive travel record and made it to the celebration!!
 |
| I'm holding the patch we each got for crossing the circle. The map shows our route to here, follow the red line from Ushuaia to the Antarctic Circle |
After the
crossing we continued our exciting journey by doing some laundry in our
bathroom. Ahh, the luxury of
sparing no expense. I will do you all a good deed and avoid sharing this portion of the program in film. About an hour or so later, we got word that
the outside winds had risen to around 60 knots and the outside decks have been
closed.
Laundry
complete and then an afternoon presentation on whales, with an emphasis on baleen
whales. The presenter is Marla, one of
the onboard biologists. She is from
Vancouver Island. Beanie is a big fan. I wasn’t initially a
big fan, but she’s kinda grown on me. I
saw her as a bit over the top exuberant but it’s just her being her and she is
very sincere in all her enthusiasm. This is her in a pic with me and the Bean
when we crossed the Antarctic Circle. I tried to stop No Mouth from winging
her!
 |
| (L to R) Bean, Me, No Mouth, and Marla. . . just to be clear!! |
We continue to
be “bed posted” due to the weather. It
was sleeting/snowing pretty good for a while and the seas were rough enough for
the bow breaks to cast water all over the deck and windows all the way up to deck 7. It's the first time the decks have iced over and snow accumulated. Not sure of the temps but felt like the coldest day of the trip, which isn't surprising since this is the furthest south we've been.
Beanie decided
to skip dinner and have an early evening so I joined the guys next door
for dinner. We followed it up by
attending the Bar Talk session.
They’ve had these sessions periodically throughout the expedition,
usually one of the Quark Expedition team members recounted some event or cause
with which they have been involved. This
session focused on one young woman's experience raising a baby rhino in South
Africa. The mother was killed by
poachers and the baby had been severely cut by an axe and machete. She was one of the primary caregivers that
nursed the baby rhino back to health and raised it to the point where it could
be released to the wild. Nice story and I suspect a highly valued memory. Quite a transition from the plains of South
Africa to the frozen world of Antarctica.
The Captain has
the ship underway, heading northbound along the Antarctic Peninsula – starting
our northward trek back to Ushuaia. Off to bed.
(Kathy) Another fun day. Glad we were able to cross the Antarctic Circle, as that part of the trip was a bit iffy. Most ships don't come down this far South because of too much sea ice even in the summer and also time constraints. We got lucky as it's still early in summer for the sea ice to be mostly gone.
There were two presentations in the late afternoon. Fabrice, the Ornithologist, gave a very funny presentation about penguin guano - complete with photos and video! And then the ship hotel manager gave us stats on the ship crew, crew and passenger nationalities, passenger age range (I think the youngest was 8 and the oldest 92), quantity of food it takes for a trip of this length, how they manage to keep fresh produce fresh for 20 days, and various other tidbits of info. Both presentations were very good. I headed back to the cabin for an early night and Randy headed to dinner with Mark and Brian.
3 Jan
25: Heading Northbound – The End Is In
Sight
(Randy) We turned north during the night and are settled into
a bay at a place called Fish Islands. I
don’t know anything about it, but the seas are flat, winds are calm, and it’s
30̊ . Lots of brash ice and there were humpbacks feeding earlier this
morning around the ship. We’re going to do Zodiac
cruises only – I suspect there are no good places or restrictions regarding
shore landings.
There are seven islands, all named after fish. We got a new zodiac driver/guide (for us) named Mauricio from Chile. He turned out
to be exceptional. Our first sighting
was humpback whales. Good sighting of three
of them, that hung around to engage in a feeding festival. We watched them for about 15 minutes with
lots of activity.
(Kathy) It started to snow while on the zodiacs as you'll see in the videos and photos. The whale sighting was the best of our trip so far. There were three humpbacks feeding very close to our zodiac and since the sea was so calm and no wind, it was very quiet so we could hear their blows as they surfaced. Before the trip I didn't think such quiet and calm was possible down here. But it is eerily quiet without the sound of the wind or the ocean. That made for a different feel to this zodiac tour. I like it!
We got a good look at a Crabeater seal and then an Adelie penguin rookery. We had seen the random Adelie here and there on other excursions but this is the first time we saw a rookery. Randy says they look like someone sewed buttons on their heads for eyes. I agree. Very cute.
 |
| Adelie penguin rookery |
 |
| Check out the button eyes - kinda creeps me out!! |
(Still Kathy) I was really hoping to see a leopard seal on this trip. What an amazing animal. Unlike other seal species they are solitary. It's only natural predator is the orca. The females are huge and 50% bigger than the males. They have massive jaws and lots of very sharp teeth. Though they eat krill, squid and fish, as adults their main diet is penguins and other seals. Our zodiac driver, Mauricio, told us that they no longer take zodiacs to a particular area because the leopard seals had become a bit too aggressive there. They had started bumping into the zodiacs and even biting it. I knew he was trying his best to find one for us but I was losing hope as we didn't have many days left. Below is a video I think you'll like about a very special leopard seal encounter by a National Geographic photographer in Antarctica. It's not too long and it's really good. Enjoy!
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/140311-paul-nicklen-leopard-seal-photographer-viral
Guess what, we found two leopard seals on ice flows and Randy got a good video of one peeing - National Geographic's got nothin' on Randy!
 |
| She looks so comfortable |
 |
| You can see why Leopard Seals get their name |
And then the larger of the two leopard seals jumped into the water and swam towards our zodiac. Because of her size, Mauricio felt sure she was a young female. She spent several minutes circling the zodiac and spy hopping to get a better look at us. She was obviously as curious about us as we were her and seemed to be enjoying herself as she swam around and under the zodiac. I never expected this good of an encounter! Wow. She was beautiful in a reptilian sort of way.
 |
| Yes, look at me! I am soooo cute! |
Mauricio then took us through some thick brash ice into a small channel between ice formations. We were hoping the zodiacs would give us these types of opportunities to weave in and out of places. It was a really good zodiac trip and due to the great weather, everyone got to be a little more adventuresome in our travels.
(Still Kathy) Our group and Fabrice's group were probably the
last two zodiacs out. Remember they go out in pairs, it's a safety thing. Fabrice intentionally beached his Zodiac on a slab of sea ice. He got out, checked it for being solid
enough to hold people, and then everyone jumped out onto the
ice. Fabrice then motioned to Mauricio to do the same and we followed suit. I've never read any trip reports or reviews from people that have done this. We're pretty sure this is NOT standard operating procedure and also pretty sure neither of them cared. It was so cool to be in the Antarctic ocean, standing on a slab of
sea ice and just enjoying the moment. Hope we didn't get anybody in trouble!!
 |
| It surprised us when Fabrice drove his zodiac onto the ice flow |
 |
| Fabrice, what a ham! And just how old is that parka?! |
 |
| Fabrice and our "sister" zodiac beached on a slab of sea ice |
 |
| We soon followed suit. Randy helped everyone off while Mauricio stayed on the zodiac. I think he was nervous it would float away. |
 |
| Well this is our last selfie - eh, maybe not. |
(Kathy) The afternoon zodiac was in Bigo Bay. Quark had never made a stop here before. The weather had gotten foggier and colder since this morning and there were good size swells. It was interesting to go through some thick brash ice, lots of bumping and nudging, and we saw a couple of Weddell and Crabeater seals. We got on and off the zodiacs from the side of the ship rather than the back, which we've only done once or twice before. It had to do with how big the swells were.
 |
| She was a beauty! |
 |
| And the camera just loved her - clearly not her first photo session. |
(Kathy) Here's a cheat sheet on the eight different species of penguin in Antarctica and the Sub-Antarctic islands. We saw 6 of the 8 species. We didn't see the Emperor or the Rockhopper. It was a very long shot to see an Emperor in the areas that we were at and not sure why we missed the Rockhoppers.
If you want to do something fun, you can go through the blog and see how many penguins we have misnamed and then tell us about it. Now, that's fun!
4 Jan 25: Last Day Before The Drake Passage Back To Ushuaia
(Randy) The Yalour
Islands are located east of the Argentine Islands in the Penola Strait. They
were discovered and named by Charcot’s French Antarctic Expedition of 1903-5.
The low-lying islands are scattered over 1.5 miles and are home to
breeding Adélie Penguins. Grounded icebergs are also common in this region
along with Humpback Whales. We did a zodiac cruise and then a landing. Got a good look at a Crabeater seal.
 |
| Nope, no seals here, just me - a brown rock with a pretty face. |
(Kathy) In the afternoon we continued heading north, hugging the Antarctic coastline and then we went through the Lemaire Channel, well known for its beauty. The channel is 68 miles long and only 2000 ft wide at its narrowest with high cliffs on either side. In some spots it almost feels like you could reach out and touch the cliffs. We had a beautiful day for it and spent a couple of hours on deck enjoying the gorgeous scenery. We saw several ships along here, from small sail boats to a couple of ships about the size of ours. We didn't see any of the huge cruise ships though and I don't know if they don't come this far South or maybe its too challenging for them to navigate because of all the icebergs and how narrow it is. We also visited the bridge.
 |
| Entering the Lemaire Channel |
 |
| A visit to the bridge - nice thing is you can do this whenever you like, no "tour"! |
 |
| Captain Juraj Zekan - he did amazing things to make our expedition great! |
 |
| Some Quark "wannabe" cruise ship. |
 |
| More of the channel. Beautiful. |
 |
| It's like the seal version of tubing |
 |
| The sun came out and it was a beautiful day |
(Randy) There were spots along the channel with quite of bit of brash ice and the ship made a crunching sound as it went through it and occasionally we would hit a larger piece and you could hear that but it didn't seem to affect the ship at all. Not sure if we’ve described the
construction of the Ultramarine. It was purpose built for polar waters and WRT to
its polar rating its basically one notch below an icebreaker with the
capability to handle most sea ice we would encounter at this time of year. To the best of our knowledge it is a one on a kind.
 |
| Brash ice |
(Kathy) This afternoon we did another zodiac tour and landing at Damoy Point. You may recall that we stopped here briefly on 1 January but due to bad weather coming in the Captain called us all back to the ship. There are two huts at this location. One has been long abandoned by the Argentinians and its falling down. The other is a well preserved British hut built in 1973 and used for several years as a British summer air facility and transit station for scientific personnel. It was last occupied in 1993. It has been kept as a museum with all the original things left in it. The snowy hill behind the hut was where the small prop planes landed and one of the reasons it was eventually abandoned was the danger involved in landing here. Well, yeah. The weather was much better this time and we had time to enjoy walking around the area as well as go inside the hut.
(RC) Another interesting "feature" of Damoy point is it had a landing strip of sorts. Small prop planes, equipped with skis versus wheels landing gear, brought in supplies and rotated personnel in and out.
 |
| Tides out |
 |
The two huts. The bigger one is the British hut. The hill behind it is where planes landed
|
 |
| Everything man made looks so small on this giant, virtually uninhabited, continent |
 |
| Kitchen |
 |
| "Equipment" room |
 |
| Dining/Meeting/Bar |
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| Bunk room - almost makes a submarine look roomy |
 |
| OMG, they left without us!! I told Beanie to step it up! |
 |
| Heading back to the huts after a walk about |
 |
| Now that's a blue sky |
 |
| Chatting it up and looking over the nest |
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| Small rocks needed for nest building are a premium here - often stolen and restolen |
 |
| Ahhh Shit! More climbing!! |
(Kathy) At this point our note taking efforts had slacked off a bit. I think this is the night we had a nice dinner with Mark and Brian. The evening fun continued in the theater with Quark Jeopardy. We teamed up with M and B and three other people. The questions were about the ship and Antarctica. We did pretty good too, came in second. Way to go team! And then another pretty sunset at 11:30.
(Randy) Tonight is Antarctic Jeopardy. We broke into teams of our own choosing. All the categories were related to the past three weeks of the expedition to include locations, wildlife, vessel, crew, and any humorous antidotes that may have occurred. It was a really good time and we won the silver medal, which of course, meant nothing at all except we sucked less than some other teams!!
5 Jan
25: Sea Day One Through the Drake
Passage
(Randy) We’ve left
Antarctica and are heading through the Drake passage. We are anticipating some level of the infamous "Drake Shake" as the seas and weather can get a little "sporty" - really like that term.
Well as we were told, the seas are getting higher and the Captain
closed the outside decks to all passengers and judging from the sea spray we’re
seeing coming over the bow, it’s a good call.
The day was
pretty quiet with a couple of briefings.
The first one was like an infomercial for future Quark expeditions. A couple of them looked pretty interesting,
primarily Patagonia (Chile) and Iceland.
Never really thought I would have any interest in paying large amounts
of money for people to take me some place cold and without a golf course!!
We had dinner
with Steve/Lori and Jerry/Sharon. Steve and Lori are from North Carolina where they have some land with horses. Lori is a cat
person so we know she’s good!! Gerry and
Sharon are from Washington state. They kayaked every opportunity they had while we preferred to leave the driving to someone else! I
think we've mentioned both couples earlier. Both couples love to travel and have strong military links, brothers, parents, and in-laws that have
served. Dinner was very good, as usual,
full of good food, wine, and laughter.
 |
| Dinner w/friends, (L-R) Jerry, Sharon, Dweeb, Ms. Dweeb, Steve, & Lori |
We
followed up by attending Bar Talk. It
has rapidly evolved into my favorite presentations. Tonight, Johnny, one of the helo pilots,
presented the highlight (and low lights) of his solo bicycle trip across Lake Bikal in Siberia in
the winter. What he planned from his
“intensive” research on Google to be a 7 day bike ride turned into a much longer trip. Ah, the harsh
anchor of reality. His quick wit and
presentation style had the audience roaring. His next adventure will be a sailboat trip with his wife to Antarctica. My guess is he's never sailed before, but that won't stop him!
(Kathy) Well this was a very nice, relaxing day at sea. Followed up with a very enjoyable dinner with new friends and Bar Talk.
6 Jan 25: Sea Day 2 Through the Drake Passage
(Kathy) The seas haven't been too bad considering we're in the Drake Passage. Either that or we've all got our sea legs at this point. This is the last day of the cruise. We got packed up. There was an auction in the evening. No, we didn't bid on anything. I thought the coolest thing was an Antarctica flag that had flown on the ship during our trip. It was in bad shape, of course, because of the wind but that just added to it. It was fun to watch people get into bidding wars, all in good spirits. Speaking of spirits, the champagne was flowing......always good to get the wallets loosened up! The money went to a good cause (see below). Following the auction the Quark photographer/videographer showed us the movie she had put together from a compilation of photos and videos during our trip. It was set to music and very well done. And then the Quark crew all assembled for a photo. The Quark video will be at the end of the blog for your viewing pleasure.
 |
| Members of the staff, crew, and expedition team - they clean up pretty good! |
7 Jan 25: Back to Ushuaia, Disembark
(Kathy) We had a beautiful morning to sail back through the Beagle Channel to Ushuaia where we caught the chartered JetSmart flight back to Buenos Aires. We had planned on spending one night in Buenos Aires but our flight the next day was cancelled. So we ended up spending two nights in Buenos Aires and flying home on 9 January.
 |
| Almost back in Ushuaia |
 |
Beautiful day in Ushuaia
|
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| Jerry and Sharon enjoying their last breakfast on the ship |
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| We're docked |
 |
Mark and Brian to the right of us
|
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| Steve and Lori to the left of us |
(Kathy) What a fabulous trip. We saw so many wonderful things and met so many wonderful people. I know Antarctica wasn't on any bucket list for Randy but he willingly did it with me. It's not the first time he has helped fulfill my dreams. I'm a lucky girl. Thanks for following along with us on this amazing adventure. Hope you enjoyed it.
(Randy) Beanie is correct, very few cold places that do not have a golf course are on my bucket list, but she is also correct (seeing a theme here?) that this was such an incredible adventure. The Quark ship, staff, crew, and expedition team were completely top shelf. The intimacy of a small ship, small number of passengers (172), and small ratio of crew to team (129 crew, staff, & expedition team) all added to its success. Everything was informal. No set early/late dining, no assigned seating, great flexibility in meals, and everything included made things very low key and relaxing while the trip itself was fun and exciting. The hotel staff was exceptional also. Everybody made everything easy.
Thanks to everyone, especially all the great new friends we made. Special shout out to Mark and Brian, Steve and Lori, and Jerry and Sharon. We hope to keep in touch and spend more time together in a future adventures.
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| Finally, the last selfie - this time we mean it |
PS: Update on Iceberg A23a: Some of you may have seen in the news recently that A23a, the biggest iceberg in the world, that we saw shortly after leaving South Georgia Island on 27 Dec, grounded about 5 miles from South Georgia in early March. There were concerns that if it got too close to the island it would impact the wildlife there but scientists are now saying that it should be okay. Icebergs normally break up pretty quickly when it reaches the warmer water up by South Georgia.
Final Footnote: As part of our expedition, Quark put together an excellent slide show presentation highlighting our trip. All the pictures were provided by either the passengers or expedition team. It is specific to our trip. Two quick notes. First, if you look very closely you may see us somewhere in the show. Be alert, the opportunities come sparingly and quickly. Or as Beanie says, if you don't blink, you may see us. Secondly, we probably could have just sent this out and saved you all the pain and anguish of reading the blog but what's the fun in that? It is a large file so I have loaded it on You Tube at the following link:
Randy & Beanie's Excellent Antarctic Adventure
What an incredible trip you two shared. Randy, you were a doll to help Kathy fulfill her bucket list item. I just can’t imagine those plunging their bodies into the COLD water, nor the explorers who spent two years on icebergs. I can’t imagine being that close to the whales and penguins. I’m so glad you shared your trip with those of us who have enjoyed the highlights with you. ( I’m so very glad that Ghary didn’t have it on his bucket list😎😎) . Your commentary and videos made my day!
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