Day 15 - Setting Sail

Ushuaia to the Drake Passage 

The kind man that owned the place we have been staying at drove us with our luggage to the tour operator's office at 11am, and as we were due to board our ship at 4pm we needed to fill in some time. We arrived at the office and asked about the waterproof gear we had been told would be provided for our trip, it was all a bit of a muddle with no one seeming to know anything and us being sent back and forth between different offices to get gloves and pants, but eventually it was all sorted.

Nearly everything in Ushuaia is closed on a Sunday, and also closed between 1pm and 4pm every other day. The town is always teeming with tourists (in their shiny new outdoor gear)  - people from the huge cruise ships that drop in, hikers, skiers and of course people waiting to go on their Antarctic ship.

We spent most of the day in coffee shops taking advantage of their Internet to try and plan the next steps after the cruise, but we didn't get too far as the Internet is so flaky. Eventually the time came to leave, so we loaded up all our luggage and wet weather gear and headed down to the port. The first stop was the obligatory luggage scan, but security down here is very different to what we are used to, I'm not sure there is even someone looking at the screens half the time. We then headed to the gangway where we were met with the friendly staff who took our luggage on board for us.

Our cabin - more comfortable than it looks

Our cabin was cute and we were surprised that we managed to unpack everything we needed for the trip into what looked like quite limited space. We were then called for the mandatory safety talk and at the end were told to go back to our cabins, dress warmly, put on our life jackets and meet at the outside muster area for an emergency drill. After that it was hilarious, no one including us could find our cabins again, there was much laughter as we continually passed the same people in the corridors and we were all still lost. After the muster we were given a look into the life boats, very squeezy, long rows of seats with seat belts, fully enclosed (with no toilet either).

If all goes well this won't be required

Dinner was lovely with table service and then at 9pm we were called to the boot room to be fitted out with our special gumboots for the landings.

At about midnight we entered the notorious Drake Passage, lots of people had lined up to meet with the doctor and were now wearing little sea sickness patches behind their ears. For us sleep was a little difficult, with some rolling and lots of creaking from the bed furniture.