Time 08:04, 54 degrees 48.62' South, 68 degrees 17.81' West, partly cloudy and dry with one or two showers in the evening, Air Temperature 15 oC, Water Temperature 9.4 oC, Wind Northwest force 4.
Shoe fashion on San Martin, Ushuaia's main street.
As an Expedition Team this is our last time sailing from Ushuaia for Antarctica. It will be sad for us to go our separate ways after a great season in Antarctica but before that hopefully we have plenty of amazing wild life and dramatic scenery to see this week.
I spent the day around Ushuaia and doing a bit of last minute shopping and headed back to the ship knowing that the next time I come ashore it will be to head for home.
One job that has to be carried out while we are in Ushuaia between cruises is the allocation of a coloured plastic clip-on disk to each of the 490 passengers coming aboard. There are four different colours and three letters for each colour.
A plastic lettered coloured disk is allocated to each passenger for the cruise.
Based on the passenger list passengers are allocated a colour group. This allows for the smooth control of passengers ashore, ensuring they all get an hour at each landing and that we don't exceed our limit of 100 passengers ashore at any one time. Envelopes have to be written up with the passenger cabin number and the allocated number of coloured disks.
"Envelope Stuffing" by expedition team members.
Usually a team of four expedition team members then has to "stuff envelopes" putting the required number of lettered disks into the corresponding envelope - confused? I hope not.
Once passengers are given their disks they wear them when going on the zodiac cruise and on each of the landings.
A male Kelp Goose on the waterfront in Ushuaia today.
A Black-crowned Night Heron, also on the waterfront in Ushuaia today.
It was a perfect evening for sailing east out the Beagle Channel, huge Southern Beech forests cover dramatic hills and mountains on both sides of the channel. With Ushuaia still in sight a whale surfaced fairly close to the ship but we were unable to get a positive identification as it was in the sun but the consensus was that it was probably a Humpback Whale. The channel teems with bird life with large numbers of Imperial Shags, South American Terns and Kelp Gulls as well as smaller numbers of Black-browed Albatrosses and Giant Petrels to be seen all along the channel. Near Harberton on the north side of the channel I saw a large rookery of easily over 400 Magellanic Penguins on the shore and we saw some penguins in the water close to the boat. The forecast is not too bad but we are expecting the crossing of Drake Passage to be a bit rougher than usual. We will have to wait and see. Bye for now.
The view of the Beagle Channel from the stern of the Marco Polo this evening.
Wildlife seen around Ushuaia and in the Beagle Channel.
Mammals
Unidentified Seal 1
Unidentified Whale 1
Birds
Giant Petrel 20+
Black-browed Albatross 30+
Magellanic Penguin 400+
Imperial Shag 300+
Black-crowned Night Heron 7
Kelp Goose 8
Upland Goose 82
Flying Steamer Duck 12+
Crested Duck 25+
Southern Caracara 1
Chimango Caracara 6+
Southern Lapwing 10+
Blackish Oystercatcher 9
Magellanic Oystercatcher 3
Baird’s Sandpiper 1
Chilean Skua 15+
Kelp Gull 250+
Dolphin Gull 20+
Brown-hooded Gull 2
South American Tern 300+
Dark-bellied Cinclodes 3
Austral Negrito 5
Chilean Swallow 10+
Austral Thrush 1
Correndera Pipit 2
Rufous-collared Sparrow 3
House Sparrow 50+
Black-chinned Siskin 15+
Note: A + sign after the counts indicates that we saw at least that number but more may have been present.
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