We flew from Orlando to Miami, and then flew overnight the night of March 2-3 into Buenos Aires. There we spent the entire day of March 2 while the rest of the passengers going with us to Antartica streamed into Buenos Aires and gathered in our hotel. We walked the area around the hotel for a while, but it was beastly hot, so we spent the bulk of the day resting and reading in the hotel. We have been to Buenos Aires a couple of times. I forget how many.
Carol Anne in our hotel. Viking chooses the most elegant and upscale hotels for its passengers where they gather and move as a group onto the ship. We waited in Buenos Aires for a day before flying to Ushuiara, Argentina, at the tip of South America early morning, March 3. Ushuiara is on the Beagle Channel adjacent to the Drake Passage which is between Argentina and the Anartica peninsula.
The Green dot is Ushuiara and the white peninsula below is the Antarctic peninsula and Antartica. Inbetween is the Drake Passage, a notoriously violent body of water.
The Viking Octantis shown crossing the Drake Passage on its way to Ushuiara on March 2, 2023. We would board her late in the morning of March 3 in Ushuiara after she completed her second to last expedition to Antarctica of the season. Our voyage would take us deep below the Antarctic Circle for nearly a week and would be the Octantis’ final trip to Antartica until she returns in the fall. Winter in Antartica begins in April and runs until September. The seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres are reversed. North of the Equator is summer when it is winter in the southern hemisphere.
Below is a map of the areas the Octantis visited on our expedition.
Carol Anne waits to board our chartered flight from Buenios Aires to Ushuiara on March 3. It was a three hour flight. We arrived shortly before noon and buses took us directly to the Octantis. About 350 passengers boarded the ship in Ushuiara, but only 30 of us were going the entire 63 days to Milwaukee. Most others were only going to the Antarctic and back to Ushuiara and then going home.
Ushuiara, Argentina. We have visited Ushuiara several times previously, including on a previous expedition to the Falklands, South Georgia, the Antartica Peninsula and the South Sandwich Islands. That expedition, in January and February 2018, lasted 23 days. This time we go directly down the Antartica Peninsula and will explore for less than a week, but we will explore far further south on this expedition than in 2018. For the first time, we will cross the Antarctic Circle, and cross it four times.
Outfitting. We did not bring winter coats because Viking gives each of us two coats. Shown here we are in our outer rain/snow/wind coats. We are also wearing, unseen, a separate blue inner coat made of down feathers. I pretty much lived in my blue coat during the early chillier weeks of the voyage, and again began wearing the blue inner coat as we moved further north into Canada later in April. The red outer coat wards off splashing water when heading into shore on zodiacs, and is excellent in high winds. The coldest temperature came at nearly the end of the voyage on Mackinac Island, Michigan. On our 2018 expedition, one day the temperatures in Antartica and in New York City, were both 50-degrees. Antartica surprises and often not in ways what one might not expect.
This is a floor to ceiling photograph of Aud Bob, a sledge dog from a 1913 Antarctic British expedition. Awd Bob’s photograph is across the hall afrom the door to our stateroom. I always said hello to him when entering or leaving our stateroom. Carol Anne also sometimes spoke to Bob, and also rubbed Bob’s nose every so often. The halls and public areas on the Octantis are full of floor to ceiling photos like this one celebrating Antarctic expeditions of more than a century ago.
I love Bob’s photograph. I am naming my next dog Awd Bob in his honor.
Diary 2023 