After an amazing time exploring the Antarctic Peninsula, we awoke on the final day of our journey to blue skies and wonderfully calm seas as we neared the end of the infamous Drake Passage. Right out of the gates in the morning, Naturalist Madalena Patacho told us the story of Magellan, before our attention was drawn to the slight detour we had made to sail by Cape Horn. As we made our way towards the Beagle Channel, we enjoyed views of Peale’s dolphins riding the X-bow of the National Geographic Endurance. Soon after lunch, the fresh breeze beckoned us outside again to appreciate the smell of earth and trees as we made our way back into the southern tip of South America, just in time to listen to naturalist Conor Ryan give a talk on “The Smell of the Sea.” Several species of seabirds – from albatross to petrels and penguins – and views of sei whales were seen around the ship in the afternoon. We finally rounded out our last day on board this magnificent ship with the world premiere of the Guest Slideshow, before celebrating our experience over the last 10 days at Captain Aaron Woods’ farewell cocktail party.
12/22/2024
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National Geographic Resolution
Drake Passage
There’s nothing quite like a wake to the “Drake Lake.” Bright skies, calm seas, and refreshing winds welcomed us to our journey’s jolly jaunt into the fabled gateway to the Antarctic. As National Geographic Resolution’s surroundings streamed past in crisp, high-seas definition, we used our sea day to prepare for tomorrow’s first landings beyond the Antarctic Convergence: Zodiac briefings, decontamination parties, and presentations galore filled our memory banks as we enjoyed this gift of a crossing from the sea gods. Plentiful seabirds joined the procession. Great albatrosses followed closely astern as Antarctic prions and Cape petrels zoomed about in our slipstream, all phylogenetic and ecological neighbors to yesterday’s Magellanic penguins spotted in the Beagle Channel, just before two sei whales pushed back bedtime by a whale of a margin. “Blows, big blows up ahead!” came the call from the Bridge, when, in the midafternoon, we came upon a group of lazy fin whales, casually cruising by as the second largest organisms to have ever lived on Earth. With our souls full from this small appetizer of the richness of the world to the south, Captain Martin welcomed us all to the adventures ahead. Tomorrow, the South Shetlands—onward!
