Day13 of 13: Return From the End of the World (Friday-Saturday, February 4-5)

We cleared our stateroom by 8:00 am and disembarking wrapped up by 9:30 am. Many of the passengers, including us, were booked on an Eastern Airlines overnight charter flight from Ushuaia to Miami. Since the flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until mid-afternoon, Viking split us into groups of ~20 for a 3-hour bus tour of Ushuaia.

Our local guide was pleasant and presented a nice history of Ushuaia, including the indigenous “Yámana” people who settled the area about 10,000 years ago. Ushuaia’s modern history started with British missionaries, who adopted the Yámana name for the city, Ushuaia, meaning “deep bay.” But to ensure Argentine sovereignty, the Argentine government established a prison in the early 20^th century. The prisoners were put to work building much of the original city infrastructure. The prison closed in 1947 and became a Naval base, used during the Falklands War of 1982.

Ushuaia, capital of Tierra del Fuego province, is now a thriving city of 60,000+, known as “the city at the end of the world.” Its economy seems to be built largely around tourism and skiing. Our bus drove up to a glacier park overlooking Ushuaia where we had time for a brief hike, then back down to the city, stopping at scenic overlooks and the old airport on the way.

Glacier Martial Park & Ski Resort:

View of Ushuaia and Beagle Channel from Glacier Martial:

Beech tree forest in Glacier Martial park -- Keith and I both found the terrain to look oddly like something from Jurassic Park

Old Ushuaia airport, now a flight school and private pilot airport:

Downtown Ushuaia with Glacier Martial in the background:

Viking Octantis docked in front of Mount Darwin, the highest peak in Tierra Del Fuego province; to the far right is the second highest, with the five peaks of Mount Five Brothers 

We arrived back at the new, modern Ushuaia airport, capable of accommodating 747s and even twice received Concorde flights. We waited in various lines to complete the exit procedure and our flight departed about an hour late. 

Ushuaia airport in the Beagle Channel:

Andes Mountain range near Ushuaia

After a 3.5-hour flight to Montevideo, Uruguay, we stopped for fuel, exited the plane and went through another 2 hours of TSA-style security, since the Ushuaia airport’s procedures apparently didn’t meet TSA requirements. The overnight flight arrived in Miami on time at 4:55 am and now we have an 8-hour layover in Miami before our flight to Detroit. 

Eastern Airlines 767-300 offloading and re-boarding in Montevideo, Uruguay:

In total, it will be 36 hours of travel, door-to-door, not bad for a return trip from the end of the world. Thanks for following us on the journey.

#VikingOctantis

#MyVikingStory

Day 12 of 13: (Thursday, February 3)

We arrived at the mouth of the Beagle Channel, at the far southern tip of Argentina, about 6:30 am, completing the Drake Passage. Viking prepared certificates commemorating our crossing both ways:

In hindsight, crossing the Drake Passage is worth the discomfort. The awe of the seventh continent is a unique experience. It feels other-worldly to be there, seeing it in much the same condition it was during the early exploration and whaling days. Other than a few sailing yachts, we didn’t see any other people for eight days. 

The trip today through the Beagle Channel takes several hours. Along the way, dolphins follow our ship, as do countless Skua, Albatross and Petrel. We continue to watch them out the fitness room windows, while running on the elliptical and treadmills.

White-Chinned Petrel

Southern Giant Petrel

Black-Browned Albatross (wingspan 7-8 feet)

In the early afternoon, the ship stops to pick up a required local channel guide to assist the captain. We arrive in Ushuaia at 5:00 pm. As we enter the harbor, we see five other cruise vessels anchored in the channel. Their planned expeditions to Antarctica are apparently on hold due to COVID and they are avoiding the hefty dock fees by anchoring out here indefinitely. Glad we chose Viking, one of the few to sail to Antarctica this year.

We watched he docking process from the promenade deck before dinner (sushi!). Tonight we pack; they pick up our bags at 10 pm. We disembark at 8:00 am tomorrow and take a bus tour of Ushuaia before arriving at the airport at 11:30 am. 

Keith took other interesting photos of the ship and videos of the dolphins -- check them out on his Facebook page. My favorite interior photo of the ship is attached below:

I’m not sure if we are cruise people yet. This expedition was our first-ever cruise, so we are unable to compare. But we met many seasoned cruise travelers on this Octantis expedition, and they all say the same thing: Viking costs a bit more, but the experience is better – no casinos, no kids, no extras fees for excursions, no art sales on board. A high-quality experience. We have already booked the Great Lakes cruise from Toronto to Milwaukee on the same ship Octantis, in July 2022.

As we prepare to depart, since Viking reads posts marked #MyVikingStory, a quick thanks to the helpful crew of Octantis. 

Excursion & science crew: Vicki, Nicki, Jo, Aaron, Anne, Judith, Noah, Olivia, Lars, Julian, Damon

Dining crew: Asep, Tian, Eka, Hannah, Arlene (sushi chef), Andrii (sommelier)

Stateroom crew: R-Jay, Ayu

We hope to see some of you again in July. There are many names that I forgot to include. So to Captain Olivier Marien and the entire staff and crew, thank you for an enjoyable and memorable expedition.

#Antarctica

#VikingOctantis

#AntarcticExplorer

#MyVikingStory

Day 11 of 13: The Drake Shake (Wednesday, February 2)

There wasn’t much to do today except survive the “Drake Shake,” the nickname given to rough seas through the Drake Passage. The crew warned us yesterday about likely rough conditions and today they tied down anything loose around the ship, encouraging us to do the same in our staterooms. The captain said to expect 35-40 knots winds and 18-20 foot swells. We mostly stayed in our cabin sleeping, occasionally walking around the ship to get a better look at the rough seas.

No idea what why this crew member was scaling the ship during the Drake shake:

We felt fine overall; maybe we found our sea legs. Before dinner, we went to the Explorer’s lounge for a drink and then had light meal of – you guessed it – sushi. 

Dinner overall was sparsely attended, with many apparently skipping dinner or eating in their staterooms. The captain made an announcement at about this time that seas had worsened further, with swells to 8 meters (~26 feet). As a result, he made the difficult call to forego our planned morning visit to Cape Horn and instead sail a more direct route to the smooth waters approaching Ushuaia.

More about the Drake Passage: it is considered one of the most treacherous voyages for ships to make, a powerful convergence of seas between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, with no resistance from any landmass. During one of our daily briefings, the crew reviewed another primary contributor to the typically rough seas -- ACC.

Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is a massive clockwise rotational current around the southern pole, moving at 2-4 knots. Because the Antarctic peninsula extends north towards Cape Hope at the tip of South America, it creates the narrowest passage of the ACC around Antarctica. The resulting funnel phenomenon accelerates the current at the same point as the waters are converging between the oceans. In addition, the Andes Mountain range whips low pressure systems off the tip of South America.

Cape Petrel often follow ships through the Drake Passage, using the updraft created by the ship to assist their flight. They are hardy birds, able to fly in rough conditions without us, but they enjoy following ships, nonetheless. We saw a few out the window, but most outdoor decks were closed due to rough conditions, preventing a better look.

Being a slow day, this is a good time to comment about the crew of the Viking Octantis. I’ve participated in intensive team-building programs over the years with Opel, Saturn and Disney, as well as the LeaderShape Institute. I’m really impressed with the Viking crew; they live the customer experience every day. 

Disney has a phrase “it’s not my fault, but it is my problem” – every cast member is empowered to ensure that Disney guests have an enjoyable stay. It’s like that on Viking. Not everything went as planned, but the crew adjusted, adding programs when some activities had to be cancelled by weather or technical problems. The COVID protocol onboard was strict, but the crew made it easy to execute and we didn’t hear any complaints. Every meal had selections for every diet and taste imaginable. Crew members all knew us by first name after Day 1 (even though we couldn’t remember their names, and they were wearing nametags).

Our housekeeping staff went far beyond cleaning rooms – they are on the frontline of everything for their guests: outdoor gear, food, health concerns, directions. They gladly accept responsibility to follow-up on guest needs, interacting with Guest Services and Expedition Central as necessary. R-Jay and Ayu were our housekeeping team throughout our stay, remaining pleasant and attentive, even while working 12+ hour days through the rough Drake Passage.

Tomorrow – Ushuaia, where we will stay docked overnight before disembarking on Friday for our return flights home. We heard from Guest Services that there might be a bus tour of Ushuaia available on Friday morning.

#VikingOctantis

#AntarcticExplorer

#DrakePassage

#MyVikingStory

Day 10 of 13: South Shetland Islands and Elephant Seals (Tuesday, February 1)

Today will be our last day of off-ship excursions. Overnight we sailed north across the Bransfield Strait to the South Shetland Islands. The South Shetland Islands stretch almost 350 miles southwest to northeast, with four major groupings of islands and about 150 islands in total. Our destination was Snow Island in the southwestern end of the island chain, near Deception Island. Deception Island is classified as having “significant volcanic risk,” having erupted several times in 1967-1970.

Snow Island is unlike any of the terrain we have seen thus far in Antarctica, offering our first beach landing at President Head. Popular with elephant seals, President Head was also an historic whaling site.

We loaded our zodiac boats at 9:15 am for the short trip to President Head. We could see and hear the elephant seals well before we reached shore. But the first seal that greeted us was a crabeater seal – he seemed to be interested in us:

Then a couple of lone Gentoo penguins wandered past us, and I tried out the video feature on our Canon EOS T7:

We next walked to the other end of the beach where the Elephant seals were congregated. The elephant is the largest seal in the world, partly named for its overall size and partly for the male’s large inflatable proboscis (nose) that looks vaguely like an elephant’s trunk, on an adult male.

Elephant seals gorge themselves at sea so that their blubber reserves sustain them through the breeding season, during which they fast. Bulls constantly fight for dominance, guarding a harem of 25 to 50 cows. The fighting we saw today was relatively tame compared to what takes place in September-December breeding season. The males we saw were also young, more jostling for position rather than engaging in serious fighting.

We returned to the zodiac for the trip back to the Octantis in time for lunch and then treated ourselves to a spa afternoon before the dreaded return Drake Passage. 

At the daily briefing, we were given an unfavorable weather report for the Drake Passage, considerably worse than the rough southbound crossing last week. Here’s a screenshot of the wind forecast map for our return. Blue and green are calm winds; red and pink are stormy. The crossing down was mostly in the yellow 30-35 knot wind range (34-40 mph). The return trip looks to include the 40-50 knot range (46-57 mph). 

During dinner (sushi again), we sailed through a relatively calm wind-protected area east of the South Shetland Islands, passing Livingston, Greenwich and Robert Islands. Just before 9 pm we turned north past Robert Island, entering the Drake Passage.

#VikingOctantis

#AntarcticExplorer

#MyVikingStory

#DrakePassage