And we’re off to Isla de lsla de los Estados with a great group! Katherine writes about the first day below!
Day one. We stowed our gear and had an onboarding / safety briefing to learn the important things like our emergency assignment, how to gear up for going on deck, how to operate the bathroom and for some of us (probably just me) which side is port and which is starboard. Then we gathered on deck and watched as we sailed away from Ushuaia to begin our journey. The water was calm and the air crisp. We watched for marine life, viewed the Petrels fly and skim the water. We spotted some penguins hanging out in small groups. They would dive when we approached… there were some that would wait a bit longer to dive and we were advised they were likely teenagers. Some of the folks took a siesta and I stayed up to learn about the instrument panel. As we got closer to the spot where we would look for penguins everyone came up on deck.
We passed the Lighthouse les Eclaires and smiled at the Cormorant birds preening like penguins. I thought they were penguins until one of them flew. Andreas, one of the other adventurers has the eyes of a hawk… she spotted some Minki whales in the distance. She explained to try to find what looks like steam rising from the water. This was the Minki blowing before coming to the surface for a few seconds to get air before going back under. We diverted that direction and cut the engine to watch. After this we got back on track and headed to an inlet to see some penguins. We saw some Gentoo and Magellanic penguins on the shore. Some were molting and were surrounded by feathers on the ground. Next we headed over to Bahia Cambaceras where we dropped anchor and took the zodiac to shore. The group split into several smaller groups, one searching for spiders, one taking wildlife photos and my group just enjoying a nice hike. Each group found something different. We saw Usnea growing on the trees, lots of flowering weeds and 2 wild grey horses. Ninda was able to get closer and the horses seemed interested. We found that when Laura and I approached the horses moved away from us. We decided it was due to our clothing colors…Ninda was wearing grey in a similar shade to their coloring. We ended our hike at the onset of dusk and hitched a zodiac ride back to the Ocean Tramp where we enjoyed a nice dinner of beef tenderloin.
