Goodbye Antarctica!

The Drake Passage revisited
26 February 2006    
Captain Steve pulled anchor at 6.18am and steered us out into the Drake Passage for our return trip to Sth America. The present forecast shows light northerlies and the best weather for crossing the Drake since we have been down here. So it is with mixed feelings that we leave this special and incredible place. There are so few places on this earth that offer such raw and wild beauty so one can not help but feel a sense of privilege at having visited and experienced this place. I am left with a multitude of everlasting impressions; many lifetimes of stunning mountains to climb, startling beauty in icebergs that are beyond art, and the animals. I will never lose the vision of skiing down a slope while watching a Humpback whale swim along the channel below or the humour of baby Gentoo penguins chasing their mother to the seas edge in the hope of a last morsel to be regurgitated by her before she dives into the ocean to collect more. Yes, the memories are plentiful and colourful. And from a human perspective, I'd have to say that the friendship and support of Mark and Luis has been superb and it's been great to work with professionals in this wild landscape. The crew of the Evohe have been excellent and catered for us tirelessly and faultlessly. Lastly, we couldn't have asked for a better group of clients and many a long lasting friendship has been made on this trip amongst us.

So there will probably won't be much news from us these next three days while we cross the Drake but there will certainly be more adventures once we make landfall at Puerto Williams in Chile on the 3rd.
Guy Cotter