Last night before I went to bed I went up to the bridge around midnight.  Even though the ship was not listing and there seemed to be no chop, the snow was swirling everywhere.  The crew at the bridge was very busy with the manual spot lights looking for icebergs as they were spotted on the radar.  I know we have hit a few small ones that are hard to avoid and they cause the ship to shudder and shake.  I think the captain directs the crew to avoid the icebergs if at all possible.

I was awoken at about 4:00 AM because my bed was tilting about 2 feet higher at my head than it was at my feet.  I got up and went to the bridge and it was still dark so you could only see all the snow with the spotlights and not much else.  The waves or swells were large and coming at the boat sideways making it list even further as it rolled along the waves.

As we pulled into Neco Harbor the mountains sheltered the ship from the wind and the waves.  In fact, it was actually calm.  The rain made me decide to skip the expedition to shore. I could see everything quite well from the ship and sat right up at the bridge and watched the people go ashore.  In matter of about 15 minutes the wind changed direction and the ship spun around 180 degrees and the waves started.  All the ice chucks that were floating around the bay were now heading to shore and made it difficult for the zodiacs to land or get back off shore with the passengers who were now cold and wet.

In the meantime, the Captain came upstairs speaking very loudly in Russian and the crew started to raise the anchor.  He spent the next hour keeping the ship away from icebergs and shore and tried to use the ship to block the wind for the people trying to get up the gangway. As soon as the last passenger was back on board and the zodiacs were placed on the back deck the ship headed out of the harbor.

Soon after they came on board and explained that we are 700 miles from Ushiuaia and that the captain has decided to head now for the Drakes Passage instead of tonight because the maximum speed we could reach was 10 knots as we headed directly into the wind.

And with that, we officially start the journey home…