Today is a busy day for the FRAM. We docked in Ushuaia about
0715 or 7:15AM and after the clearance formalities were completed our
passengers began boarding the waiting buses. Before their flights to Buenos Aires and homeward
some passengers went on guided tours while others went shopping in Ushuaia.
Onboard the FRAM the corridors were busy with preparations
for our passengers who will arrive in the afternoon. The Expedition Staff
ventured into the deep storage compartment and retrieved many boxes on the aqua
colored weather-proof the jackets that will be passed out to the newly arrived passengers.
From the dock, diesel fuel then passenger’s luggage were
delivered. Later fresh vegetables and galley stores were stowed onboard. Just
before leaving Ushuaia we gathered on-deck for our safety drill. The Argentine
pilot was onboard and the FRAM pulled away from the dock at 1752 or 5:52 PM.
We are on our way to Antarctica ,
the great white continent. The first leg of our voyage is east in the Beagle
Channel. This Channel connects the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans and is an alternative
passageway to the more northerly Straits of Magellan and the more southerly
rounding of Cape Horn via the open oceans. The
Channel was charted by the HMS Beagle on its first voyage to Patagonia .
In the course of that endeavor the Captain of the Beagle committed suicide and
the younger Robert Fitzroy assumed command. For the second charting voyage of
the Beagle Captain Fitzroy wished to have onboard gentleman to dine and
converse with. The young gentleman that was selected was Charles Darwin and the
way we see the world around us was forever changed.
The second leg of our voyage will be a south of Cape Horn crossing
of the Drake Passage . Stay tuned as tomorrow
we will report on the weather and sea conditions in this often rough stretch of
water where the Atlantic and Pacific merge.
