Day 14

Wednesday, February 25

Posted from SOI World HQ

Today the team continues to head north through the Drake Passage to Ushuaia. Though the crossing is a tad rough, the students and staff are in good spirits with their "back pockets" full of amazing memories and experiences of the past couple weeks. They will attend lectures and workshops on leadership, climate change and the International Polar Year. They will discuss how to take what they've seen and learned over the course of the expedition and turn it into positive action in their home communities and beyond.

They are also getting ready to disembark the ship tomorrow when they arrive in Ushuaia. Check yesterday's update for new journal entries and photos from the team sent last night!

A wave sprays sea water from the bow of the Ushuaia crossing the Drake

Journal Entry by Dan Hammond, London, ON / UWO

Soon in the Beagle Channel

About 2-3 hours away from calm waters, the Drake Passage has been relentlessly pounding us with a non-stop rolling that Geoff would qualify as one of the top 3 worst crossings ever!

Crash, slide, BOOM! Hahaha – this is what I hear as I type and what we’ve been hearing all day. Again, though, the team managed to push on through with the expedition program and I’ve been weathering the storm just fine. We had a panel discussion on the International Polar Year, a lecture on Remote Sensing, and a session on Antarctic climate change.

Otherwise, just wrapping up the course work and getting ready to step onto solid ground. It’s actually got to be one of the amusing experiences I’ve ever had.

Grise Fiord, Nunavut student Terry Noah takes a picture from the bridge

Journal Entry by Florian Hofmann and Lukas Sundermann

Drake Passage

Wir sind seit zwei Tagen auf dem Rückweg zurück nach Ushuaia. Es gab einige Vorträge aber sonst hofft jeder einfach, dass wir wieder in ruhigere Gewässer kommen. So ist die Drake…einfach kein Spaß. Good bye Antarctica!

SOI Participant Coordinator Niki Trudeau admires the beauty of Antarctica

Journal Entry by Niki Trudeau, SOI Participant Coordinator, Ottawa

Soon in the Beagle Channel

We’re almost at the end of our journey and I promised to post a journal entry, so here we go! The end of our expedition kind of snuck up on us - How fast ten days can go by when you jam pack them with new and interesting adventures!

Getting to know the staff and students over the past days has been a delight. There is a diverse mix of ages, cultures, interests and passions, which makes for quite a dynamic group of motivated people.

There is no way that I could have prepared myself for what I would find in Antarctica. No movies, photos or stories really capture the feeling of being here. This place is majestic. I know…sounds corny, but it’s true. Wildlife is overwhelmingly abundant and ‘accessible’. For instance, while visiting a gentoo penguin rookery, the penguins continued about their business, unbothered by our visit, many approaching us to inspect their visitors. As we pose no threat to the creatures that live in Antarctica, they are hardly startled by our presence. This is a bit ironic, because increasingly, our everyday behaviours continue to threaten their fragile ecosystem.

Highlights have definitely been the penguins, glaciers and the landscape. Hanging out in a penguin rookery of close to 500 000 chinstrap penguins is an experience I will never forget.

It’s pretty tough to process this experience all at once. I’m sure it will take me a while to really absorb it all. To be honest, it all seems pretty surreal. And I’m not going to lie…it’s quite difficult to sum it all up while you’re on the Drake Passage. For someone who gets motion sick on a swing set, I think I’m doing ok…but I’m definitely not going to miss our journey across the Drake. All that being said, I would do it again in a heartbeat to get another visit to Antarctica!