Our last day at sea.
The Drake was kind to us again, thank goodness. We spent the day finishing up our packing, working on photos, and wandering the Seaventure.
Ben, expedition photographer, hosted the photo competition. A group of staff had picked through the top five images in a series of categories. Winners were selected based on the volume of audience clapping. Conny and Hannah J. of the expedition staff acted as ‘clap-o-meters’ to measure clapping volume. They took their role quite seriously. There were some outstanding pictures in the competition. We didn’t enter any of the categories but should have, as many of ours were as good or better than the winning submissions.
The crew held an auction with any monies to be donated to the South Georgia Conservation Fund. There were some great items up for what turned out to be spirited bidding – some nice jewelry, the expedition flag signed by the crew, a beautiful piece of artwork by our own Hannah L. We really wanted her piece, but the bidding was fast and furious and was too rich for our blood. Dick, in his wisdom, attempted to run up bids on a bottle of ‘Endurance Whisky’ to help with the donations. He ended up getting caught with the winning bid. Oh well.
After dinner and the Captain’s farewell cocktail, we spent time chatting and saying farewell to our new friends and the wonderful expedition staff and ship crew. We were blessed to meet some really fun and interesting people.
The ship entered the Beagle Channel around 20:00 and a few hours later the bright lights of Ushuaia came into view. In the morning we disembark and head to Buenos Aires for a single night’s stay before continuing on to Patagonia’s Lake District.
Final trip penguin count: 640,750