I awaken to some very rough seas, upwards of 15 foot swells. During my preparation for this trip I read up on some of the original ocean voyages to Antarctica. It amazes me that many of the ships made it to the Southern Ocean and back. The early ships came through the Drake Passage in the 1700 and 1800's and were all wooden ones. Most of the ships were sealers and whalers looking for new areas to hunt in. As the waves crash over the bow of the ship I am very glad to have a ship as large and as strong as the Marco Polo. Later in the afternoon we pass around Cape Horn. This is the area where many ships have sunk over the decades and where the story of Mutiny on the Bounty was reported to have happened. As we round Cape Horn and enter the Beagle Channel the seas have smoothed out a bit. We are again followed by a number of albatross and petrels.

Midnight - Ushuaia, Argentina
As we dock after a 20 hour crossing of the Drake Passage I know that I still have one more adventure to go before heading home. Tomorrow we will take a small sailing boat and explore the coastline of Argentina looking for South American sea lions and flightless steamer ducks.

Rob Yordi