We left Buenos Aires for Ushuaia on a JetSMART charter jet at around 8am on 17 January, a three and a half flight south mostly over the South Atlantic Ocean.

There was a lot of low cloud on the way down but we ended up with some views of the Andes and the Beagle Channel coming into land at Ushuaia around 11.30am.

A short bus ride from the airport transferred us to the ship, boarding all went smoothly.

Ushuaia is the southern most city in the world, it has about 100,000 residents. Consequently, our guide said, it has a lot of the most southerly things like golf courses, pubs etc.

Looked an interesting place, towered over by the Andes. A small glacier provides water to the city, but it is getting smaller ….. what happens when it disappears? ….this wasn’t discussed. Some great views from the ship decks.

At around 6pm we pulled away from the dock and set course down the Beagle Channel for the Antarctic Peninsula, roughly a thousand kilometres. Chile lay to the starboard side and Argentina to the port side.

It took us around three hours to make passage down the Beagle Channel (named after the ship on which Charles Darwin did his evolutionary thought work) into the Drake Passage.

During the middle of the night things got a little rocky in the Drake Passage. By morning the sea had calmed and the sun peaked through the clouds for a while. It retreated before lunch and the light rain returned with seas of about three metres coming in from the west. The ship performed well with all onboard ok.

We have had a session on ‘how to behave in the Antarctic’ and protect the unique environment. Quite a challenge, well and truly putting animals, birds and the local environment at the top of the heap!