Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

most had succumbed to sea-sickness; I felt thankful yet again that I have never been
visited by this all
It brightened in the afternoon and I spent some time watching the birds following
us - grey-headed and black-browed albatrosses, fulmars, cape pigeons, giant petrels,
prions and Wilson's petrels. The autopilot was still not functioning properly and so
the crew were steering manually. The swells lengthened as the day wore on and the
motion got much worse around 6 o’clock. We passed close to the Argentine
icebreaker ‘San Martin’ coming south and she was rolling very heavily. After a rough
night the seas continued to worsen until about noon on 18 November, when there
was a gradual improvement; there were many more birds with us. It was, as always
in these conditions, tiring moving around, or even just standing up as one had to
hang on and brace muscles to stay upright, so most people lay down. The ship was
tossing like a cork in 35 ft waves, even though the captain had raised the red mainsail
and foresail to stabilize the ship and reduce the rolling.
The following day there was further improvement in the seas and we had bright
sunshine and a following of birds - the usual species, now including some blue
petrels. I spent much of the morning on deck, just watching the birds and the play of
light and shadow on the sea. We approached South America from the east-southeast,
having been blown further east than intended. It was an almost cloudless day until
we saw the tall land clouds over Isla Grande and Staten Island at about 10 o’clock.
We were due to pick up the Pilot at Cabo Santa Pio. The day continued good and as
we passed into more sheltered waters the swell flattened out. We experienced
another superb sunset - luminous pastel shades shot with heavy purple, black and
crimson clouds. The pilot had decided that he didn't want to come so far out and so
we picked him up at Harburton at about 1 o’clock in the morning - by which time I
had gone to bed!
Next day was a Sunday. I woke to a strangely still ship, for we were tied up
alongside the quay at Ushuaia. It was bright and sunny with only a slight breeze and
all the mountains around were much freer of snow than a month ago and very clear.
We all had a walk ashore, did some packing and moved gear into the warehouse and
then had lunch in a restaurant ashore. Tom and Natalie Goodall came aboard and
we discussed a possible trip to Rio Grande and Bahia San Sebastian on the Atlantic
coast of Patagonia. We concluded that it would be worth going, to camp two nights
and then catch the northbound plane at Rio Grande. But we had to wait until
Captain Lenie returned to the ship at about 3.0 o’clock - so that Natalie could ask if it
would be all right for her to be away for a few days. She and Ian Cameron, her
assistant, were to drive us in the Dodge truck and a little Citroen. Captain Lenie
agreed and so we made our preparations and arranged the air tickets, but were not
able to get away until 5 o’clock. The party consisted of Natalie, Ian Cameron, and
four of us - Ian, Torger, John Bengtson and myself. We took two tents but forgot the
food and some other essentials!
It was a superb drive through the mountains, with beautiful landscapes in all
directions. The dirt roads were very dusty and we had all our baggage and more in
the two cars, so it was a bit cramped. Natalie drove Torger and me in the Dodge, Ian
and John were with Ian Cameron in the Citroen. The deciduous beeches were
coming into leaf - Notofagus pumilio was green, but N antarctica was still purplish,
covering the hillsides like scottish heather. The swamps in the valley bottoms -
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