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Photo Galleries Home Gallery: 10-Return from Antarctica (94) Event Code: 12192011
Tuesday, 20th December 2011 – Beagle Channel Axel Krack We are back, back from Antarctica, we passed the Drake Passage and now, in the morning, the coast of South America greets us with a calm, sun-shiny day. Dusky dolphins playing around L’Austral, we proceed toward the Argentine pilot station. The passing of the Drake was almost a smooth crossing, called a “Drake Lake”. "If Antarctica were music, it would be Mozart. Art, and it would be Michelangelo. Literature, and it would be Shakespeare. And yet it is something even greater; the only place on earth that is still as it should be. May we never tame it.” Andrew Denton On a day like this, between the islands of Tierra del Fuego, if you look out, you might see white sails, just sneaking around the corner of one of those islands… The myth is still alive… The myth of the Queen’s corsairs – the legend of Sir Francis Drake. Anno 1577, Queen Elizabeth I commissioned five ships to sail around the world. On November, 1st 1577, under the command of Sir Francis Drake, the "Queen's Corsairs" set sail from Plymouth for the Spanish-controlled Pacific Ocean. The Pelican, Drake's flagship, was later renamed the Golden Hind. After storms separated the ships, mutinies and desertions, Drake and his sole remaining ship negotiated the dangerous Strait of Magellan between August 20th and September 6th, 1578, becoming the first non-Spanish, European captain to sail the waters of the largest ocean in the world. Having made discoveries extraordinary, plunders incredible and a voyage fantastic, on September 26th, 1580, Drake, anchored outside of Plymouth to ask some local fishermen whether the Queen was still alive. He had become the second man to sail around the world, the first Englishman to accomplish the feat. Today was filled with lectures and informal meetings regarding disembarkation but almost everybody join in the sunshine to enjoy the grandiose view of the coast of the end of the world. We took aboard our Argentine pilot at 10 am and proceeded towards Ushuaia, the end of this voyage. L’Austral came alongside the pier in Ushuaia at 3:30 pm so that everybody enjoyed the possibility of shopping in town. At 7 pm, our Captain invited everyone to the Theatre for a farewell cocktail, which was followed by the gala dinner, during which the entire crew (almost) was introduced to the passengers and this was a good opportunity to express our thanks.
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