We were making our way back across the Drake Passage towards Ushuaia today. Our crossing has been a little bit rougher than it was going out, but still not too bad. Nothing has been rolling around or falling off of anything and it isn’t a true “Drake Shake.”

So on the way out to Antarctica we had all kinds of preparations, so what did we do on the way back towards home?

There were some talks presented by the scientists on board. The first had to do with the research that was performed this week on the ship. There are multiple ongoing projects with some data collected on each cruise. We had 2 penguin nest counters with us and one of them spoke about the organization they work with and their ongoing work

I included this above information if you’re interested in seeing more.

A weather balloon was released, water samples were collected, underwater cameras were deployed to study the underwater animal life, microplastics were monitored, along with some other projects.

Another talk was given on microplastics. If you haven’t already read or heard anything on this, the plastics that we use break down and end up everywhere in the environment. We have no idea the long term impacts of this. Very interesting talk, but somewhat discouraging.

I went to check out the final tally of the animals that everyone saw while on the trip.

Some of the animal models they have in the naturalists’ area.

The sea conditions got a bit rougher in the afternoon and again in the evening. Still standing.