On January 28th, we had a reasonable wake up call and a nice breakfast before boarding busses to the airport in Buenos Aires. Once on the bus, we were told that our charter flight to Ushuaia was delayed. That gave us a chance to meet some of our fellow passengers.

In our conversations, we learned that most of us were new to Seabourn. We met people from Australia, South Carolina, and Florida.  We met a woman whose traveling partner was having a hard time getting from Las Vegas to Buenos Aires.  He did not make the charter flight but Seabourn arranged for him to take a commercial flight into Ushuaia. He would probably make the cruise, but his luggage likely wouldn’t.  

The flight was uneventful and, as our flight attendant said, we made it to the “tippy bottom” of SouthAmerica.

The archipelago at the most south, Terra del Fuego, is shared by Chili and Argentina and separated from the mainland.  The Beagle Channel is a waterway between the two countries.  We would sail through the Beagle Channel to get to the Drake Passage – more on the Drake later.

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We learned just a bit about Ushuaia as we were bussed from the airport to the ship.

The city has 100,000 inhabitants and the primary occupations are tourism, electronics and public employment.

There she is!  Our first view of the Seabourn Venture!

Venture and Pursuit are expedition ships in the Seabourn Line.

We boarded and found our cabin.  

This cabin is handicapped accessible.  It was offered to us as an upgrade a week before departure at a very reduced rate. We definitely thought we’d like the extra room.  We “lost” a walk-in closet and bathtub in the upgrade.

We asked our room stewards (at some point) if they had ever had anyone in the cabin with significant mobility issues.  They had not and, given the nature of the trip, we can’t imagine anyone with mobility issues doing anything off the ship in Antarctica.

We tried on our “free” gear – a black puffy jacket and orange parka, a hat and a waterproof backpack.  (We got to keep them all after the trip.) We had pre-ordered sizes so they were waiting for us in the cabin.

We did the normal “get on board a cruise ship” activities such as watching a safety video and going to our muster station.

Luqui, shown introducing his team, worked in tandem with the captain. He, and the weather, were in control of our Antarctica experience. The expedition crew served in various capacities including zodiac drivers, lecturers, shore guides, kayak leaders and submarine pilots. They were always recognizable by their red jackets.

We learned there were a couple of musicians and a singing cruise director onboard. That is way fewer entertainers than most cruises but typical entertainment was not the focus of this journey. There was almost a 1:1 ratio of crew to passengers on this sailing of the Seabourn Venture with approximately 230 of each. The passenger maximum capacity is 264..

We were told that our 7 o’clock p.m. departure would be delayed because one passenger was yet to come. We assumed he was the partner of the woman we met earlier. We just hoped his luggage made it too.

We spent time in the afternoon unpacking and organizing our cabin.

We went to the mudroom to be sized for our waterproof boots to be used when on a zodiac or going ashore.  We were shown the decontamination protocol for cleaning the boots afterwards. Our cabin number was 738, higher than Serene could reach for the boots in back. (Randy added that sentence.)

After dinner, we had our first of many expedition meetings.   We were introduced to the philosophies of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.

We learned about the treaty that “governs” Antarctica.

Expedition leader, Luqui, told us a bit about the Drake Passage, a 600 mile waterway between Cape Horn and the outer islands of Antarctica.  It takes two days to go across.

The Drake passage is sometimes called Drake Lake and sometimes Drake Shake depending on the conditions.  Time would tell what we’d have.  

Some tourists to Antarctica are so concerned about sailing across the Drake Passage that Silversea cruise line, and others, design their Antarctica experiences to fly in. That wasn’t for us. We were there for it all!