We enjoyed a late-morning wakeup call today, allowing us a bit more sleep after a mildly bumpy Drake evening. An extravagant brunch was served, including waffles, mimosas and Bloody Marys! We spent the day enjoying the amenities this beautiful ship has to offer—something we have not had much time to do yet with our busy expedition schedule. We enjoyed the hot tub, sauna and spa. We shared photos and travel stories with our new friends. Our undersea specialist showed us dive footage taken throughout the trip, and Captain Martin himself taught us all about the beautiful new National Geographic Resolution. The true highlight of the day was watching the crew show! The crew shared their skills, showcasing magic, dancing and singing abilities. We all rocked out to the band! Beautiful views of Ushuaia helped ease the pain of the end of our trip. Farewell, and see you next time, National Geographic Resolution.
2/2/2023
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National Geographic Explorer
Cierva Cove and Portal Point
While Zodiac cruising around Cierva Cove today, we met a well-traveled whale. So well-traveled, in fact, that it has been spotted four times near three continents since 2007. How do we know this information? Thanks to a website called Happywhale.com that conglomerates whale photographs. Whales have tail fins, or flukes, that act as individual fingerprints thanks to each whale’s unique scars and color patterns. When all these fluke photos come together on Happywhale.com, the whales can be identified and tracked. After uploading a photograph taken in Cierva Cove today, we discovered that our whale’s ID number is PAN-1172. It was first spotted in Ecuador in 2007. Since then, it has been seen in Colombia, Panama, and, as of today, Antarctica. While viewing PAN-1172, we were visited by a group of “Vikings” delivering hot cocoa. Some weather set in that affected our afternoon plans. Nonetheless, we enjoyed motoring through the Graham Passage on National Geographic Explorer . During the later evening hours, we touched the mainland of continental Antarctica at Portal Point. Our previous landings were on Antarctic islands. We made a quick stop as we had ventured out after dinner to make the jaunt happen.
