December 29, 2022July 4, 2023

Embarkation Day

This post is part of our epic adventure to the Falklands, South Georgia, and Antarctica. In case you don’t want to read this sequentially, or you are looking for a specific part of the trip, here are some shortcuts:

Ushuaia, Argentina – December 28th

54°48.6′ S, 068°16.8′ W

Our day began with the mandatory covid test in the hotel conference room at 6:45am. It seemed like half of the passengers were there, and after being swabbed, you waited for them to call your name and give you the all clear to go to breakfast. Thankfully we both passed.

We had to check out by 10:30am, but weren’t scheduled to depart until 1:30pm so we hung around in the lounge, used the SLOW wifi, and ate more empanadas. In retrospect I’m glad we ate because the next food was arrival nibbles on the ship around 4:30pm.

At 1:30pm, we boarded one of three large buses for a city tour. The first stop was the old airport which had a lovely view, then on the the Ushuaia sign on the harbour, and then finally to the maritime and natural history museum in the old prison. To be completely honest, I was eager to get to the ship so I didn’t appreciate the museum that much.

Around 3:45pm, we returned to the buses and headed to the docks where we boarded a catamaran for a short ride to the ship, the Greg Mortimer. The ship was gleaming against a dramatic overcast sky – I had goosebumps.

The expedition team was all smiles as we arrived and proceeded through the mudroom and up to level 5 for checkin. There was a large selection of snacks while we waited in a short queue, and they took our photo for a “who’s who” board to help us learn each other’s names. We handed over our passports and were given our room keys and ORCA cards, which are used for any purchases and to scan on/off the ship.

We then went down to our cabin, #410 located towards the front of the ship on the port side. Olena, our cabin attendant, showed us around and noted that the heated floors in the bathroom are great for drying wet items after shore excursions. We’d originally booked a smaller balcony cabin, but about a month out decided to upgrade to get a slightly larger cabin with a seating area just in case we ended up confined to our cabin due to covid. Neither of us had had Covid, and we’d both received our fourth shot six weeks before, so this was likely overreacting. But the extra space was great. We were both grinning ear to ear and I think I was actually hopped up and down with excitement.

Our welcome pack included our polar jackets and a water bottle. My jacket was a little big, but would be fine with all the layers underneath. Andy’s was a little small, but he was able to exchange it after dinner. All in all, it was extremely well organised.

We gathered in the lecture area for a welcome briefing. We were absolutely gobsmacked to learn that our Expedition Leader was Greg Mortimer himself! In addition to being the founder of Aurora Expeditions and the ship’s namesake, he is a legendary mountaineer and one of the first two Australians to summit Mount Everest.

There were 94 passengers in total, with the majority from Oceania and North America. There were also 79 crew and 23 people on the expedition team. Their introductions were impressive too – with specialists in geology, history, marine biology, ornithology, kayaking, and snorkelling.

We then completed the mandatory safety drill, which consisted of donning our bulky orange lifejackets, mustering in the lecture theatre, and then following the crew up to deck 7. There are two polar class life vessels, which can hold 136 people each for 5 days.

With the safety drill completed, we gathered outside to watch the Greg Mortimer cast off her lines and pull away from the dock, at last on our way to the Falklands.

We learned that meal times were by colour group. Our ORCA cards had a coloured dot and we were in the red group. Two colours are called for the first seating and then the other two colours are called 15 mins later to manage crowds. We requested a table for two because we were really trying to avoid close contact with others, and the cheerful staff sat us at a table for four but cleared away the other place settings. The restaurant manager came over to discuss my onion allergy, and brought a copy of the menu with handwritten notes from the chef. I went with the beef, and if the rest of the expedition was anything like our first meal, we would not be going hungry.

The ship swayed gently as we cruised south in the Beagle Channel. So far so good, but we were both wearing our motion sickness wristbands. I’m not sure if they do anything but they didn’t have the side effects of the pills so it was worth a go.

Around 9pm there was an announcement that the pilot was disembarking. We watched as he leapt from the open mudroom door onto the pilot vessel. We were officially on our way to the Falklands!