Trip reflections

We are now back in Ushuaia and largely caught up on sleep etc.
The trip feels like it has gone well, but as always it had several aspects that were different from expectations.
Firstly we had no wind on the 11 days of the trip.  This is one of the windiest places in the world and we never got to sail. It also meant that we had brilliant paddling conditions.
The glaciers calving into the water were spectacular and we had great fun and were awed paddling amongst the icebergs flowing from them.  I think we paddled in front of 5 tidal water glaciers.
The water was colder than research indicated.  We were expecting water temperatures of 4-8 degrees, but in the glacial bays we experienced new pancake ice forming amongst the glacial blocks.  Easy enough to paddle through, but too cold to fall out into.
Condors were almost common and we could even see a pair nesting (just).  Penguins were not at all common, but steamer ducks were comic relief. Albatross and Petrels were seen, but not as often as on the antarctic convergence.
Dolphins of several types were also common and we were often entertained by their presence, once for 30 minutes.  We only saw a single seal and were not graced by the presence of the resident orcas.
There were no board walks or well formed tracks, but there were quite a few trails and huge potential for further land exploration. The land is almost all swampy and damp, sometimes its swamp under beech forest and sometimes its open land, but always its soft and wet.
The wet land made camping less attractive, but the yacht, despite being cramped with 11 of us aboard, worked well; providing a warm, dry haven at the end of each day.
This is a bit more of a fact feast than a blog.  Hope to find time to add pictures and better prose.

We are off tomorrow to Estancia Harberton and possibly Rio Grande tomorrow.   This afternoon we are off to explore Glaciar Martial.
Ross