At sea in the Drake Passage
And so this day, our last full day together, ends with sunshine and calm seas, in the Beagle Channel between Chile and Argentina. The sky is about half clear with lines and patches of ragged grey clouds, like when a storm has just spent itself, its clothing shredded, a good party and so too has this been. It is going to be a great sunset, one that I know I will remember. Tierra del Fuego is a place of legend. But it is not legend that brings me back time and time again, it is the beauty, the wildness, like youth eternal etched with the lines of experience, always new, unexpected, raw and real. Even today, a day at sea, I have seen things I have never seen before. We made a close pass to an island, one of those places that countries like to have in order to control more ocean, to justify sovereignty outside their natural borders (hmmm, we all do it, if we can). After hours of gentle swells, always the same motion, comfortable, predictable, then something changes, you can feel it in the way you walk the deck, how you sit in a chair, lay in bed. You get used to the rhythm of moving, always moving. You know when it changes, as there is a tension until it becomes normal again, an excitement and there is land, islands, the horizon is no longer a line, a little disturbing, but very interesting. We have changed speed and course and the islands sit between us and the sea. We look, land, a few buildings, bright white, perhaps to keep up the spirits, and birds, on the wing and in the water: penguins, rockhoppers and macaroni; albatross, black-browed and grey-headed. All of this at the Diego Ramirez islands and I have never been here before, about 60 nautical miles south of Cape Horn!
Oh, the picture, what is that about? Not Diego Ramirez, not Cape Horn, not even today, but Antarctica. That would be the past, our first interest in Antarctica, whale bones, in the water, not forever, but hopefully long enough for us to remember that the wants of a few are not more important than the wants of the many. I do not mean to be sad, just thoughtful. Now the sun is setting, and it is beautiful, well worth remembering like so many other things, so much beauty, all around us and it needs to be cherished and yes, it needs to be protected.
And so this day, our last full day together, ends with sunshine and calm seas, in the Beagle Channel between Chile and Argentina. The sky is about half clear with lines and patches of ragged grey clouds, like when a storm has just spent itself, its clothing shredded, a good party and so too has this been. It is going to be a great sunset, one that I know I will remember. Tierra del Fuego is a place of legend. But it is not legend that brings me back time and time again, it is the beauty, the wildness, like youth eternal etched with the lines of experience, always new, unexpected, raw and real. Even today, a day at sea, I have seen things I have never seen before. We made a close pass to an island, one of those places that countries like to have in order to control more ocean, to justify sovereignty outside their natural borders (hmmm, we all do it, if we can). After hours of gentle swells, always the same motion, comfortable, predictable, then something changes, you can feel it in the way you walk the deck, how you sit in a chair, lay in bed. You get used to the rhythm of moving, always moving. You know when it changes, as there is a tension until it becomes normal again, an excitement and there is land, islands, the horizon is no longer a line, a little disturbing, but very interesting. We have changed speed and course and the islands sit between us and the sea. We look, land, a few buildings, bright white, perhaps to keep up the spirits, and birds, on the wing and in the water: penguins, rockhoppers and macaroni; albatross, black-browed and grey-headed. All of this at the Diego Ramirez islands and I have never been here before, about 60 nautical miles south of Cape Horn!
Oh, the picture, what is that about? Not Diego Ramirez, not Cape Horn, not even today, but Antarctica. That would be the past, our first interest in Antarctica, whale bones, in the water, not forever, but hopefully long enough for us to remember that the wants of a few are not more important than the wants of the many. I do not mean to be sad, just thoughtful. Now the sun is setting, and it is beautiful, well worth remembering like so many other things, so much beauty, all around us and it needs to be cherished and yes, it needs to be protected.
