The day began WITH another breakfast in Aune and WITHOUT any announcements about turning back to South America, so it was a good start. By 9am, we had gotten just as far south as where we turned around the previous day; since we’d left Ushuaia 3 hours later than the first attempt, this demonstrated how much faster we were going.

After breakfast, we headed down to the Expedition Lounge on Deck 3 to get our boat group patches and get fitted for boots. We had good timing; by the time we were done, the line for the boots had tripled and went up the stairs to Deck 4. The main boat groups were Albatrosses, Whales, Petrels, and Seals, and then each of those had 3 subgroups. They put families and speakers of the same languages together. We were in the Minke Whale boat group. The group patches and boots are loaners; they have to be returned at the end of the voyage. Hurtigruten would make a mint if they let you keep the patches at the end for a fee.

We also could check the wall on Deck 5 for preliminary flight info for the return to Buenos Aires. They listed which cabins were on which of three flights; there were 2 charters and 1 scheduled flight. We were assigned the first charter flight, which departed at 12:31p and left a comfortable margin to our flights back home later that night. Since the ship’s return to Ushuaia had upended the itinerary, they weren’t sure yet when we would be docking and if there’d be anything to do in the morning before the flight.

At 10:45, there was a mandatory IAATO briefing for everyone in the Whale and Albatross boat groups (all English speaking). This laid out the rules for what you could or couldn’t do and bring ashore, as well as how to put on the life vests and safely get into and out of the zodiacs.

The Drake Passage finally got me during this presentation – the chairs all faced backwards in the lecture hall relative to the ship’s direction of motion; I couldn’t easily see the horizon; and although the waves had died down from yesterday, seas were still about 3 meters. So… breakfast made an encore once I got back to my cabin.

During lunch in Aune (amazing food, once again), the Captain made an announcement again thanking everyone for our cooperation with the medical situation the previous day. The other option for transporting the passenger to the hospital would have involved continuing on to Antarctica and hoping she could be airlifted back from King George Island. This would have significantly delayed treatment, but she was now recovering well in Ushuaia so going back was the right choice. We would be arriving in Antarctica 7 hours later than the original plan, which was not bad for basically losing 27 hours.

After lunch it was time to get all of our landing gear vacuumed – pants, gloves, bags, etc. This minimizes the chance of bringing seeds, grass, etc from other places into the Antarctic environment. They had two stations set up on each side of the elevator well on Deck 5. At some point between 10a and 5p, all passengers had to bring their gear down and clean it.

Shortly after the afternoon lecture on penguins finished, they announced the lottery winners for the optional excursions (kayaking, camping, snowshoeing, and science boat) had been posted. Sadly, I didn’t get the science boat and my father didn’t get kayaking. There were a very limited number of spots for all of the excursions and lots of interest. Neither of us was too disappointed – we were still going to Antarctica.

At 5:15p, one of the environmental scientists held a session about the NASA Globe Observer app that had been introduced at the previous day’s citizen science lecture. There were 22 of us in attendance, which was deemed a good crowd. The scientist needed a headcount because Hurtigruten is very interested in what passengers think of the citizen science projects and how to increase participation in the future. The sky was completely overcast, but we still could learn how to make cloud observations. It was a nice chance to get outside for a bit.

Dinner in Aune was wonderful, as usual. This was another sit-down meal, and they added a little amuse-bouche of salmon with caviar before the appetizer, since it was New Year’s Eve.

This was the first night that the expedition team gave a ‘Plan for Tomorrow’ briefing; they would continue to do these before every landing day. The briefing let everyone know where we were going (at least for Plan A), some geologic and geographic information about that location, and what the schedule would hopefully look like. Hearing the plans for Deception Island got me very excited – they would aim for two landings, which was unusual and a great surprise after our delayed arrival in Antarctica.

There were a couple special events for New Year’s Eve: a holiday production and a performance by the ship’s band. At 11:45p, everyone was invited to gather on the balconies around the elevator well. There was music and dancing as we waited for midnight.

My family has a history of witnessing mishaps during New Year’s Eve countdowns on ships, and this year continued the tradition. The Captain was supposed to lead everyone in a countdown to midnight and there would be fireworks on the giant LCD screen (to replace the image of a Christmas tree that had been there since we boarded). When midnight came, the ship’s horn sounded on time but the LCD screen was frozen and there had been no countdown at the party. The Captain quickly counted down from 10 and everyone celebrated together, laughing about the blunder. Three minutes later, the screen unfroze and started counting down from 60, so we all got a second New Year! The party continued both in the elevator well and Explorer Lounge on Deck 10. We soon headed off to bed, eagerly anticipating starting 2023 in Antarctica.