Friday 18th March; 19th day at sea

I had thought we were quite a long way ahead of schedule, and would be able to see the Beagle Channel in daylight, but we got to the pilot station in the dark, and got to Ushuaia around 6:30 a.m., when it was still dark. We watched the ship dock and were then given a short breakfast before being politely asked to disembark. Some of the passengers were staying on for the month long trip up the west coast of South America to the Panama Canal; we had a few hours to kill in Ushuaia so we went on the bus tour, in an ex London Transport Routemaster, complete with notices giving us the addresses in London to send complaints to.

Most of us in the Explore party really wanted to go straight home with our memories of ice and penguins fresh in our minds, but we had the stopover in Buenos Aires first.