Bypassing Ushuaia, on to Buenos Aires
We are past halfway on the Drake passage, and have experienced strong winds, and big swells, with as you’d expect, some seasickness. Jode and I doing quite well with the seasickness patches we are wearing, but they do make us tired and fuzzy headed. This morning the temperature was 7 degrees outside in contrast to the 0 degrees we are used to, so definitely heading north into warmer weather. Not that we are allowed out on deck at the moment! Breakfast was in the dining room this morning, but yesterday lunch and dinner were sandwiches in our rooms. So that gives you a sense of how rough it is, and the difficulties in moving around the boat.
At a meeting this morning we have been advised that the boat is not docking in Ushuaia, Argentina (southernmost tip of Argentina) which is where we departed from and had expected to return to tomorrow. We are now headed for Buenos Aires. So to back up a bit, we have known for a few days that domestic flights were cancelled from 20-25th March, so we had no way of getting to Buenos Aires anyway to connect with some of the last commercial flights available. Our original flight with Qantas had up until now been a possibility on the 22nd, but the domestic flight cancellation has really contributed to closing our window of opportunity to get back. Apparently it is a long weekend in Argentina and they do not want people travelling.
So, where does that leave us? Well another week on the boat for sure, hopefully in calmer waters. The company is working hard with embassies, however there is a huge range of international passengers so I think this is quite onerous. We are the only two Australians onboard and there are two kiwis. Keayn and Jeremy have been pursuing the embassy options, both in Argentina and Australia. At this stage they are not really offering any help, but maybe that will change during the next week.
We do know that Qantas and Air NZ are closing flights from Argentina by the end of March, but not sure if there might be flights between when we arrive in BA and when this happens. Our kiwi staff member on board seems to know more than we do, and he says Qantas stop flying from 24th.
So, the way home is very unclear. Fortunately, the ship staff and crew are great, and everyone is doing their best. We have plenty of fuel, but the meals may become a bit less lavish. I think they are working through all that now. The mood on board about going to BA is positive as everyone was getting frustrated about the difficulties of getting out of Ushuaia. At least in BA we have an international airport and embassies. We have some good connections with people, mainly ‘dutchies’ so we all support each other.
And of course I should mention that we are a virus free zone. Everyone on the boat is well, and we will certainly pass the 14 day period shortly, effectively meaning we have been in quarantine.
One of the main frustrations is lack of access to news and limited communication options. But this webmail works pretty well and we love getting emails, though links & attachments are no use. We can’t open them, in fact an attachment will probably not make it to this webmail. We are getting snippets through from others, both on and off the boat, particularly about how it is impacting on others and especially employment. For example, we have two Dutch flight attendants on board from KLM, so their employment is affected significantly with KLM cutting 90% of flights around the world.
I think being in this relative cocoon means we find it hard to imagine what is going on ‘outside’, but clearly many people are adversely affected. So we have not lost sight of our relative privilege.
It still does seem a bit surreal that we find ourselves in this position. When we left Australia South America was not really on the COVID map, and there were certainly no travel warnings. When we embarked on the 9th March it still seemed unproblematic. What a lot of unravelling of things we take for granted in such a short space of time!!
Now, how to keep ourselves amused. The younger passengers are already working on this! Karaoke, talent night, yoga on the deck once the weather allows this etc etc. and there was just an announcement re fin whales on the starboard side. Ship life goes on!