**Location: **Punta Arenas, Chile and into the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica.
**Antarctic trivia **(answer at end of this journal entry): Why are there no wild penguins in the northern hemisphere?
We departed Punta Arenas at 2:00 P.M. Saturday, September 20. We enjoyed a smooth ride through the Strait of Magellan which separates the Patagonian region of Chile and Argentina from Tierra del Fuego. Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer, found this passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in 1520 during his voyage to circumnavigate the globe. In the central square in Punta Arenas there is a large statue depicting Magellan and some of the native people he encountered. The statue was erected in 1920 to commemorate the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the strait that bears his name.
Due to technical difficulties in the ship email system, photos may be coming soon.
Sunday morning we entered the Drake Passage, and the smooth ride became quite bumpy! Sir Francis Drake was a 16th century British explorer who sailed along the South American coast seeking trade routes in southern oceans in 1578. In his log he wrote about penguins that he saw, "…such plenty of birds as is scant credible to report. Great store of strange birds which could not fly at all, nor yet runne so fast as that they could escape us with their lives.” Unfortunately Drake and many others who followed killed large numbers of many southern species in their quest for food and wealth.
Drake entered the Magellan Strait from the Atlantic side of South America, and then sailed across the strait until he entered the Pacific Ocean. He was driven to the southeast after entering the Pacific, and eventually found the southern tip of South America. South of this point he could see only open ocean. The body of water between Tierra del Fuego (southern South America) and Antarctica now bears his name – the Drake Passage.
This repeat trip through the Drake Passage reminds me how big the "world ocean” is. You can sail for days and days on this planet and see nothing but water on the horizon. We are amazingly small compared to the Earth (and sea) around us. Imagine how the early explorers must have felt setting sail in their day…the promise of adventure, wealth, and fame awaited those brave enough to face the challenges of sailing into unknown waters.
**Answer to today’s Antarctic trivia question: **Why are there no wild penguins in the northern hemisphere? Penguins cannot tolerate warm sea water, and so only live in the cold southern oceans. One species of penguin, the Galapagos penguin, is more tolerant of temperate waters and breeds very close to the equator. A cold water current runs along the Galapagos Islands providing the cooler water needed by this species of penguins. A group of birds in the northern hemisphere, the Auks, occupies the same niche in northern latitudes. The auks look much like the penguins and are adapted to the same way of life.
**Try this: **Sometimes it seems as if there is a different language being spoken on the ship. How many of the following shipboard terms you can define (answers in tomorrow’s journal entry)?
Fore Aft Port Starboard Bow Stern Galley Mess Head Rack Draft Pitch Roll
Mammal and seabird species spotted by our expert, Brent:
Cape petrel Southern fulmar Grey-headed albatross Slender-billed prion Black-billed albatross Blue petrel Antarctic petrel Sooty shearwater