Sometime during the night the slight rocking and rolling turned into a full blown effort as we encountered gale force winds. The waves were up to nine meters and more high and sent spray over the whole ship. My cabin was on the top deck *6) and some waves reached my leaky window. Walking was extremely difficult to say the least. Several times during breakfast the ship tilted so far that people on their chairs slid across the floor. The Expedition Leader gave a little speech reminding people to always "keep one hand free for the ship". I didn't see anything spilled or anyone fall but there were a lot of very close calls. There were a few spills at lunch but they avoided a lot more by canceling the soup course. The lunch was moderately spicy chicken legs, rice and green peppers. Not bad.
As this is the last day of the cruise there were a lot of little details and briefings -disembarkation, "best of" photos, on board accounts to be settled, etc. Five of the eight photos I submitted for the "best of" cd were used in the presentation this afternoon. Lots of very good shots. We watched a 1929 movie of a sailing ship rounding Cape Horn in many storms. Very scary stuff. We were only allowed to get within twelve miles of Cape Horn and couldn't see much because of the mist. The Chilean government only allows ships that sail from Chile to get in closer. Politics! Once we rounded the Horn the seas calmed considerably and we were back to a gentle roll. Hopefully the Beagle Channel will be the same or even better.
Have to be up early in the morning. Breakfast is at 7:00 and we disembark right after that. I don't know how long it will take to clear Customs and board the bus but my flight doesn't leave Ushuaia until about 4:30 so there is lots of time to kill.