A calm night

The night is the calmest night in many days, which is celebrated until late at night. We heave anchor just before 07:00 – so we are ready to leave when the pilot comes on board. We are only 16 miles from Harberton, and it is a beautiful morning. It is calm, warm and green. Around 10:00 we anchor in the bay of Harberton, on the Northern side of the Beagle channel. We are at Mafu’s home – it is here that his family lives and where he has spent a lot of time. The family is the first white family that settled in Tierra del Fuego back in 1871, founding Harberton in 1886.After coffee time we go on shore to visit the museum that Mafu’s grandmother started. She was a biologist – when she moved her she first spent years and years walking the islands and composing a book about the flora. Later she started collecting skeletons and bones and set up an impressive collection of animals which is now shown in the small, beautifully designed museum. Some decide to have lunch on shore; others come back to the ship for a familiar lunch on board. Later during the day we all have a chance to be guided through the Estancia. We see the different buildings – the garden with many non-native flowers, the first house that was prefabricated in Harberton, England, and brought here by ship. We look at the wood workshop and the shed were the sheep were shaved. The end of the tour brings us up the hill to the graveyard in a small forest composed of the five native trees of Tierra Del Fuego. In the little teahouse homemade cake is served – together with a beautiful view over the bay.After three weeks out at sea and down South in the monochrome landscapes of the South Shetlands and Antarctica – the protected bay of Harberton is overwhelming. It is warm and calm; some of us simply lie down in the grass and fall asleep. The good mood and calm vibes continue through the evening. Home on deck we have a delicious dinner with an even more delicious desert: Cake from Harberton and Irish coffee from the ship. Swims are made in the ocean – and everyone stays out on deck enjoying as the day slowly turns into evening and night. A last night away.Tomorrow, after some early morning swims, we will leave around 08:00 in the morning for our final stretch to Ushuaia. We will sail 38 nm through a foggy Beagle Channel. We will go back to the place we were beyond for the past three weeks - back at the end of the world.Sarah