Welcome on board!
Embarkation day, the start of our Antarctic adventure. Many of us were arriving from long flights from home and were eager to board the Europa. Boarding time is set between 16:00 and 17:00 h. In that way we could enjoy a quiet morning in Ushuaia, after most of us already dropped our luggage at the ship after breakfast. At the appointed time the crew and the ship were ready to welcome us on board.
The Europa lies alongside at the beginning of Ushuaia’s long pier. She
looks great amongst several large motor-vessels and fishing ships.
As we boarded, we gathered on deck where coffee, tea and some sweet
treats were ready for us. Time to meet and socialise. In the meantime we
did the check-in and posed for a picture that will be used to put
together the “ship’s facebook”. This will be posted soon in the
Deckhouse Pinboard, so we can start putting names to faces more easily.
Once all this was done, captain Eric called everybody on deck for a
proper introduction of the crew, the general idea of the trip and some
basic safety topics, followed by our first dinner on board.
Not all was finished yet, as our guides led by Jordi, did their first
presentation to start familiarising everybody with the ship and our
duties, and the crew led by bosun Matt gave some rope handling
explanations on deck.
Like this, from the beginning of the trip we start getting to know the
ship’s system and realise the effort it takes to put together a sailing
trip in a 1911 built Tall Ship. Everything orbits on building a sail
training program, gaining history, wildlife and polar systems knowledge,
sail and enjoy. All a combined effort of everybody on board to make an
unforgettable trip to Antarctica.
Europa spends the night alongside, planning to undo our moorings in the
early morning.