November 10, 2025 We woke up early to finalize our final science presentation to passengers to share with them what we found and learned during our trip. We shared the trends in bird sightings that we noticed as we transited from open water, to the islands, then into the ice and snow. We also played several recordings and spectrograms with them, which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy. We concluded the presentation with how the data will be shared with the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium and added to long term monitoring data to track changes in populations and inform policy and management.
Once we concluded our presentation we headed back up to the bridge for transect surveys. Since we hadn’t been able to perform surveys on our way south through the Drake Passage we wanted to take the opportunity to do so while heading north. We saw many large groups of cape petrels and dove prions, interestingly often flying in groups together while following the vessel before landing in the water. They followed us and circled the boat for several kilometers. We also saw our first sooty shearwaters and Antarctic petrels. The whole day we had been experiencing 5m waves and incredible swells, in true Drake Passage fashion, and it was challenging to conduct surveys from the bridge.
We spent the evening with a couple of American passengers for the Farewell Gala, in which the staff, crew, and officers on board were celebrated. We enjoyed dinner before attending a dance lesson and dance party while the ship rocked and rolled along with the movement of the Drake. We walked back to our rooms in sinusoidal lines and prepared to be (more than gently) rocked to sleep.
