"In memories we were rich. We had pierced the veneer of outside things. We had suffered, starved and triumphed, groveled yet grasped at glory, grown bigger in the bigness of the whole. We had seen God in his splendor, heard the text that nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man..." -Sir Ernest Shackleton
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest ocean, covering approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface. The ocean's name, derived from Greek mythology, means the "Sea of Atlas." The oldest known mention of this name is contained in The Histories of Herodotus around 450 BC. This ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending in a north-south direction and is divided into the North Atlantic and South Atlantic by Equatorial Counter Currents at about 8° North latitude. Bounded by the Americas on the west and Europe and Africa on the east, the Atlantic is a component of the all-encompassing World Ocean, linked to the Pacific Ocean by the Arctic Ocean on the north and the Drake Passage on the south. A man-made connection between the Atlantic and Pacific is provided by the Panama Canal. On the east, the dividing line between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean is the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica. The Atlantic is separated from the Arctic by a line from Greenland to northwestern Iceland and then from northeastern Iceland to the southernmost tip of Spitsbergen and then to North Cape in northern Norway. While some authorities show the Atlantic Ocean extending south to Antarctica, others show it as bounded to the south by the Southern Ocean.
The Drake Passage was kind to us. Not the same seas as we had experienced on our way into Antarctica. The Seas were pretty calm except for a few rouge swells for a couple of hours! Another day and we reach Ushuaia tomorrow and will be spending a day in Ushuaia visiting the local maritime museum and do a little bit of shopping before heading to Airport to catch my flight to Washington DC.
What an incredible journey it has been for me, the memories will last a lifetime. I hope this blog of mine has opened your imagination of the miracle continent and that you will plan a trip to this magical place. Adios my friends!
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