Harbours That Stayed With Me #1 - Ushuaia, Argentina

At the end of each Antarctica season, I always find myself thinking back to Ushuaia.

Often referred to as the southernmost city in the world, it is a place that feels less like a destination, and more like a gateway. The last stop before the Southern Ocean takes over.

Over the years, I have arrived there after operating in some of the most remote waters on earth. After days of ice, weather, long watches, and isolation, even a routine arrival into Ushuaia carries a certain atmosphere that is difficult to describe unless you have experienced it. It is a place that can really throw up the unexpected. Flat calm in the fjord, you turn north, and suddenly you are in 60 knots of wind and struggling to control to vessel for the rest of the day.

What stays with me most however, is not necessarily the scenery, but the perspective.

Iceberg floating in a cold, dark blue ocean with snow-covered mountains in the background under a clear blue sky.
A row of buildings including a two-story brick house with green roofs and a flag, next to a white building with a metal roof, with bushes and a fence in front, and parked cars along the street under an overcast sky.
A row of buildings including a two-story brick house with green roofs and a flag, next to a white building with a metal roof, with bushes and a fence in front, and parked cars along the street under an overcast sky.

Even when operating via the Antarctic, vessels travelling onwards from Ushuaia towards the Falklands will always need to carefully consider clearance and immigration arrangements due to the long-standing political sensitivities between Argentina and the United Kingdom.

A practical intermediate stop is often Puerto Williams in Chile. A small but strategically useful harbour between Ushuaia and Cape Horn that many outside the industry have never heard of, despite its importance to southern operations.

Exploration has always existed within yachting, but there is clearly a huge, and growing, interest in expedition-style cruising - Antarctica, Patagonia, Alaska, Greenland, the Norwegian fjords. Places where the experience depends just as much on preparation and operational understanding as it does on the yacht itself.

And that is something many people understandably underestimate.

One example is the political and administrative reality surrounding movements between Argentina and the Falkland Islands - one of those bucket list destinations.

A coastal town with boats docked on calm water, surrounded by small houses and buildings, and snow-capped mountains in the background under a partly cloudy sky.

These are the kinds of details that rarely appear in brochures, but become increasingly important the further you move away from conventional cruising grounds.

Some harbours stay with you because they are beautiful.

Others because they quietly remind you that true exploration still requires dedication to preparation, local knowledge, and respect for the realities of the sea.

Ushuaia was always one of those places for me.

For those who have operated in the region, I suspect Ushuaia tends to stay with you too.

Snow-covered mountains in the background, icy blue ocean with floating ice chunks in the foreground under a clear blue sky.
A row of buildings along a street, including a historic brick building with green and blue rooftops, a white building with a red door and window, and various shrubs and plants in the foreground under cloudy skies.
A coastal town with a docked boat, small houses, and industrial storage tanks, with a snow-capped mountain and cloudy sky in the background.