HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Not getting any seasickness (touchwood)
SWELL THIS MORNING: 1-2m
WORD OF THE DAY: Man I’m tired
To anyone who goes to Antarctica, there is a tremendous appeal, an unparalleled combination of grandeur, beauty, vastness, loneliness and malevolence – all of which sound tremendously melodramatic-but which truthfully convey the actual feeling of Antarctica. Where else in the world are all of these descriptions really true?
Captain T.L.M Sunter
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We had been told to expect the worse this morning coming into the Drake Passage around 3am. Batten down the hatches and everyone was medicated to the eye balls with seasickness, motion sickness and patches that a lot of people have applied and wearing behind their ears. So you could imagine our surprise and elation at waking up to a gentle roll of the ship, the sun high in the sky and everyone having got a good night’s sleep. This was a great sign of the day ahead.
Sir Francis Drake was born in Devon and at the age of 13, he began travelling to the West Indies. Between 1577-1580 he sailed around the world, the first Englishman to do so, looting Spanish ships and creating nautical charts of the new territories he navigated. On September 6th 1577Drake completed his pass through the Magellanic Straits, however the next day he was caught in a big storm that pushed his ship 57 degrees latitude south. It was here that he found the meeting of the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, the turbulent area that is now known as the Drakes Passage.
Our guide book that we were given states the points of interest of Drakes Passage includes huge swells and rough seas, the Antarctic Convergence, seasick bags, Cape Horn and the ceiling above your bed. So I think it really is an understatement when we say that we have been so unbelievably lucky with the first day. There is a staff member that has done the crossing 13 times and this is the calmest it has been on any of his voyages. It could change at any moment, but let’s take it one step at a time.
Breakfast was being served between 8-9am buffet style and our first lecture was to commence at 9.30am. Everyone on the ship is in high spirits and seems happy to talk to anyone and the demographic is surprisingly younger than what I expected. To put a figure out there I would say 60% of the 117 people on board would be under 35 and 40% over that. It is really cool to see so many young people on the ship.
9.30am was our first lecture on Seabirds of the Southern Ocean with the speaker Kevin Morgan. He was really good, but I have to say I was nearly falling asleep towards the end of his lecture. Not so much from him being boring, but a combination of the subject, the sway of the boat and the warmness of the lounge, was just about lulling me off into sleepland. Bird species that we expect to see include: Albatrosses, Petrels, Sooty Shearwater, Fulmars, Prions, Shags, Gulls, Skua’s and Terns. The old ducks from Ethiopia would have loved this session. I mean he has a tough subject to talk about and to keep people enthralled, I mean they are after all just birds, but after the lecture, as if on queue there were a frenzy of birds following the ship, and they just happened to be the same birds that Kevin was talking about, so that in itself was awesome. Trying to get photos of these birds was another matter, they were so quick you would snap and get a partial bird or nothing in your photo. You would then put your camera down and then they would fly and just sit on an air current right in front of you when you weren’t ready. The buggers. We really only had 30 minutes spare before the next lecture started, and it was great to get out into the sun on the back deck, suck in some fresh air and then head back in for the start of the next lecture.
They are running 3 competitions on the ship. They are the first whale to be seen, the first iceberg to be seen and what time we actually hit the Antarctic Convergence (Polar Front) which is the Maritime boundary at the Northern reaches of the Southern Ocean which occurs at 50-60 degrees where the cold surface water from the Antarctic drops below the warmer northerly waters. So it is all purely guess work and around 6pm the first whale was spotted and we were given the ‘time’ on deck to be able to see this creature, which Jules and I went straight up on deck to try and find, but we missed it and it was a 70ft Fin whale. So there was a winner and a prize of champagne given for the spotter and also the correct time guess to which she was only 13 minutes out.
11am second lecture started and it was on Ernest Shackelton and his 1914 voyage to Antarctica. The lecturer was Scott McPhail and right at the start, he said once you get to Antarctica, put yourself in their shoes and just appreciate what they went through over 80 years ago. It will boggle the mind. After the race to the South Pole ended in 1912 with Roald Amundsen's conquest, Shackleton turned his attention to what he said was the one remaining great object of Antarctic journeying–the crossing of the continent from sea to sea, via the pole. To this end he made preparations for what became the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17. Disaster struck this expedition when its ship, Endurance, was trapped in pack ice and slowly crushed, before the shore parties could be landed. There followed a sequence of exploits, and an ultimate escape with no lives lost, that would eventually assure Shackleton's heroic status, although this was not immediately evident It really is amazing what hardships these men went through and the sheer will to survive is a testament to them and I think has not been totally appreciated by society. It was just an amazing story and I look forward to downloading some of books written by the survivors and gleaning more information, especially after we have travelled the terrain ourselves.
Jules and I can’t believe just how tired we are. We have done nothing all day and we are just so so buggered. We only have 15 minutes till lunch was served, but we just couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer so decided to come back to the cabin for a 15 minute kip. 15 minutes doesn’t sound much, but we both fell into a fitful sleep till 12 noon when the announcement came over the public address system that lunch was served. It also feels like we have been eating all day, but this is a holiday after all and any type of cruising holiday commercial or expedition seems to run on the same theme with the feeding of the guests.
Lunch was buffet style as well and after we had fed out faces Jules and I were still so tired we decided to have an afternoon kip, partly because we could and secondly there was nothing scheduled till 2.30pm where they were going to put on a movie Blue Planet Ocean World – Frozen Seas. I decided I better get some blogging done, so I don’t fall behind, especially as the days get on and we get busier with landings etc., I want to be able to write my experiences fresh each day. It was a struggle for me as I was so tired but I have started a few and will finish them tonight or tomorrow, I just feel so much better that I have something done, so I switched off the computer and then slept for the next 2 hours till 4.45pm when there was another lecture scheduled for 5pm.
The 5pm lecture was The Ice Seals by John Kernan and last year he completed his 100th journey back to Antarctica. That’s a pretty impressive stat to say the least. He ran through which seals he expected us to see on this trip and rather than have a power point presentation of graphs and figures, his lecture was more made up of pictures and what behaviors we should expect from the seals. Some of the photos he had were just magic and if I can capture 3-4 images of what he had I will be leaving a happy camper. The seals that he hopes we will see include the: South American Sea Lion, Southern Elephant Seal, Weddell Seal, the Crabeater Seal, the Ross Seal ( this will be rare) and the last and probably well known the Leopard Seal. I really don’t care which ones I see but I would love to see these magnificent creatures and it just helps with the anticipation of getting to the great white continent and seeing these awesome animals.
The lecture took us to just before 6pm. Due to the favorable weather conditions they amended the daily activity sheet to now have the Captains Welcome dinner tonight. We have been told to have a Drakes Passage crossing like we had today was very unusual and we have been super lucky. The Captain explained at his cocktail drinks that we are currently in between 2 storms and he thinks that the weather will not be as favorable tomorrow. I guess the good luck could not continue but it was a great way to break us in slowly than have 40ft waves on our first day. The weather here is more temperamental than Melbourne weather and we can get 4 seasons within a few hours, let alone a day. We got a note this afternoon saying we had been invited to the Hotel managers table for dinner tonight at 7pm, so that is pretty cool, but as the ships dress code is pretty casual, we didn’t bother changing for the event which was good as we would have looked like dorks, as it isn’t that type of set up.
Dinner is always a 4 course set up with tea and coffee offered at the end. As we were dining on the Hotel Managers table tonight the wine was free flowing with dinner tonight as well which was nice. There were 3 fancy tables tonight, and I am assuming every night for the rest of the cruise. There was the Captains table, the 2nd in charge and then us on the Hotel Managers table. As the cruise is 12 nights, we are assuming everyone will get a chance to sit on the ‘fancy’ tables; the question is who will get onto the Captains table? We did have a great night with 2 guys from San Diego, Richard and Alvin, Theresa and Fabian from Uruguay and then Ian who is the Kayak Master and Allesandra who is the Hotel Manager. By the time dinner had finished and coffee served it was 9.15pm. The Polar Bear Bar is the place to hang out after dinner. They have live entertainment with ‘Atilla’ up there playing on a guitar, but Jules and I have decided to retire for the night. We just don’t know what is wrong with us, but our theory is to make the most of the down time as once we hit Antarctica and we do manage to get 2 landings in a day that they are hoping for, we are going to need to be well rested.
So thank-you to the Drake Passage for being gentle with us. We should also thank King Neptune, the king of the ocean and apparently if you kill an Albatross this can also spell bad news if you are on the water, so thanks to everyone for not killing an Albatross today. Fingers crossed our good luck continues tomorrow, as I have decided to not take my seasickness table t tonight. Now if Jimbob (I mean James) was here, he would be proud as I am using his positive thought strategy and hoping that that will get me through!
Good night from our second night on the MS Expedition heading to Antarctica.
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