Antarctica's White Wilderness Day 6

DAY 6 - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - Cruise Drake Passage

About 1:30am we knew the ship had passed through the calm Beagle Channel and out into the Drake Passage as the ship started rocking and rolling. We had had several warnings about safety, “when walking or standing, give one hand for yourself and one hand for the ship at all times”. Great advice in this weather!

Sleeping was not too bad, but we did wake up often when we thought we might be falling out of bed! We keep reminding ourselves; we want to go to Antarctica and this is the only way to get there – on the high seas!

The Program Director, Claudia made the first announcement of the day at 8:00. The seas were choppy with five-foot swells, gale force winds, and the temperature was 41 degrees. She also said that because of the severe conditions, it was not permitted to go out onto decks.

We made sure everything was “Drake Proof” by putting anything that could roll or move in a cupboard for safekeeping before we went down for breakfast. The wait staff was very helpful, as not many of us have our sea legs yet.

Breakfast was a beautiful buffet but because of the choppy seas, the staff was very willing to bring anything we wanted. Negotiating the short distance from the food credenza to the table with a plate in one’s hand was tricky.

The first Learning and Discovery was postponed until 9:30 to give more people an opportunity to find the dining room as people were slowing getting to breakfast.

We went down to the third deck to the Lounge for a discussion of “Birds of the Drake and Antarctic Peninsula” given by one of the naturalists, Ken. Expectations are for many bird sightings.

After our buffet lunch we went to the next lecture on “Photographing Wild Life in Antarctica”. Diego showed us his very best of the best, the pictures were very inspiring and we look forward to getting out and seeing all there is to see and photograph.

The next lecture was dealing with the Marine Mammals. Vicki had an excellent presentation explaining all we could hope to see once we can get into calmer seas and go out onto the decks.

Crossing the Drake Passage (16th-century English navigator Sir Francis Drake) is always a questionable endeavor. This is the point at the end of South America where warm Pacific Ocean meets the cold Atlantic. This phenomenon is like when two weather fronts collide; high winds and treacherous seas can prevail.

We had been warned that if the seas were too rough, we would have to stay in the cabins. However, during the whole day we held on tight to the railings and got out of our room to explore and take advantage of the lectures.

Dinner was served at 7:00 and the servers did a great job of not only getting our food to us hot, but also the food was still on the plates, no easy accomplishment on this rough sea.

We came back to the room completed the journal and settled in for another night at sea. Sometime during the night we should be close enough into the Antarctic Peninsula to have calmer waters.

Accommodations: Corinthian - Meals: B, L, & D