Today we finally made it across the Drake Passage to Antarctica. Last night it calmed down a bit in the evening, but picked up before breakfast. We were moving from 1-3m waves, to 4-5m ones. The hardest part was they were “confused” so there were no common intervals between them and they were coming from slightly different directions, thus making the waves unpredictable. At least the winds dropped from 50 to 35 knots. Our zodiac introduction was delayed again due to sick people, so we delayed it slightly again and had a lecture on ice.
Then everybody sick or not was brought out of bed for the mandatory zodiac training, for how to get in and out and what you can and cannot do on shore. It seemed pretty straight forward and got everyone excited about the landings that will hopefully take place tomorrow (everything is weather and ice dependant). Next was lunch where I am still amazed how the wait staff can hold a tray of plates and help a passenger to their seat as everything is rocking 7-10°. After lunch we had “bio security” where all of our bags and outer layers were vacuumed (especially Velcro) and sanitized to prevent any non-native seeds or plants from making it to Antarctica.
The afternoon saw another camera/photography lecture, and a lecture on sea birds. It was pretty ironic hearing about giant petrels and albatrosses while they were cruising past the windows of the lounge. During the lecture we also spotted our first small iceberg and shortly after saw our first glimpse of Antarctica, Smith Island. But as quickly as we saw it, the cloud and fog rolled in and hid it from us. Around this time, the waters really quieted down as we emerged from the Drake Passage to the shelter caused by small islands upwind and up-current. With the calmer seas, it made it easier to see wildlife in the water. We saw quick glimpses of a pair of penguins and a seal, although they passed by so fast, we couldn’t identify which species.
Prior to dinner was the Captain’s cocktail hour where we were introduced to the actual crew of the ship and had a glass of champagne prior to dinner. During dinner we moved into quite the snow squall. I climbed up on the slippery deck in 0°C to grab a picture.
The ships giant spotlights really illuminated all the snow. The last event of the night was the camping meeting to get us all familiarized with the tents and such. They said we may have a spot to camp tomorrow night, but it will depend on the weather and ice as everything does down here. Now we are all prepped and packed and ready for our first shore excursion to Antarctica tomorrow.
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