Crossing the Drake Passage last night and today, I couldn’t help but think of Shackleton and his men in the Caird lifeboat. I was working about 1:00 AM and it started getting very rough so I immediately clicked “Publish” on my blog so I apologize for any errors and not having very many photos. It takes a long time to upload photos and the internet is very expensive and the bandwidth is shared by everyone on the ship…thus my plan for staying up late, hoping most are in bed and not on their devices.
I missed breakfast, got up around 9:30 and it was so rough…it was hard to get up, walk around and even use the bathroom. Needless to say, I did wander up for a light lunch and then came back and slept for a couple of hours. Later this afternoon, I went to a talk about wind, currents, and productivity of the Southern Ocean. In essence, the Antarctic Convergence is the coldest, densest water on Earth and along with the wind and a very narrow passage for the water that circulates around Antarctica, it makes for some of the roughest water in the world.
Tomorrow, we should arrive to see and have an opportunity to go on land and we will be below the 60th parallel. Anything below 60 degrees south is considered Antarctica. Our destination is the South Shetland Islands - specifically Half Moon Island which is off the of chinstrap penguins and nesting Antarctic terns and kelp gulls.