Revenge of the Drake

The stuff on the bedside table crashed onto the floor sometime in the middle of the night. My suitcase had rolled its way across the room and I found it by the desk when I woke up. Taking a shower this morning required gymnastic abilities I didn't know I had. The choppy waters the Drake Passage is famous for, the ones we somehow escaped on our way down, are hitting us hard now. These seas got a rating of a Force 6 (on a scale from 1-12), whereas we only went as high as a Force 2 on the way down.

There's been a noticeable shift in everyone's moods today. As we entered the Drake Passage and the seas became rougher, everyone started taking their seasickness pills. Some are faring better than others but there were still a lot of empty seats at meals. Many opted for room service, others couldn't keep anything down.

Julian couldn't give his lecture today on the history of Antarctic explorers because he was so sick. Despite taking medication the poor guy had to bring barf bags downstairs. He looked awful so we opted to 'boycott' his lecture and let him go back to bed. I guess even the guides who have done this trip so many times still feel it.

I had a good laugh at lunch today. The seas had picked up to a proper Force 7 and since I wasn't feeling ill I found the crazy rocking quite fun. Unfortunately I happened to choose a chair that wasn't chained down. When the boat pitched, I toppled over. I wasn't hurt, only surprised because I thought the chain would have stopped me from going all the way over. The captain and Rodrigo came over after hearing my cry of surprise and kindly assisted me up. They were so concerned that I was hurt. All I could do was laugh. This is part of the experience of crossing the Drake!!!

Sea Force Winds. A 2 on the way down to Antarctica. A 6 for most of the day. A 7 at lunch. A 4 at dinner.

It was a fairly lazy day where I reviewed some of my photos, chatted with people in the dining area and went to catch the showing of David Attenborough's 'Charles Darwin: The Tree of Life' and part 6 of the BBC's Frozen Planet. Both were excellent documentaries!

Since I didn't take any more pictures today, I thought I'd use my self-imposed daily blog quota of 4-5 pictures to include a few pictures I didn't have room to post on other days here. Oddly enough, they're all of penguins!

Gentoo and tourist penguins everywhere at Cuvaville Island:

At Pleneau Bay - the only Adelie penguin we saw:

Port Lockroy:

The Antarctic Dream: