To Antarctica - days at sea
Feb 9 2015 At Sea: 56o35'S/040o50'W
Feb 10 2015 At Sea: 58o55'S/047o56'W
We have been at sea now for about 36 hours – it’s a great time to catch up with sleep, work through photos, generally rest and relax, attend presentations and provide a short update before we reach the Antarctic.
The information we’re receiving from presentations is very high quality and of great interest – the only problem is staying awake in a warm, dark room that rocks gently from side to side!
We woke this morning to relatively gentle seas and dark grey skies – temperature 0oC & wind of 20-25 knots blowing from the side of the ship – it’s a comfortable ride. Yesterday I was on the Bridge around 6:30am and saw Black-browed Albatross (I’m learning to recognise them!) as well as small Prions; this morning there were fewer birds because we are hundreds of miles from land. So any birds we’re seeing today are very welcome to join us as our journey progresses!
While I back-up the 2,905 photos currently in my Antarctic 2015 folder (I have lots to delete), I have time to reflect on what we’ve experienced and seen so far.
The weather has been incredible – 4 days of sunshine in South Georgia – apparently very rare. I know that I described the glorious light we experienced when we left this gem in the Southern Ocean and were surrounded by whales, but it really was beautiful. I really look forward to sharing the photos with you.
Now, even though it’s overcast, it still much better than I was expecting on this leg.
The Ocean Diamond is very comfortable – transferring from and to zodiacs is straightforward, although on the days when the swell makes it a little more tricky, I do miss the strong arms of the Russian sailors (no sooner than we had one foot on the zodiac’s pontoon, we were suddenly on the ship’s gangway).
It is a big ship, and 180 people is lots - the upside is the speed and the comfortable ride, at least so far. Woody and Annie run the logistics well, and the expedition crew are great. And there are many different places to read, work through the photos and relax.
Our visit to South Georgia brought a number of things into perspective for me.
Sea-birds such as albatross, shags/cormorants, penguins and petrels have to breed on land; South Georgia, the Falklands and Shag Rocks are all vital nesting sites, along with southern areas of New Zealand, Australia, South America and South Africa, and their sub-Antarctic islands, Campbell, Enderby, Macquarie and others. These are all vulnerable areas and we must continue to do all that we can to protect them.
I’m learning more about the history of these places, and about the explorers that opened up this area. Although various people had sighted South Georgia, Captain James Cook first landed on South Georgia in 1775 on his 2nd around the world voyage. He thought he’d discovered the “Southern Continent” and was very disappointed to find he was facing west when he rounded the southern tip – hence this point, that we rounded on Sunday night, is called Cape Disappointment.
Right now we are on Shackleton’s route in reverse, and expect to see Elephant Island, where he left his men and sailed to South Georgia on the tiny James Caird whaling boat, late tomorrow morning (Wednesday). It took 16 days for him and his men to sail the 1600 kms across this part of the Southern Ocean. It will take us two – and of course we know where we’re going, and we have all the comforts of home. As I look out at the sea with some white caps, I am grateful that we have relatively flat seas – it is almost impossible to imagine what they experienced!
Now I’m looking forward to seeing the white mountains of the Antarctic come into view. We are seeing occasional icebergs again, and this morning we saw some sleet. It’s definitely getting colder!