Antarctic Cruise Day 29 / 40 - Drake Passage - all lake, no shake

Antarctic Cruise Day 29 / 40 - Drake Passage - smooth sailing

Trip day: 29 / 40

Port days: 10
Sea days: 18
Countries: 5
Continents: 3
Ports/Landings: 6

The Drake Passage.  The name alone strikes fear into the hearts of even the heartiest of sailors.

Connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west, this was a principal trade route before the Beagle Channel and Strait of Magellan were discovered.  All three were eventually replaced for commerce by the Panama Canal.  Notorious for its horrible weather conditions, regular gale-force winds create a condition known informally as Drake Shake.  Drake Shake is famous for tossing ships about, making for a very uncomfortable transit of the passage.  The other end of the spectrum is Drake Lake, where conditions are no worse that a typical inland lake, making for smooth sailing and pleasant seas.  Today, as we transit the Drake Passage from north to south, we are lucky to have a Drake Lake kind of day. 20MPH winds plus or minus and modest swells make for nice transit, much to the relief of the new passengers. 

This morning, I tried a little bird-watching.  The wind was stronger than I expected, making it difficult to hold the camera steady.  Combining that with the 40-degree temperature and I didn't last too long out on deck.  Here's what I saw.

Black-browed albatross

That is a seriously large wingspan and can reach ten feet

Their near-vertical turns are amazing

Why so serious?

Blue Petrel (I think)

Cape Petrel

If you look closely at the first two group shots, you'll also see a blue petrel in the upper right corner, crashing the party.

One of these things is not like the other...

Doing their best impression of the Blue Angels

Cue the Top Gun music...

We attended a mandatory IAATO information training this morning.  IAATO is the Internation Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.  This group creates guidelines for tour operators so that the pristine conditions in Antarctica remain that way.  Nothing was alarming - take nothing organic onto the ice - remove nothing but photos and memories - don't disturb flora or fauna - that sort of thing.  

This afternoon got more interesting as we had to take a mandatory test to be cleared to go kayaking.  This meant I had to haul my big butt from a Zodiac into a kayak and then back to the Zodiac all while using the proper technique to not get everyone and everything wet.  I passed. Of course, it was a cakewalk for Arlona.  Still, we're good to go on kayaks when our turn comes up. Thanks to Andree for capturing the awkward moments!

Sliding from the Zodiak into the kayak - Arlona was stuck waiting for me

The last slide - Arlona, looking for something to do

Flipping back into the Zodiac - note the applause

Success!

Relief :-)

We were supposed to get fitted for our kayak dry suits, but the line was so long, they pushed some of us to tomorrow morning.

The last order of business was bio-screening our outerwear to be sure we didn't carry any seeds or other organic material.  It is common for things like that to get stuck in velcro closures or in pockets, so this was an important safety step to prevent contamination of the Antarctica peninsula.  They went over all our outerwear with a brush vacuum so we're now good to go.

Speaking of outerwear  We've had ours for several days, but I neglected to post anything about them.  Here we go.

First, we received a pair of jackets.  These are ours to keep.  

The outer shell is water and windproof.  It has two deep pockets with water-resistant closures as well as side pockets and an inner zipper pocket.  It has an attached hood with a brim and three elastic drawstrings with stops. The cuffs have a two-snap tightener. There is no branding on the jacket other than Viking.  It also has the IAATO logo printed on the left sleeve and a round velcro area on the right sleeve for patches.

The inner puffer layer snaps into the shell with a single snap loop at the back of the neck.  It is not necessary to snap them together.  It has a full-zipped front closure that comes all the way up the neck.  There is a zipped front slash pocket on each side.  The cuffs have inner elastic cuffs to block the wind. Like the outer jacket, there is no branding other than Viking.

We were also provided with waterproof pants and expedition boots.  These are ours to use for the duration of the cruise and must be returned at the end.

The pants are from Helly-Hansen and have side pockets and a drawstring waist.

The boots are quite high and quite heavy.  Made from thick rubber, they have heavily treaded soles that should provide excellent traction in all conditions. They have thick insulation and should help keep our feet nice and warm.

That will be our outfit for exploring Antarctica.  We'll be donning a base layer under all that to provide more insulation and will be adding our own boot socks, hats, and gloves/mittens.

Since this is technically the beginning of another cruise, the captain hosted another welcome celebration.

Captain Olivier (with the mic) and all the senior officers

The expedition and science team

We’re starting to meet some of the new folks on the ship and so far, everyone is very nice. They announced our final passenger count is 225, or 3.5 times the number we had coming down to Ushuaia.  They also mentioned that there are passengers representing 19 nationalities and crew members from 41 different countries, so we are a diverse bunch.

Tomorrow, we will arrive in Antarctica and begin the expedition part of this journey.  We expect to take a cruise on the special operations boat – it seats 13 and is capable of cruising at 40+ knots.  It should be fun!