After another rocky ride overnight the seas have calmed somewhat during the day. Compare this with our previous crossing of the Drake Passage when a force nine meant the outside doors were all locked!
Today things started to get serious - we had to attend a mandatory lecture from the expedition team leader Ziggy highlighting all the rules and regulations that every visitor to Antarctica has to sign up for - doesn’t matter who, you have to agree to the terms of the Antarctica Treaty and various other organisations that have formed to manage both the scientific and tourism activities.
Also we had to have our clothing pass BioSecurity, where each item is thoroughly inspected for cleanliness and visitors - not even a single seed must get transferred from elsewhere in the world to Antarctica.
We managed to complete our full complement of 10 miles before lunch. The weather settled down to a comfortable choppy wind and lovely sunshine kept the 7 degree air temperature acceptable.
After lunch we hit the jacuzzi again, and me the pool too, loving the natural wave-machine the ships motion causes. Others looked on in horror but it was to our advantage no-one wanted to peel off in the rapidly cooling temperature. By the end of the afternoon the air temperature had fallen to 4 degs.
Captain has taken to some extreme psychology, having stolen two hours from us in the last two afternoons, meaning that were now running on GMT - 1 even though we’re between longitudes 58 and 59 West, meaning we should be GMT - 3 or 4. He argued (when I asked him) that this is to separate our ships hours from others in the area. My sceptical opinion is it’s easier to get people to turn up on time for an 09:30 landing than it would be for an 07:30 one as it would be if we hadn’t changed the clocks! Of course, he will generously hand them back in a week’s time.
There was another briefing before dinner, then a great show with the four singers afterwards.
Tomorrow we start our adventure at Yankee Harbour, Grenwich Island, South Shetlands.
Comments
Post a Comment