ANTARCTICA: First day at sea

ANTARCTICA: First day at sea

Drake Passage, Antarctica, Antarctica

Today was a pretty rough day at sea for us. I had a really weird night’s sleep on the ship for our first night too. We came into the Drake Passage during the night, so the seas got rougher toward the morning. I never felt sick at all, but I did move around a lot while I was sleeping due to the rolling of the ship. I also had to pee about five times during the night, which I’m assuming was due to the motion of the ship or the sound of the sea. Unless I developed diabetes last night and it has hit me really hard, but I don’t think that’s it.

We got up and had a pretty good breakfast in the dining room. They served eggs, bacon, and french toast, along with cereals, breads, jams and juices. It was a pretty good choice they gave us, and certainly the best breakfast I’ve had in a long time. We got another briefing from Boris, and it was pointed out to us that about half the ship did not show up to breakfast. Apparently the Chinese passengers don’t like to take Western medicines, so most of them are very seasick. Of course there are some other people who have taken the medication but the rough seas were just too much for them.

It made for a very quiet ship today with half of the people stuck in their rooms trying not to vomit. The only problem Ryan and I had was not being able to walk down a hallway without being thrown into a wall every time the ship rolled. It was more funny than anything though. The best part was when we went to lunch and a big wave hit the ship and rolled us 30 degrees. Everyone tried to grab onto something solid that was bolted to the ship, but that meant that every plate, glass, and piece of cutlery went sliding right off our table onto the floor. It was hilarious! We all just sat there and watched all of our stuff go flying off the table, and there was nothing we could do about it. Later on in the day another big wave hit us and a woman fell over in the bar, even though she had already been sitting in a chair. The whole chair flipped over and she ended up on the floor. It was pretty funny from where we were sitting, especially because she didn’t get hurt.

We attended a couple of lectures on the ship today. These lectures are put on by One Ocean Expeditions during the passage crossings so we have something to do on the ship and to learn a little bit more about what we will be seeing when we get to Antarctica. They were a little boring today, but still informative. The first one we attended was called Antarctica 101 with Jonathan Chester. This one was incredibly dull. It was about 45 minutes long, but for the first half hour the lecturer just talked about himself the whole time. He told us all about the expeditions he had made, the books he’d written, and about some of his previous jobs. We didn’t care. All I wanted to do was learn about Antarctica.

At 5pm we went to another lecture, this one was with Simon and it was about penguins. We figured that since we would be seeing so many penguins, we might as well know what the heck we are looking at. This one was much more interesting, and informative, but the motion of the ship and the dark room were still a pretty perfect recipe for a nap.

After the lecture, we went for dinner and sat with Reuben and Ainsley again. Reuben wasn’t feeling 100%, but still good enough to make it out for dinner. The food today has been okay, but not great. I was expecting the food to be superb on a cruise ship where we are paying so much money to be on. Maybe they just had a tough day in the kitchen with the rough seas, and hopefully tomorrow it will be better.

After dinner we hung out in the bar for a while. There was a fireside chat by Boris, which was just a quick 10 minute chat about marine superstitions. It ended up being more strange facts than superstitions, but it was still a nice way to just relax and get to know some people on the ship. Tomorrow we have another day at sea, and we’ll see if it’s going to be any calmer than today. Forecast shows that it is going to be pretty much the same, so let’s see if more people are falling over tomorrow.

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