Greetings from the middle of the Antarctic Ocean! We sighted our first iceberg after two days traveling at sea. You can imagine the scene that followed--a mad scramble to grab coats and cameras and rush on deck. The weather has been fairly mild during our crossing of the Drake passage. The total time it takes to cross the Drake Passage is 60 hours. Sometimes this passage is called "The Drake Shake" due to high winds and waves up to 30feet high. Other times the water is smooth as glass and is referred to "The Drake Lake." We were closer to the Drake Lake-- it has been a 3 or 4 on the Beaufort Wind scale [with 1 being a beautiful day and 12 being a typhoon]. Despite the relatively smooth seas, there are no stabilizer bars on the ship so we constantly rock from side to side in long slow motions. During the rocking, one side of the ship goes up about 15 feet and then down about 15 feet. That means we can not walk upright and constantly have to hold on to one of the railings. Taking a shower during this tilting is quite a challenge as well. I have not felt sick at all and expect that is due to the motion sickness patch behind my ear. Yay!
Update--later in the day the winds really picked up, reach top speeds of over 30 knots. Here is a video to show how hard it is to even walk with speeds like that.
You can also go to the following site and see a short video clip that demonstrates how much the ship was rolling before the storm! http://vimeo.com/10282538 .
We have passed the time with lectures on history, seals, penguins, tasty meals, and great conversation in the lounge/bar area. Everyone I've met thus far on the trip is really interesting to talk to and hang out with. The entire ship is sold out for the tour--99 runners, about 12 friends/family members, and 14 tour support staff. Talk about a small world--I have met a guy who also graduated from my alma maters--North Carolina Wesleyan and UNC-Chapel Hill, a lawyer who works for the US Coast Guard and knows me (but I didn't know her till now), and a DC lobbier who is a good friend of the DHS Office of the General Counsel Chief of Staff that I work regularly with.
Tomorrow we will reach King George Island. The race organizers will go ashore to mark the course while the ship travels further down the islands and we stop in to visit the Polish research station and see lots of elephant seals nearby. There may also be fur seals which we will have to be careful around. Apparently they do bite and will chase you if you get too close. I'll be sure to keep my distance and rely on the zoom lens on the camera to get that great close-up shot!
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