Highlights: Rockin' and Rolling in the Drake Passage - Bird Sightings at Sea
Whoa - We have been rockin' and rolling all night in the Drake Passage. It got really rought with higher winds around 2 - 3 am. Only one casualty in our room! The box of "rocks" with the bathroom amenities came crashing to the bathroom floor in one swell about 2 am. I got it cleaned up and we slept until 8:30. The "rods" worked perfectly and no drawers flew out at us!
Tim had breakfast, and I had coffee and a croissant. John Harwood, a Scotsman, who lives in Brazile on the Amazon River, is on the tour sataff and he was discussing the geography and politics of the region. We then went to the Lounge and Luciana (Luqui), a tall, drak Italian bird expert explained to us about the many birds - including the large albatross that are flying around our ship while at sea. He said that they can live out over the ocean for years. The only time they go to land is to mate.
The ship is really rocking this morning. In the lounge at 1 am there was a showing of a British documentary "Life in the Freezer". A fbaulous documentary. After that, Tim went to fin the gym (a real joke - a few machines under a canvas cover but outside). I don't know how in the world you would use it in these seas anyway! Larry took a much needed nap - with the ship rockin' and rolling the entire time.
Tim went to a lecture by Luqui on birds. Lots of petrels and albatross are following our ship. I got up and we went for a walk on deck to see the sea roiling and the birds. Then to lunch - I almost got launched once across the buffet table! We had lunch with Rana Ross (one of the tour staff) and Alexandre Svetlankovitch (San Diego - but very Russian).
Then we went to the Lounge to watch The Endurance - a movie about the exploration of Antarctica in 1916 by Sir Ernest Shackleton. An amazing human feat of endurance. After the movie, tea in the Lounge. Tim ready and Larry walked the outside decks. We are ready to enter "the Convergence" area where the frigid Antarctic waters meet the slightly warmer ocean waters. The temperature will drop considerably. John Harwood then gave a lecture with facts about Antarctica. The continent is larger than the US and has mountain ranges taller than the Alps, but most are covered in snow andice and the valleys are filled in with miles of ice and snow. The continent more than doubles in size during the winter when the sea ice expands the boundaries of the continent. This has been so educational for us so far.
Later I had a one-on-one discussion with John Harwood about Al Gore's movied about the environment and global warming. John believes for sure that man is accelerating the waming cycle that we are in due to carbon emissions, but he felt that a lot has been sensationalized in the movie. John has charts that show the cyclic warming and colling patterns of the earth over the last 100,000,000 years - yep - 100 million. We are at the peak of one of the historic natural warming cycles now.
We had cocktails in the club and then our tour director did a debriefing in the lounge. He told us that we had made a relatively easy and quick crossing of the Drake Passage (I'd hate to be on a tough one!), so we are headed to Penguin Island - a one mile in diameter volcanic cone. We are going to make our first landing on Christmas Eve. This is so exciting.
We should start looking for ice bergs no as we are entering the ice area. I'm just hoping the captain and his staff are looking for them electronically. These should be incredible to see. Luqui posted a chart whowing the animals that have been spotted each day. There are some really serious bird-watchers here! We saw dalphin fumping, albatross, and various types of petrels. The birds are constantly around our ship in the middle of the ocean.
We had dinner iwth the 5 other PLU's we have met - an enjoyable evening.
After dinner drinks in the bluc, interesting discussions with the Ukrainian bartenders Lena and Natalye, laughs with Roger and Pat about where we can take other "inheritance spending trips". Then to bed about 11:30.
A fun fun day about Corinthian II.
Larry and Tim
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