Drake Passage
Today was scheduled as an "at sea" day, and did we ever see a lot of sea. The rolling and pitching continued overnight, but intensified around 4 AM to a point that woke up nearly everyone in our group. In our cabin, we woke because some non-secured items crashed to the floor. Greg put wine bottles and glassware into our boots for safe storage.
Throughout our trip, the Captain has started each morning with an announcement of the weather, wind speed, Beaufort Scale intensity and air/water temperatures. The Beaufort Scale is an empirical measure from 0-12 that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. This morning he reported wind speeds 55 mph with gusts much higher, and that we'd been sailing at 11-12 on the Beaufort Scale.
He had been heading northwest to try to get behind the storm, and as he projected, it did ease up a bit in early afternoon. It is, however, still pretty much a thrill ride.
So today's adventure was having a front row seat to the notorious Drake Passage. The ship was prepared. They had thoughtfully distributed travel sickness bags in each cabin and in the public areas.
Fortunately, Greg and I felt fine. Maybe it was the Transderm patches; maybe it was the accupressure bands; maybe we were just lucky. Many passengers stayed holed up in their cabins, and at least a few others should have. Some people fell; some were sick at a lecture. There were loud crashes at the buffet as trays of food slid off the counter or carts. The projection screen in the lecture room shuddered every time we took a hard hit. They closed the promenade deck (6) and restricted outside access to the top deck.
Our cabin is on deck 4, and waves frequently came above our window height. We watched the storm from the panoramic lounge forward on the 8th deck, and saw spray crashing above the 9th deck windows. It was all pretty spectacular. I also went outside on the top deck (9) to shoot the rise and fall of the stern.
Navigating around the ship was an exercise in timing and being aware of where the next handhold was. Stairs presented a particular challenge. If the ship dropped when you were stepping up, you'd suddenly find yourself going up 5 steps very quickly.
I'll add video after we get home but for now, here are photos through wet windows.
We had a second lecture today by the expedition anthropologist on the Yamaha people, focusing on their initial encounters with the European settlers. Maurice spent some time on Thomas Bridges and his family, and recommended the book The Uttermost Part of the Earth by his son, Lucas, which was one of my favorite reads in preparation for this trip.
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