Antarctica Adventure #16 - Drake Passage, 28 Dec 2019

Antarctic Adventure #16 - Drake Passage, 28 Dec 2019

Wow!  Okay - now we have experienced the Drake Lake enroute to Antarctica & the Drake Shake on the way home.  It was a truly unforgettable experience & this was still on the light side.  Could hit something worse tomorrow night.  Our Captain Denis is amazing.  All the crew & the trip leaders have been raving about him.  They said it was probably waves of about 5 meters (15').  Our cabin is on the very front of the ship - right about the bridge on Deck 5 & there were times I felt like we were facing right up to the sky, before slamming down with a very loud crash.  This was about 1am for a couple of hours.  Rough all night.  By morning it had calmed to 4 meters & 30 knot winds.  Still tough & I didn't try to go for breakfast.  So that was the edge of the smaller storm.  There is a bigger storm headed towards us & now we're cruising due north to try & miss it.  Hoping we can get inside the Beagle Channel before it really hits us.  Can't run all the way to Ushuaia because there is not a free docking spot.  Folks are stuck there because they close the port when there are winds about 20 knots!

 Most of the afternoon was lectures.  I played Uno with 2 other guests & our 4 trip leaders for a while during the afternoon.  Had a lot of fun.  Most of the guests were either watching a movie about a photo journalist spending 8 months in Antarctica or hiding in their cabins.  It was interesting seeing the small differences in an Argentinian Uno game - even the cards were slightly different.  They taught us some new terms.  One translated to "suck that tangerine!"  Somewhat like "suck a lemon?"  Also, they say oohpa (like oops) and a really fun noise that I have to get the spelling for.  Meant sort of "take that!"

 Had a lecture on birds - specifically penguins, by Ken Wright.  Have to Google him, have been told that he has been quoted in articles on the internet.  Learned that last trip, they only saw 1 species - the Gentoo.  We were very lucky to see 3 - Gentoo, Chinstrap, & Adelie.  Yea!  Also found out that last trip only saw 1 species of seals & we all saw 3 types - Weddell, Elephant, & Crabeater.  One of the guys even saw a Leopard Seal.  He got pictures of it on an ice floe.  I saw his picture tonight - very distinguished head.

Throughout the trip, they have posted our route on a map on the wall leading into the bar.  Exciting to see how we have navigated through all the little islands along the Peninsula.

 View from our cabin windows.  Salt spray has the windows a little messed up, but you get the idea!

Very calm evening.  Can see the storm front on our port side.  Ready for bed & fingers crossed that we'll skirt the storm!!  Have had enough shake - don't need any more experience with that!