Day 266: m/v Plancius – Antarctica – Mar 10th

The first day at sea, the Drake Passage was rather nice to us and we barely had any swells rocking the boat back and forth. So lucky, even the Drake was good to us!

We spent the day listening to various talks by the expedition team on all kinds of topics. It was really cool how they had 6 people, and each of them had a different expertise! There was a French bird-ologist (ornithologist?), an Australian geologist, an Irish historian (Antarctic history, of course), a German doctorate in glaciers, and our favorite the super-experienced American field researcher. Each of them has their own specialty, their own set of personality and quirky humours who has worked here for over 25years! Listening to them talk was great because it was like going to class, but actually looking forward to it because your teachers were great, your friends were there, and there was no test at the end of it. Everyone that speaks, seem to have done this for several years and declare themselves to have been bitten by the “polar bug”. The funniest joke we heard was “People work in Antarctica first for the adventure, the second year for the money, and the third year because can no longer fit in normal society.”

The Drake Passage wasn’t that bad, and the on-board doctor gave us a patch which seems to be fending off the sea-sickness rather well, it’s just that the patch is giving us a dry throat and the dilating our pupils, causing us to have near-sightedness! You know when your parents have to see something, but it’s too close and they can’t focus their eyes and have to take off their glasses to see…. WE HAD TO DO THAT!!!! FOR FIVE DAYS!!!

The day went by rather quickly, the meals were absolutely delicious, and we went to bed rather early. Good news was, we caught a bit of tailwind and may be able to do a landing a day earlier at tomorrow afternoon!!!! Excited!