South America and Antarctica

We had a pretty wild night at sea last night and were hoping we had experienced the worst of our Drake Passage crossing. No such luck!

We got up a bit after 9 am to attend a lecture by the ship’s marine biologist at 9:30 am. The lecture was very interesting but by the end of it we were suffering the effects of the ship pitching in the now heavier seas. We retreated to our room and spent most of the day there. We did surface again in the afternoon for a presentation by the ship’s captain on the construction of the ship and its capabilities. This ship is the most advanced cruise ship in the world and the most expensive per berth ever built. It is quite an experience to sail on her and the captain, who was heavily involved in the construction process, was justifiably proud of her.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in bed, trying to adjust to the six-metre swell that showed no signs of abating. We got up at about 6 pm to attend a reception hosted by the captain. After that we moved on to one of the restaurants for a dinner we had been invited to by some of the other guests on the ship. They had asked the chef to prepare a special meal and had kindly invited us along. Up until dinner the ship had been steering a north-easterly course, which meant that we were cutting across the swell a bit and not bearing the full force of the strong westerly wind. However, we were now heading on a more northerly course, which meant that we were bearing the full brunt of the westerly wind and rolling more heavily. Facing dinner was a challenge and we stayed as long as we could to be polite. But as the seas got heavier (to the point where the view from the restaurant’s fourth-floor windows oscillated between all sky and all ocean!) people started to excuse themselves from dinner. We headed back to our room to crawl into bed. Dosed up on ondansetron and phenergan, we laid in bed and tried to block out the violent heaving of the ship in an effort to get to sleep.

Tomorrow morning we expect to round Cape Horn and head through the Beagle Channel on our way back to the South American mainland.