December 30

Days 3-4  Drake Passage Crossing (cont'd)

The Drake Crossing continues.  We're now south of the Antarctic Convergence and the seas are less rough than yesterday.  The temperature is about 0C.  Low cloud cover.  

We had our first "polar photography" lecture this morning.  I learned a few things, but am nowhere near ready to turn pro.  Next up will be our first history lesson; looking forward to that one.  Just had an announcement that we're moving on to Plan B for this afternoon.........  Seems that the winds have become too strong to land at our intended destination.  Also - the ice pack has been blown about in a recent storm and there is no longer a clear path from our intended landing of today to tomorrow's destination.  Instead, we will have to go around the south end of the South Shetland Islands.  Today's proposed landing wasn't really part of the original plan; it would have been a bonus, but the weather has determined otherwise.  

The first history lesson was great.  There were 17 expeditions from 1897 to 1922; the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration.  Only 22 deaths in all that time.  Nils covered two for us - the 97-99 Belgica expedition, and the 1910-12 "race to the pole" involving Amundsen and Scott.  This stuff has really gripped my interest over the past few months.  But - makes me want to go visit the Ross Sea area next.  In the afternoon we did some bird watching/identifying from a rear deck, then had a good presentation on penguins.  There are 18 species of penguins.  We can expect to see 2, or maybe 3, in the next few days.  Can't wait!  The two we will see are the Gentoo and the Chinstrap.  We may see Adelies.  The chicks should have just hatched.  

About 5pm we made our first sighting of land since we left the Beagle Channel a few days ago.  Snow Island.  



We're starting to see more islands and ice sheets roll by in quick succession.  We're still pretty far away from them, but it's nice to see some evidence that we're almost there!



You can see from the pictures that we still have pretty cloudy weather (and rain).  Just did a quick forecast check and that may be our lot while we're passing through.  Oh well - still get to see penguins! 

 

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