I am surprised to say that the Drake -so far- has been pretty calm! We had a half meter wave or two, but nothing bad so far. I was almost expecting to have the boat to myself again. Brad’s sea sickness medication seemed to be working so he was up and about enough to grab breakfast with me. After Breakfast, we headed up to the lecture hall to see Christian -the expedition leader- discuss Scott and Amundsen’s race to the South Pole. I always enjoy Christian’s lectures because the stories are very interesting, the presentation is well prepared with pictures and humor. Scott and Amundsen’s adventure to the South Pole was a fascinating story of survival, human existence, and adventure for the sake of adventure. I’m always stunned by the sheer willpower of the pioneers of expeditions.
The next lecture was about Antarctic ecology presented by Ma -the Botanist/ Expedition leader. Now, I have to say, Ma is pretty awesome! His presentation encapsulated a lot of information about the various genomes on the Antarctic continent. Throughout the presentation, I kept thinking to myself that my mom would love a copy of this presentation.
After Ma’s presentation, I hit up lunch and conversations with friends. Next on the agenda for today was a discussion by Heidi- the glaciologist- on Antarctica and Climate Change. Everyone on board LOVES Heidi’s presentations. She has a way of explaining such an interdependent and complex idea such as climate change in a captivating and enticing manner. Climate change is always a hot topic button in the US, so it’s fascinating to see the perspective of climate change through the eyes of the other nationalities onboard. After Heidi’s presentation, I went up to the front of the lecture to speak with Heidi on things we all can do to help with climate change and ask a slew of questions on the data and how the information is presented. Florian came to join our conversation as well, and the three of us enjoyed a deep conversation about climate change deniers, and what we all can do.
Adam’s (Zodiac Driver- Englishman) discussion on his experience living and working in South Georgia for a year. Before you ask… this is not South Georgia, USA… It’s an Antarctic island. He showed us pictures of him as a police officer in England, and video footage of his life in his year abroad. He also showed us a video of the Antarctica Film contest hosted by the US Antarctic research station, McMurdo. It’s a film contest for all of the research stations in Antarctica held once per year. Adam’s video was an Antarctic take on the classic, Rapunzel. I have to admit, it was pretty funny to watch and everyone seemed to enjoy it. During his presentation, he brought up a photo of a baby fur seal and stated it was “cute but born angry.” Brad points at me following that statement and I quickly smacked him on the arm… pretty loudly too. A few people turned around at the noise which caused both Brad and I to crack up laughing. I spent a decent amount of time trying to compose myself so I wouldn’t distract the audience from our childlike behavior.
Before I knew it, it was already 6pm… the day has FLOWN by. However, I’m also like an overgrown child so sometimes I need something to entertain me if I get bored. A simple solution for this? The gym!
I went downstairs to change into my gym gear and try to burn off all the food I was eating so I didn’t feel sick. I took the elliptical looking out the window and enjoyed watching the waves in the drake passage. The waves are pretty calm so far so it afforded a bit of additional work which just helped me to feel better about not being very active onboard today. When we were doing the expedition landings, I didn’t feel so bad because I was pretty active on the continent between freezing, walking, and hiking. Sea days have been active intellectually, but not so much physically. After an hour on the elliptical I hit the gym mat to do some palates. I chose some of the more simple palates because of the movement of the ship. I started with a plank which was surprisingly easy.. But when I went to sit-ups that was a different story. The first sit up was super easy! The second, not so much, The third, super easy! Yep, you guessed it. The rocking of the boat made some moves easier for half of the exercise and more difficult for the others. I chose to take this as a challenge and had fun doing a modified routine with the waves. I did a side plank and was doing great, but when the ship rocked from port to starboard I had to drop a foot back to keep balanced. Since I wasn’t able to do a full workout I had to promise myself to hit the gym when I got back to the USA. While working out, I couldn’t help but notice that the hallway adjoining the gym was super busy. I hadn’t realized the fifth deck was so busy with crew and passengers! I also had lost track of time. It was dinner time by now, and I was still sweaty. I ran downstairs, jumped in the shower, and changed quickly just in time for dinner. On my way downstairs I ran by some of my Australian friends and they mentioned how it’s almost dinner and I needed to hurry up. As I walked to dinner early, they were surprised to see me dressed so quickly. I laughed and said, it’s easy to do with a 2 minute shower and your gear all set.
After dinner we all headed into the lecture hall for our Antarctic Quiz. We chose to turn this into a pub trivia night at the back of the lecture hall. Mo, Keith, Brad, Myself, an American Accountant from Seattle, and an English/ Australian Kayaker whose name I didn’t catch were part of our team. We didn’t do too bad. We were in the top 5 spots with 18 of 25 points. Some of the questions we couldn’t have known like “how many eggs did the chef use on our trip?” and so on. We had a great time, and after the quiz we all met up at the bar area to talk and hang out for a while.
We few of us rearranged the library to play poker, maybe take a shot in celebration of John’s birthday, and watch some card tricks. In celebration of John’s birthday, some of the expedition guys recommended a shot called the “beluga whale,” It’s vodka followed by hot sauce, and something sweet at the end to finish. Everyone at the table took a shot, including myself, and boy was that hard to take. I haven’t done a shot in a long time. Beluga Whale is precisely what it tasted like. I think I’ll skip out on having that one again. I got demolished at poker, and after a few hours we abandoned poker choosing instead to talk and joke around for a while. The English/ Australian chick had a bit too much to drink so Jacinta and I had to pour her back into her cabin later that night. Before I knew it, the night was over and it was bed time.
