Brad woke up with a sore throat this morning; but eager to get on with the expedition. I couldn’t sleep last night, but not for lack of trying. I woke up at 2am, 2:40am, 3-4am, and finally fell asleep again between 4 and 5. We both woke up around 5:30am and decided it was time to tackle the day. Okay… well I stayed warm in bed for a while more and Brad got up and tackled the day. We both packed our gear, and left it outside the room as directed by the expedition team.
At 9am, we met with our expedition group in the hotel conference room downtown. A representative from the company spent the meeting discussing similar information that we had heard at the pre-expedition table discussion yesterday. After meeting we had the afternoon to ourselves before meeting up with the tour group to board the boat later in the day. Brad was still feeling tired and wasn’t up for heading to town immediately, so we grabbed a couple of lounge chairs in the lobby and watched the people play with some dogs outside. Within a few minutes Brad fell asleep. I spent the time reading news articles, and enjoying free wifi for a few minutes. Around noon, Brad was awake enough for us to take the shuttle to downtown. We stopped off at a pharmacy where Brad purchased some cold medicine and headed towards food. We stopped at the same place we went to the night before (because it was open). Brad enjoyed some Argentinean nachos which included hamburger chili, guacamole, but no cheese which was odd. I had a chicken sandwich and french fries. The bread on the sandwich looked great but too tough to get my teeth through. I wound up eating the center of one sandwich and half of the fries. We tried a sweet mustard at the restaurant which tasted pretty sweet, and went well with the fries and some ketchup. I took a photo of the mustard so I could try some more when we got back. At 3:30 we met up with the group at the docks to board the shuttle to our boat.
When we arrived at the boat, I took a few photos from the bus and then proceeded with the team onto the gangway. We were greeted by the crew and expedition team from the ship; all of whom were extremely friendly. We were ushered into the lecture hall where we were given a welcome reception of drinks, sandwiches, and a talk on what to expect on the journey. After getting the room key, we were walked downstairs to find our luggage waiting for us in the room. The boat is well maintained with friendly staff. Our room was actually pretty large for the two of us. Brad took the bed closer to the door, and I took the bed closer to the port holes. We both unpacked while we waited for the boat to undock. When the call came that we were nearing the time to leave, a few of us ventured out on deck to see the boat off.
At the front of the boat, a team of five people scampered along the bow of the ship, pulling lines, and coordinating our departure. No sooner was the last line picked up from the ocean, then we were off. We pulled away from the dock and exited the port area in a surprisingly quick manner. The wind cut straight through my clothes and hit my skin. The good news? We get our expedition parka tonight.. Hopefully it’s wind proof. After we left the harbor, we were called to have an emergency drill which required us to rush back to our rooms, dress warmly, and grab our safety vests. Soon thereafter, we met at the lecture hall which doubled as muster point A. After a roll call, we were walked to the outside of the boat where we lined up against the wall awaiting directions. To entertain ourselves we made jokes about the life vests, and imagined what the scenery reminded us of. There was a light house on a small set of raised rocks about 1,000 feet away from us. I imagined it was how someone was saving a parking space for their friend for black Friday shopping. After a few minutes we were disbanded back to our rooms.
Brad and I continued to unpack until dinner. When it was time, we walked into the dining room where we were greeted by our fellow passengers and took to a table of 5. Two of the crew joined us and a gentleman from Australia. We enquired about the crew’s experience going on expeditions, how they got into the field, where they were living now. Ida is a kayak tour leader from Sweden. She lives in Svalbard now when she’s not in Antarctica, and knows 2 languages fluently, 3 languages conversationally, and a few others enough to get by. Ryan is the Zodiac operator, he is from the UK, and currently lives in Svalbard as well when he’s not in Antarctica. I don’t recall the Australian gentleman’s name but he was a very kind older man who is visiting Antarctica on a kayaking trip with his kayak club. This is also why there are no kayak options available for anyone else on the boat. We spoke for a while about what to expect in Antarctica, as we cruised. Near the end of dinner, a noticeable rocking motion began as the ship entered more open waters. Earlier in the day, the cruise mentioned that the waves could be as high as 4 meters in the prediction which is ultimately a calm passage through the Drake Passage.
For dinner we had a soup, fish, and a strawberry roll for desert. The food was pretty good, I had no complaints. After dinner, the rocking became more steady as we grew our “Sea Legs” for the voyage. Brad went back to bed, and I went to the bar where I spoke with a few of the ladies at the bar. They were all Australian ladies who are extremely well traveled and we shared stories of our favorite places to travel to. After the ladies left, I spoke with Sixto – The bartender. He’s a native of Costa Rica who has biked all over North and South America. He has also traveled to Europe and Asia. We talked and laughed until late in the night. After the other guests had left, Demitri the hotel manager came up and we talked for a while about travel and our experiences. He has a strong Russian accent; but I was shocked by how much he knew about American politics. We spoke about politics for a while, and we talked about the state of the US from his opinion. It was really great hearing an outside perspective of everything that’s happening in the US. At 12:30, I left the bar and headed downstairs to bed. The room was starting to rock pretty severely now, so I placed my head towards the bow of the ship and hoped for the best. I looked for some stars out the port holes briefly, but was un-lucky in this endeavor. I saw what looked like was Orion’s belt or the big dipper; but the windows were too covered in water to be able to say for certain.
