My original posting for today was going to be a simple
sentence or two describing what we did all day, which was basically – wake up, eat
breakfast, attend a glacier presentation (while Damon napped), attend a camping
seminar (while I napped), eat lunch, nap, attend another presentation, nap, eat
dinner, attend presentation, bedtime. The
bulk of the day was eating and napping – which is quite nice.
Since we don’t have any official activities today, writing
topics are rather sparse, so, I’ll focus on some other things we’ve learned,
including the level of carnage sustained by the rogue waves yesterday. Luckily, the rogue wave was an anomaly. The rolling waves continued throughout the day, but we happily enjoyed our little 5 meter (15') swells and I now feel I have mastered the art of hanging on to anything I can grab hold of while walking around the ship so as not to fall over.
I mentioned that the rogue wave was 12 meters high (confirmed by
the captain). That is over 36’. Think about it. It was freaking huge. The information desk is on the 5th
level. They said the wave hit us so
hard that it actually came in through one of the outer doors and put about 4-5”
of sea water in the reception area. This
was confirmed by several people who saw the water.
The captain did his welcome address and addressed the waves. He confirmed that we listed 25 degrees and
added that the waves caught them by surprise because it is so rare to have huge
rogue wave sets when the rest of the passage had been consistently at about 5
meters. Suffice to say that he did NOT
laugh it off as NOT a big deal. I think it was a bigger deal than they made it
out to be. He said something along the
lines (in a thick Ukrainian accent) “25-degree list. That is not something we want”. We also heard from other passengers that some of the staff were breaking out their emergency gear but didn't want to bring them out for fear of freaking out the guests.
We played the “where were you when the wave hit” game with
everyone. We heard the story of a man
who was in mid-hot stone massage when the wave hit. The stones all fell off and when the masseuse
went to pick them up, he flew off the table, landed on her, and the two of them
were tossed back and forth in a tangled mess together.
We saw a video of the mom and daughter also flying around
their room – luckily, they were mostly hanging onto their beds. The daughter got bruised up when she ended up
under her bed.
There were some people in the lounge area during one of the
presentations and given that everything in that room is bolted to the floor,
they were the lucky ones and didn’t feel much.
Apparently, the presenter was such an experienced boater, that she was
able to just sway with it with both of her feet planted. Impressive.
We all laugh about the stories now, but it was a bit freaky
when it was happening.
Even though the bad waves only lasted a minute or two, I
think everyone on this ship is content with feeling the wrath of the Drake
Shake. And we are ready for the Drake Lake on
the way home.
We always try to make a point to sit with new people whenever
we are all gathered together. All meals
are open seating and all of the presentations are as well. Since the chairs are bolted to the floor (for
good reason) we often just find ourselves sharing tables with other people and
learning about their lives.
A few
tidbits:
Lots of people have come on this trip as singles – and I
don’t mean looking for a spouse kind of single, I mean that their spouses or
friends didn’t have the same sense of adventure and didn’t want to come, so
these people basically just said “screw it” and showed up alone. Lots of respect for them! Lots of 20-somethings.
We sat with a mother and daughter. They were on their own because dad and
brothers are not travelers. This trip
was the daughter’s college grad present.
A trip with mom to South Africa was her high school grad present. Times have sure changed. I got a typewriter after high school and a suitcase
after college!
We sat with a Belgian woman, about 60, who was travelling
alone. She is an orthopedic surgeon and
a private pilot with her own plane. Damon
was in seventh heaven talking to her.
The staff members are from all over the world and it is
always interesting to hear how they ended up in Antarctica, and they all have
different stories. Our glaciologist
(Scottish) and our photography expert (South African) are married. They spend 7 months of the year on ships and
split the rest of their time among a few countries. We learned that there are at least 2 married couples and 2 dating couples among the staff.
As far as the general passenger make-up – there are old
people and young people, although I haven’t seen any kids. There are single travelers, couples and a few
families. There are fit people and
people walking on walkers and canes. For
anyone who things a trip to Antarctica is only for a certain type of person,
you’d be very wrong. Anyone and everyone is here.
By dinner time, we had (thankfully) gotten entirely through
the Drake passage and into what was supposed to be a protected area. Because we were entering the iceberg zone,
the captain had to retract the ship stabilizers so we were still rockin and a
rollin’ when we went to bed and for the next few hours. It is extremely disconcerting when lying in
bed with the ship listing so far in each direction that you are rolling from one
side of the bed to the other with each wave.
Eventually we both fell asleep. But, still, no nausea issues.
I also forgot to mention that due to the bumpy waters, the
outer decks had been closed for the majority of our trip so we have been locked
inside almost the entire time so far.
Which, quite frankly, is fine with me. No need to worry about getting washed overboard...
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